Laptop Slowdown with Unkown Cause

[M.SR]

For the past month, my laptop has run incredibly slow to the point I can't even get my job done. I have tried everything I could to solve this myself but unable to fix this issue. It like running on a 500-800 ping even with few basic applications running like Microsoft Edge & Windows Explorer. This is basically a cry for help. So, if there's anyone can help me solve this issue, I would be extremely grateful.

 

Here's some information regarding my PC:

 

Model : Lenovo Legion 5 2020

Processor : AMD Ryzen 7 4800H (2.90 GHz)

RAM : 16 GB DDR4

Graphic Card : Nvidia GTX 1650

Windows Edition : Windows 11 Home

Windows Version : 23H2 (Updated Regularly)

 

The slowdown usually occurs when:

 

1. I'm copy and pasting a large sum of files.

2. When I left my laptop running overnight with a game open. But after coming back the next morning, the laptop runs incredibly slow.

3. After booting up, the laptop sometimes runs slow. But after a while it returns to normal.

4. The only solution to revert back to normal is to shut down the laptop, wait for a while and turn it back on. But sometimes even this doesn't work, and I have to shut down my laptop multiple times to get it running.

5. There's a time where I run 2 games at a time (Dota 2 & Genshin Impact) and both games can be run smoothly. But when doing minimal task like renaming multiple files, downloading files, the PC becomes slow.

 

The thing is, I checked the CPU, RAM & GPU usage, and they were all fine. No excessive usage from a single app that could throttle down my laptop. And I only have a few startups app enabled to begin with (Skype, Logitech G-Hub, RealTekAudioService64 & SecurityHealthSysTray). All other startup apps are disabled.

 

I also have a few 3rd-party programs installed which I doubt that any of these programs gone rouge (I might be wrong though).

 

- Nvidia GeForce Experience & other Nvidia components.

- GomPlayer

- qBitTorrent

- Discord

- Steam & Dota 2

- Genshin Impact

- Internet Download Manager

- Microsoft PowerToys

- FolderMaker Free

- TreeSize

- WinRAR

 

Here's some of the fixes I tried previously:

 

SOFTWARE-RELATED FIX

 

1. Scanning the whole drive for viruses using Microsoft Defender. All clear.

2. Running checkdisk on all of the drives for corrupted files. None were found.

3. Running disk cleanup on all of the drives.

4. Updating Windows to the current version.

5. Updating BIOS and all the drivers.

6. Turn off the indexing option for Search.

7. Uninstall unnecessary programs.

8. Resetting the PC twice (Remove everything, download Windows from Cloud). Issue still persists.

 

HARDWARE-RELATED FIX

 

1. Cleaning all the cooling fans.

2. Re-slotting the RAM, HDD and battery.

3. Re-applying the thermal paste on CPU & GPU (In case the slowdown is due to thermal issue).

 

But none of these works. My laptop is still experiencing intermittent slowdown from time to time. The worst is when even the mouse movement is painfully slow.

 

I have done all I have known to fix this. Now it's time to ask for help.

I'm not entirely sure if this is a software or hardware issue.

[ChrisLoudon]

2 hours ago, M.SR said:

I have done all I have known to fix this. Now it's time to ask for help.

I'm not entirely sure if this is a software or hardware issue.

Hi buddy,

 

You should try and do a fresh install of Windows.

 

Resetting is a good shout but I always find a proper fresh install gets a PC back to factory fresh unless there's something more sinister going on.

[M.SR]

1 hour ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Hi buddy,

 

You should try and do a fresh install of Windows.

 

Resetting is a good shout but I always find a proper fresh install gets a PC back to factory fresh unless there's something more sinister going on.

Hi Chris,

 

That would be my last option. But I'm not savvy enough format it on my own. I try to do simple fix but if that not enough than I'd have no choice but to go to the computer store and get it formatted.

[ChrisLoudon]

1 hour ago, M.SR said:

Hi Chris,

 

That would be my last option. But I'm not savvy enough format it on my own. I try to do simple fix but if that not enough than I'd have no choice but to go to the computer store and get it formatted.

Hi buddy,

 

from your first post it looks like you've covered pretty much all of your bases apart from a fresh install.

 

Its pretty easy.

 

1. get a USB hard disk / pen drive with at least 8GB of space and pop it in your PC.

2. Search 'Windows USB Tool' in Google and click what will likely be the top hit to take you to MSs website.

3. Download the tool and run it. It will scan your PC and download the correct version on Windows and create a bootable USB drive.

4. With the USB stick still plugged into your PC, reboot and make sure the PC is set to 'boot from USB'. This will likely be displayed briefly on system start-up and is usually an F key.

5. When successfully booted from the USB media, you'll be asked if you want to do an upgrade or a 'custom install' Select 'custom install' and when you're asked about what drive and what partition, delete ALL partitions (on the main drive - usually drive 0) and then your pretty much good to go.

 

During the installation process you'll be asked to login with your MS account, select a network and keyboard and language stuff but pretty straight forward.

 

The only additional things you might need to to once Windows is back up and running is download drivers, tools, applications and games. You'll also need to make sure your files are backup up on OneDrive or Google Drive so you don't loose anything.

 

Cheers

[M.SR]

17 minutes ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Hi buddy,

 

from your first post it looks like you've covered pretty much all of your bases apart from a fresh install.

 

Its pretty easy.

 

1. get a USB hard disk / pen drive with at least 8GB of space and pop it in your PC.

2. Search 'Windows USB Tool' in Google and click what will likely be the top hit to take you to MSs website.

3. Download the tool and run it. It will scan your PC and download the correct version on Windows and create a bootable USB drive.

4. With the USB stick still plugged into your PC, reboot and make sure the PC is set to 'boot from USB'. This will likely be displayed briefly on system start-up and is usually an F key.

5. When successfully booted from the USB media, you'll be asked if you want to do an upgrade or a 'custom install' Select 'custom install' and when you're asked about what drive and what partition, delete ALL partitions (on the main drive - usually drive 0) and then your pretty much good to go.

 

During the installation process you'll be asked to login with your MS account, select a network and keyboard and language stuff but pretty straight forward.

 

The only additional things you might need to to once Windows is back up and running is download drivers, tools, applications and games. You'll also need to make sure your files are backup up on OneDrive or Google Drive so you don't loose anything.

 

Cheers

Chris,

Dang. I don't expect a full-blown step by step guide on how to fresh install a Window software. Thank you so much. As of now, I tried installing Malwarebytes to scan for malwares and it did find 2 threats. I've removed the threats and currently monitoring the performance. If all else fails, I'll try a fresh install the Window.

 

My laptop is running the original edition of Window since I first bought my laptop. Does the Window from Window's website require any new license purchasing or it will detect the original license from my laptop and downloaded it free?

[ChrisLoudon]

15 hours ago, M.SR said:

My laptop is running the original edition of Window since I first bought my laptop. Does the Window from Window's website require any new license purchasing or it will detect the original license from my laptop and downloaded it free?

Hi buddy, no worries.

 

Windows licenses and activation are now usually tied to your Microsoft account so its pretty straight forward.

 

When the USB media is created and you boot from it, it either just goes straight to the correct Windows Version or it will give you a list to chose from. You'll just select Windows 11 Home and you'll be good to go.

 

If you have a product key (usually found on a sticker on your PC) you can type in when prompted however, if you can't find one, most of the time time you can click the button 'don't have a product key' and once you first login after the fresh install, Windows will link your Microsoft account to the last activation state and you should be up and running.

 

The only caveat to what's called 'Digital Licenses' is if you make and significant changes to your hardware, Windows won't automatically reactivate and you need to jump through a few hoops but since this is a laptop I doubt you'll run into this issue.

[M.SR]

On 4/2/2024 at 3:35 PM, ChrisLoudon said:

Hi buddy, no worries.

 

Windows licenses and activation are now usually tied to your Microsoft account so its pretty straight forward.

 

When the USB media is created and you boot from it, it either just goes straight to the correct Windows Version or it will give you a list to chose from. You'll just select Windows 11 Home and you'll be good to go.

 

If you have a product key (usually found on a sticker on your PC) you can type in when prompted however, if you can't find one, most of the time time you can click the button 'don't have a product key' and once you first login after the fresh install, Windows will link your Microsoft account to the last activation state and you should be up and running.

 

The only caveat to what's called 'Digital Licenses' is if you make and significant changes to your hardware, Windows won't automatically reactivate and you need to jump through a few hoops but since this is a laptop I doubt you'll run into this issue.

Chris,

 

I think I might find what's causing the issue here. It might be some rogue software running in the background. 

 

When the laptop slowed and I tried to shut down the PC when some program is running, there's ONE program that pop-up without any name that Windows trying to close during shutting down. Also, sometimes when I use my PC, there a program popup but it immediately gone before I can identify what the program is.

 

I tried scanning my PC with Windows Defender, McAfee and Malwarebyte. Before my previous reset, Malwarebyte found 1 threat in C:\Users\MyPC\MyPC\zkavia.exe . I deleted the file trough Malwarebyte and did another reset.

 

I know PC Reset is not like formatting a PC. But now I'm restricting my installs on some basic app and it's running smoothly. At least for now.

 

It might take a few days to test this out. But I have saved your instructions on formatting the PC in a Text Document for me to refer later on. It's good to know that the licenses are tied to my Microsoft Account. I always avoided formatting my laptop due to not wanting to lose the original licenses on Windows & Office. But now I know that concern is baseless.

 

I really appreciate your reply regarding my issue. Thank you. I'm new here so it's good to see that this community does help each other out.