Mother's laptop is quite slow, not sure why...

[natalieisabutt]

Hey,

 

Not too long ago my mother bought an HP laptop and it's been quite slow.

 

Here are its specs:

 

• OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
• CPU: AMD A4-5000
• RAM: 4GB Single Channel DDR3-665
• MOBO: HP 8133 
• HDD: 456GB Hitachi 
• probably a little bit more stuff idk

 

Is there a problem with having Windows 10 on an HDD? Or might there be an entirely different problem?

 

[dragoon20005]

i suspect malwares

 

download malwarebytes and scan the PC for malware

[dragoon20005]

check the task manager for any unknown programs

 

you can take a screenshot and paste here

[natalieisabutt]

Just now, dragoon20005 said:

i suspect malwares

 

download malwarebytes and scan the PC for malware

She hasn't been using it that much, but I'll get malwarebytes and scan anyway. 

[Paralectic]

HDDs are slow, that's it.

 

[Kirky2k15]

Mechanical hard drives should be banned from being OS drives, they are only good for storing your games now

 

Get a cheap 128 or 256gb SSD. Does your mother really need 500gb space?

[comicsansms]

There is a number of reasons why the computer could be slow.

• The HDD could be dying.
• It could broken have a windows install
• It maybe infected with virus'
• The startup folder and startup maybe filled with lots of stuff that shouldn't be turned on
• It could be an underpower for what it is required to do.
• The HDD could also be fragmented.

I'd look what is in the startup folder (remove everything from there) and what is enabled in the start up tab in Task manager (disable everything), run malwarebytes, then CCleaner. After that defrag the HDD.

[natalieisabutt]

1 minute ago, Kirky2k15 said:

Mechanical hard drives should be banned from being OS drives, they are only good for storing your games now

 

Get a cheap 128 or 256gb SSD. Does your mother really need 500gb space?

Don't think she needs that much space, honestly, but I'll consider buying her a 120-240GB SSD sometime.

[natalieisabutt]

2 minutes ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

There is a number of reasons why the computer could be slow.

• The HDD could be dying.
• It could broken have a windows install
• It maybe infected with virus'
• The startup folder and startup maybe filled with lots of stuff that shouldn't be turned on
• It could be an underpower for what it is required to do.
• The HDD could also be fragmented.

I'd look what is in the startup folder (remove everything from there) and what is enabled in the start up tab in Task manager (disable everything), run malwarebytes, then CCleaner. After that defrag the HDD.

I doubt the HDD could be dying as it's about 2 months from purchase, but I'll see if any of the criteria match 

[comicsansms]

Just now, natalieisabutt said:

I doubt the HDD could be dying as it's about 2 months from purchase, but I'll see if any of the criteria match 

I don't think it is either, I just wrote everything that comes to mind and what you need to test if you have a slow PC.

[natalieisabutt]

7 minutes ago, Paralectic said:

HDDs are slow, that's it.

 

True.

[Josephdalepi]

15 minutes ago, natalieisabutt said:

True.

check you task manager memory usage

memory leak would make the most sense

[KyonCoraeL]

23 minutes ago, natalieisabutt said:

Don't think she needs that much space, honestly, but I'll consider buying her a 120-240GB SSD sometime.

Do it! Buy the SSD. You can use it to check the following criteria listed by Comic_Sans_MS.

23 minutes ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

There is a number of reasons why the computer could be slow.

• The HDD could be dying.
• It could broken have a windows install
• It maybe infected with virus'
• The startup folder and startup maybe filled with lots of stuff that shouldn't be turned on
• It could be an underpower for what it is required to do.
• The HDD could also be fragmented.

I'd look what is in the startup folder (remove everything from there) and what is enabled in the start up tab in Task manager (disable everything), run malwarebytes, then CCleaner. After that defrag the HDD.

[Ballzfast]

If she doesn't use the disc drive you could always do what I did. I installed a 128gb ssd in the original hdd location and bought a hard drive caddy that fits where the disc drive is. I now have 2 hard drives in my laptop. The 128gb ssd for the OS and most used programs and the 750gb hdd for storage.