How do I find out what my bottle neck is?

[Dirtman]

I think it's my drive I might need an SSD.

My PC drops fast in performance while I don't see any CPU/RAM/GPU problems specifically. Especially booting takes much much longer than it used to. I have a second PC, while my PC used to be much faster booting it is now much slower, I get a black screen for a long time during boot. And also I need to sit through 20 seconds of just my desktop background without the files/start menu.

 

 

 

 

PC:

Intel® Core i5-3350P CPU @ 3.10GHz (thought one of the better i5's)

8GB RAM

GeForce GTX 650

64-bit

 

My other PC for comparison:

Intel® Celeron® D CPU 3.20 GHz

1,5 GB RAM

Gallium 0.4 on NV4A (night vision?)
32-bit

 

It went from booting much faster than the other PC to booting much slower in under a year.

[mayu]

Try defragmenting your HD

 

Maybe too many startup applications? For long boot-up after welcome screen

[W-Junk]

Sounds like you have a cluttered windows install.

[Guest Kloaked]

So over time as you fill up your HDD if it's your main drive, it'll slow down depending on how much you put on it. Simply adding an SSD and putting your OS on it will speed up boot times as well as application loading speeds and so on should you install the smaller programs to it (like Photoshop and such, not games since they're fairly large most of the time).

What are the specs of those PC's?

[msvelev]

Usually it's the most narrow point of the bottle.

"Joke" aside, Sounds like a slow HDD. If you invest in a small SSD for boot drive, you'll be a VERY happy man.

[Ganz]

Also wouldn't hurt to run a full system scan with malwarebytes (or any service of your choice) and a CCleaner (again or something similar).  Malwarebytes will scan for malware and other things that don't belong in your system files.  CCleaner will clean up temp files and registry errors which pop up from installing a lot of things.  

[Prysin]

you may also have a corrupted or broken windows update or two. Only solution for such an issue would be to run a full windows repair (not reformatting. Reformatting is not the be all end all solution for software issues and should be your last resort at every given time).

If you have a optical drive on your PC and a windows boot CD, simply start up the system with the boot CD in and look for "repair installation" or something close to that.

If you do not have optical drive, simply go buy an external USB DVD drive, make sure you use USB2.0 ports AND NOT 3.0 or 3.1.... Windows do not accept USB3 for bootup devices and will not execute programs properly pre OS BOOT when asked to run programs off a disk.

USB Optical drives, even a OK one, costs close to that of a internal bad optical drive, but in my opinion is a much more elegant solution. It can also double as a optical drive for modern laptops or even some Windows Tablets (i think i heard somewhere that the Lenovo and Surface tabs could run them off the keyboard dock USB)

[Dirtman]

Maybe too many startup applications? For long boot-up after welcome screen

 

 

 

PC:

Intel® Core i5-3350P CPU @ 3.10GHz (thought one of the better i5's)

8GB RAM

GeForce GTX 650

64-bit

 

My other PC for comparison:

Intel® Celeron® D CPU 3.20 GHz

1,5 GB RAM

Gallium 0.4 on NV4A (night vision?)

32-bit

 

It went from booting much faster than the other PC to booting much slower in under a year.

[Dirtman]

I just noticed this, right after boot:

 

 

 

It continues for 4-5 minutes before it starts to drop. Is that normal?

 

If I purchase an SSD, will it never wear out or just slower?

Can I just keep my HDD as a trash can or will it explode eventually?

[stconquest]

This is how many processes I run.  I did a clean instal about 8-10 months ago.

 

 

 

 

How much do you have running?

 

Type: "msconfig" in your search bar... a window will pop up.

 

You can control what programs startup when you power on your PC.

 

Watch some tutorials.

[Dirtman]

This is how many processes I run.  I did a clean instal about 8-10 months ago.

 

How much do you have running?

 

Type: "msconfig" in your search bar... a window will pop up.

 

You can control what programs startup when you power on your PC.

 

Watch some tutorials.

 

I have this on boot

 

what do I do in msconfig? I hit startup and it takes me back to task manager where I have only 2 enabled.

 

 

I used to even have steam run on boot but I had that disabled a couple of months ago, it had no noticeable effect.

 

The msconfig services tab, is that services on boot or just all services?

[Dirtman]

 

 

The msconfig services tab, is that services on boot or just all services?

windows.microsoft.com says it is on startup. I disabled anything that did not include "Microsoft", "Intel" or "NVIDIA".

It -seems- to have improved slightly. In comparison to my other PC, it now barely wins the boot race. However, if you count the time it takes for the 100% Disk usage in task manager to start dropping, my PC is far, far behind, full minutes, still. And while it is at 100% usage, you can't really do anything. If I start my browser it will take a while and then still I only get a white screen.

When my other PC is started it runs smoothly as it would if you would wait an hour.

 

My PC is only 2 years while my other PC for comparison is over 12 years old, it never had a drive replacement.

 

Does anyone else have this 100% Disk usage in task manager right after boot?

[stconquest]

windows.microsoft.com says it is on startup. I disabled anything that did not include "Microsoft", "Intel" or "NVIDIA".

It -seems- to have improved slightly. In comparison to my other PC, it now barely wins the boot race. However, if you count the time it takes for the 100% Disk usage in task manager to start dropping, my PC is far, far behind, full minutes, still. And while it is at 100% usage, you can't really do anything. If I start my browser it will take a while and then still I only get a white screen.

When my other PC is started it runs smoothly as it would if you would wait an hour.

 

My PC is only 2 years while my other PC for comparison is over 12 years old, it never had a drive replacement.

 

Does anyone else have this 100% Disk usage in task manager right after boot?

 

Also go to "Services", then check off:  "Hide All Microsoft"... do a clean up here too:

 

 

You are also going to want to uninstall programs you do not need and do a general cleanup of things you don't need... delete stuff... now defrag the hard drive.

 

You can always just back up the important stuff and do a factory reset of your PC.  It is a laptop right?

 

My boot(SSD) is like 7-8 seconds... 3 seconds into Windows.

[Dirtman]

Also go to "Services", then check off:  "Hide All Microsoft"... do a clean up here too:

 

You are also going to want to uninstall programs you do not need and do a general cleanup of things you don't need... delete stuff... now defrag the hard drive.

 

You can always just back up the important stuff and do a factory reset of your PC.  It is a laptop right?

 

It is a desktop, although I have an older laptop with the same problem.

I uninstalled 4 programs and that's really all I can do, the rest I'm using.

In services like 90% is microsoft and I'm not sure which of those can be disabled. I can't show it because it's huge and you can't resize the window.

About defragmentation it says this:

 

 

My boot(SSD) is like 7-8 seconds... 3 seconds into Windows.

My PC was somewhere around that when I bought it.

 

Are you sure it's not the HDD breaking?

[stconquest]

It is a desktop, although I have an older laptop with the same problem.

I uninstalled 4 programs and that's really all I can do, the rest I'm using.

In services like 90% is microsoft and I'm not sure which of those can be disabled. I can't show it because it's huge and you can't resize the window.

About defragmentation it says this:

 

 

My PC was somewhere around that when I bought it.

 

Are you sure it's not the HDD breaking?

 

I can't be sure.  You can run this:  http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

 

It will give you an idea if something is seriously wrong.

 

Let me find another defrag program...

 

I never like Windows Defrag, I always used a third party... I would test this for you but I do not have a HDD in my PC:  http://download.cnet.com/UltimateDefrag-Freeware-Edition/3000-2094_4-10582157.html

 

I will try and find the one I used to use also.

 

Here, I use to use this (don't buy it, just download):  http://download.cnet.com/Smart-Defrag/3000-2094_4-10759533.html

[Dirtman]

I can't be sure.  You can run this:  http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

 

It will give you an idea if something is seriously wrong.

 

Let me find another defrag program...

 

I never like Windows Defrag, I always used a third party... I would test this for you but I do not have a HDD in my PC:  http://download.cnet.com/UltimateDefrag-Freeware-Edition/3000-2094_4-10582157.html

 

I will try and find the one I used to use also.

 

Here, I use to use this (don't buy it, just download):  http://download.cnet.com/Smart-Defrag/3000-2094_4-10759533.html

 

 

 

I'll further test performance tomorrow.

 

Do you know if plugged in USB-sticks affect boot time?

[stconquest]

 

 

I'll further test performance tomorrow.

 

Do you know if plugged in USB-sticks affect boot time?

 

If boot priority has the USB stick before your HDD, it could spend time searching the stick for bootable software.

[Dirtman]

If boot priority has the USB stick before your HDD, it could spend time searching the stick for bootable software.

By default it won't?

 

I just monitored my disk usage during/after boot.

 

As of now, after the defrag:

1 minute to welcome screen

5' ish seconds for the desktop items to appear

3.5 minutes of consistently 100% Disk usage

2 minutes of 50-100% Disk usage

3 minutes of consistently 100% Disk usage

2 minutes of 50-100% Disk usage

and then consistent Disk usage below 10%

 

Other PC:

1-1.5 minutes to welcome screen

instant usable

 

So I'm looking at 11-12 minutes before I can really do anything.

 

Would this be any different if I were to purchase an SSD? Or do you think something else is going on or do you have another option?

And should I get rid of my USBs?

[Dirtman]

Could it possibly be a virus??

[stconquest]

Could it possibly be a virus??

 

Backup your data and reinstall Windows... that is too weird.

[Dirtman]

Backup your data and reinstall Windows... that is too weird.

Are you sure? That's really scary. Can it not be resolved by software?

I'd have to sort 750 GB..

[stconquest]

Are you sure? That's really scary. Can it not be resolved by software?

I'd have to sort 750 GB..

 

That should not be scary.

 

You back up the data you need on disk or on another external drive, then you format and reinstall.

[ThomasD]

Backup your data and reinstall Windows... that is too weird.

Yep, I'd suggest DBAN prior to reinstalling windows.

 

http://www.dban.org/

 

Could be just about anything causing the problem, including a rootkit.

[Dirtman]

I currently have this running for an hour already https://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/malware-removal.aspx

Is that any good? It says 0 infections. Should I interrupt this?

 

Also, while SmartDefrag was running, Windows Defender picked up a virus. I ignored it but actually if Windows Defender picks something up it must be something really bad.

 

I've never done a windows reinstall before I might do it wrong and then everything is gone. I don't have other disks that can carry my C:\ so I would have to make choices what to keep. I'm not sure how to go on this.

 

It seems to me like a drastic step to take though I'll do it anyways if nothing else works.

 

 

Yep, I'd suggest DBAN prior to reinstalling windows.

 

http://www.dban.org/

Is this the kind of software that permanently irrecoverably deletes?, unlike trash bin, which just sets things inactive and allows other data to override.

[stconquest]

I currently have this running for an hour already https://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/malware-removal.aspx

Is that any good? It says 0 infections. Should I interrupt this?

 

Also, while SmartDefrag was running, Windows Defender picked up a virus. I ignored it but actually if Windows Defender picks something up it must be something really bad.

 

I've never done a windows reinstall before I might do it wrong and then everything is gone. I don't have other disks that can carry my C:\ so I would have to make choices what to keep. I'm not sure how to go on this.

 

It seems to me like a drastic step to take though I'll do it anyways if nothing else works.

 

 

Is this the kind of software that permanently irrecoverably deletes?, unlike trash bin, which just sets things inactive and allows other data to override.

 

That is what you want.

 

Fresh clean install, all the crap gone.