Windows 8 being extremely slow

[Cruiseshipfan]

I just picked up a new laptop. Sadly it came with windows 8. I thought the only thing that was meant to be good about it was that it was faster. In my experience I found it to be the exact opposite. It is running like a sloth. Just to open up google chrome I need to wait several minutes from the time I click. As goes for every other program on the computer. With my old laptop running windows 7 it would launch almost instantly (well at least getting Google chrome to show up on the screen whereas this take minutes to even look like its doing a thing). All my drivers have been fully upgraded as has windows 8 itself.  

 

Cpu: i7-3630QM

GPU: GT 650M

Ram : 4GB

HDD: 1TB, only just over 100GB used. 

 

[Elbstrand]

First of all did you use a SSD before? Also i would probably reinstall Windows 8 from scratch, most laptops come with tons of programms nobody needs.

[YellowDragon]

Do you know what the Specs are on the actual drive? The RPM and the cache size? That would give an idea if its hardware or software related. Also do you notice any "bloatware" programs in the task manager?

[InfinateX]

I would just recommend upgrading to Windows 7. Unless of course you really want Windows 8, in which case, I have no way to help you.

[arkon]

That's odd, Chrome opens nearly instantly for me on my laptop with Windows 8. Check Task Manager for anything hogging up resources that may be slowing down your PC?

[Darell3]

I've just installed win8 on my computer yesterday, i have never come across this slowness issue. The only time my apps load slow is when my computer just booted up. Check your background processes and use 'msconfig' (type in RUN) and disable a couple of useless startup apps and services.

[Cruiseshipfan]

Do you know what the Specs are on the actual drive? The RPM and the cache size? That would give an idea if its hardware or software related. Also do you notice any "bloatware" programs in the task manager?

Sorry not to sure on the cache size. But the RPM speed is 5,400. Not the best but it's still the same as my old laptop's HDD, which was around 3 years old. 

 

First of all did you use a SSD before? Also i would probably reinstall Windows 8 from scratch, most laptops come with tons of programms nobody needs.

MY old laptop did not have an SSD, it was pretty basic really. I would give re-installing a shot, but its just to hard without a disc and the horrible download speeds I get. 

 

I removed almost all the bloatware when I first started it up, all that is left (well I consider it bloatware) is all of microsofts stupid apps that for some reason they will not let me uninstall. 

 

I am thinking about buying a hybrid drive as well as adding 4GB of additional ram. 

[GoodBytes]

5400RPM is SLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW (said in a slow motion fashion).

But, the worst part is that you have fast 5400RPM HDD's, and really slow ones, which are even more slow. You probably ended up with a very slow 54000RPM HDD, that would be my guess.

 

I had one on my laptop. I picked it because I wanted to upgrade to an SSD soon after.

When I was using it, (my system came junk free, by the way, its a business class system, that is why) opening Firefox too ages, IE same.

It took over 1 min to start the system. That was with Vista, and I put Win7 that came out later, same story. just incredibly slow.

 

Then I got my SSD and things were flying on WIn7... now it runs Win8, things are even faster.

[arkon]

5400RPM is SLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW (said in a slow motion fashion).

But, the worst part is that you have fast 5400RPM HDD's, and really slow ones, which are even more slow. You probably ended up with a very slow 54000RPM HDD, that would be my guess.

I had one on my laptop. I picked it because I wanted to upgrade to an SSD soon after.

When I was using it, (my system came junk free, by the way, its a business class system, that is why) opening Firefox too ages, IE same.

It took over 1 min to start the system. That was with Vista, and I put Win7 that came out later, same story. just incredibly slow.

Then I got my SSD and things were flying on WIn7... now it runs Win8, things are even faster.

Windows 8 on my old laptop with a 5400RPM drive seemed pretty zippy to me...

[Mario]

If you could, you should run hdd tune error scan, because the slowness could be caused because the harddrive is damaged, or currently failing, you can also check task manager for programms that are clogging up ram and disk usage. The harddrive itself isn't slow, eaven the slowest 5400rpm drive shouldn't cause this much of slowness, if you really want blazing fast bootups and generaly fast computer usage get yourself a ssd :)

[nishank93]

I have a HP laptop with a 5400RPM HDD, i7-720QM, and Raedon HD5650M, running Windows 8, and there is nothing slow about it. It is significantly faster than Windows 7. I am saying this because my hardware is similar to/worse than yours, but my Windows 8 runs just fine.

If there are no hardware issues, try clean installing Windows 8. You can create a recovery disc from within Windows if you don't already have one.

[silencerbob]

remember to run all windows updates and such.. there may be something you missed

[GoodBytes]

Windows 8 on my old laptop with a 5400RPM drive seemed pretty zippy to me...

I have not tried Win8 on a 5400RPM HDD. I guess they did some improvements to load things faster.

[Cruiseshipfan]

So far I have removed some more programs, and it doesn't look like anything is opening on startup or running in the background that should slow it down. There are a few programs that I have no idea what they are but they look like they are part of W8. The laptop seems to run at a decent speed as long as I am not opening something or it hasn't just been turned on or been brought out of hibernation/sleep mode. Especially the latter which take around 5 minutes for the laptop to be usable as the mouse takes that long to even show up on screen. 

 

I ran the HDD error scan as suggested by Mario and it found no errors, it should be working perfectly. 

I did some research and found this is the HDD in my laptop. http://www.seagate.com/files/staticfiles/support/docs/samsung-ds/100698122c.pdf

 

I am actually thinking I may need to upgrade to this http://www.mwave.com.au/product/sku-ab49146-seagate_momentus_xt_st1000lm014_25_1tb_sata_6gbs_solid_state_hybrid_drive

However I looked on Samsungs website for my laptop and it looks like the Sata port that the HDD is connected to is only Sata2. So I am not sure how big of a difference it will make. (I am fairly new to computers, having only build on computer). 

 

For any other information this is the laptop http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/pc-peripherals/notebook-pc/everyday/NP550P5C-S07AU

 

I have also contacted Samsung Australia to see if this effects the Warranty in any way except for not cover the new parts. 

 

Also I might as well add an extra 4GB of Ram to it http://www.mwave.com.au/product/sku-aa66065-corsair_vengeance_cmsx4gx3m1a1600c9_4gb_1x4gb_ddr3_sodimm

[Darell3]

So far I have removed some more programs, and it doesn't look like anything is opening on startup or running in the background that should slow it down. There are a few programs that I have no idea what they are but they look like they are part of W8. The laptop seems to run at a decent speed as long as I am not opening something or it hasn't just been turned on or been brought out of hibernation/sleep mode. Especially the latter which take around 5 minutes for the laptop to be usable as the mouse takes that long to even show up on screen. 

 

I ran the HDD error scan as suggested by Mario and it found no errors, it should be working perfectly. 

I did some research and found this is the HDD in my laptop. http://www.seagate.com/files/staticfiles/support/docs/samsung-ds/100698122c.pdf

 

I am actually thinking I may need to upgrade to this http://www.mwave.com.au/product/sku-ab49146-seagate_momentus_xt_st1000lm014_25_1tb_sata_6gbs_solid_state_hybrid_drive

However I looked on Samsungs website for my laptop and it looks like the Sata port that the HDD is connected to is only Sata2. So I am not sure how big of a difference it will make. (I am fairly new to computers, having only build on computer). 

 

For any other information this is the laptop http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/pc-peripherals/notebook-pc/everyday/NP550P5C-S07AU

 

I have also contacted Samsung Australia to see if this effects the Warranty in any way except for not cover the new parts. 

 

Also I might as well add an extra 4GB of Ram to it http://www.mwave.com.au/product/sku-aa66065-corsair_vengeance_cmsx4gx3m1a1600c9_4gb_1x4gb_ddr3_sodimm

For the specs of that computer it should be blazing fast!! I have an AMD processor (FX-6100) and it doesnt even compare to an i7 but it runs smoothly. Try to maybe change the HDD. And only get another 4gb ram if needed.

[ShadyHost]

Fresh Install Fresh Install Fresh Install

[shirokado]

I would just recommend upgrading to Windows 7. Unless of course you really want Windows 8, in which case, I have no way to help you.

thats a terrible recomendation lol windows 8 is much faster then windows 7

[shirokado]

without actually looking at your laptop. the assumtions I can come up with is that the laptop came with too much bloatware. 

 

Also just upgrade to an SSD

[InfinateX]

thats a terrible recomendation lol windows 8 is much faster then windows 7

My joke was saying I think W8 is bad... There are definately some things that W7 does better, but it's mostly things related to simplicity for the user.

[frize86]

KB2821895

 

Did you install that update? It really slow things down...

 

Run cmd.exe as admin;

 

Type the following: DISM /Online /cleanup-image /RestoreHealth

 

It should be a temporary fix. Please report after doing that.

 

Cheers!

[shirokado]

My joke was saying I think W8 is bad... There are definately some things that W7 does better, but it's mostly things related to simplicity for the user.

you "think" windows 8 is bad. its a "fact" that windows 8 is better then windows 7. there is nothing windows 7 can do that windows 8 can't

[Cruiseshipfan]

 

KB2821895

 

Did you install that update? It really slow things down...

 

Run cmd.exe as admin;

 

Type the following: DISM /Online /cleanup-image /RestoreHealth

 

It should be a temporary fix. Please report after doing that.

 

Cheers!

 

No, I just checked and I hadn't installed that update. 

[InfinateX]

you "think" windows 8 is bad. its a "fact" that windows 8 is better then windows 7. there is nothing windows 7 can do that windows 8 can't

Windows 7 can open a start menu without using extra software.

[shirokado]

Windows 7 can open a start menu without using extra software.

windows 8 can open its start menu without extra software to, you just press the left bottom corner, press the windows key, or slide from the right and press start. If you're talking about Windows Shell, that's long gone.

[samuel]

windows 8 is a lot faster on hdd than windows 7.