Laptop too slow

[KrissG]

So I've got my laptop half a year ago. And since then I could say that it wasn't as fast as I expected. A times it freezes if i try to open google chrome and etc. I am not sure from where should I start... I would appreciate any comments on this

Optimus Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4700MQ (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 2GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 2GB)
Change to: 8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 765M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk 1TB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve

 

[vanthus]

Could be programs running in the background causing the issue.
Try disabling unnecessary "Startup" items in "System configuration"
to open,type msconfig in the Start Search box and then press enter.
On the startup tab disable items by unticking the box.
Also check if the hard disk is getting full or needing defragged,Ccleaner is a good program for cleaning out unnecessary files.

 

[mantadog]

Have you added more RAM since you bought it? 2GB on windows 7 combined with an i7 and a 765m is a bit unbalanced if not. In fact I would venture as far as to say its not enough and is probably the cause of your problem.

 

[de4life]

I'd agree that RAM is probably the issue here. Having an i7 processor and then only 2GB RAM is like buying some amazing speakers and then still listening to songs in 128kbps quality. You'll get a better clarity of sound but the quality still won't be fantastic.

Upgrade to 4-8GB RAM and you should notice an improvement - if it's hardware related.

 

[ubuysa]

Performance issues after having had a laptop (or PC) for some time are almost always hard disk related. Your hard disk is a fairly slow 5,400 rpm model and with a 1TB capacity file fragmentation will be causing long seek times by now, both will contribute to slow I/O. That will be your main problem I'd suggest.

In general the hard disk is always the performance weak point in any system, simply because you're dealing with moving metal. A good I/O from a hard disk might take 10mS but when you consider that the cycle time of even a basic CPU and RAM is measured in nanoseconds it's clear that a 10mS I/O is pretty slow. And 10mS is only achievable if the disk is not fragmented and the files are optimised. If the disk is badly fragmented and not optimised I/O times could be as bad as 1000mS and that's where the performance problems lie.

Firstly you should clean out the garbage on your hard disk, temp files and the like. Ccleaner from http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner is a good one. Don't change any of the config options until you know what your doing, and don't run the registry cleaner (or any registry cleaner). So run Ccleaner and let it clean all it finds.

Then you need to defragment the files. This brings all the scattered fragments of a file together to make the file contiguous. This makes a massive difference to seek time and improved performance. The basic Windows defragmenter can do this.

To get the best performance from your hard disk you should optimise it. This involves moving the placement of files on the disk surface so that the regularly used files are close to the MFT and the infrequently used files are moved to the other end of the disk. This is particularly important with big disks like your 1TB. If you look for Freeware or Shareware optimizing defraggers you'll see there's a wide choice. I use Ultimate Defrag from http://disktrix.com/, it's not free but it will pay for itself in improved disk performance.

Replacing the drive with a 7,200 rpm model will also improve performance (though not as much as an optimising defrag) because it reduces the disk latency. A solid state disk suffers none of these "moving metal" problems of course which is why they are becoming so popular. You'll not find a 1TB model yet though I think.

Freezing when opening Chrome or other applications can also be because of very poor hard disk performance. If you have a disk access light on your laptop watch it as you open Chrome. If it's lit permanently and doesn't flash at all your problem is certainly hard disk related.

 

[SlimCini]

He changed his RAM to 8Gb... you can see it in the spec.

 

[SlimCini]

Have you added more RAM since you bought it? 2GB on windows 7 combined with an i7 and a 765m is a bit unbalanced if not. In fact I would venture as far as to say its not enough and is probably the cause of your problem.

Optimus Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4700MQ (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 2GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 2GB)
Change to: 8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 765M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk 1TB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve

 

[zalmoxis]

Optimus Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4700MQ (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 2GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 2GB)
Change to: 8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 765M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk 1TB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve

I'll go out on a limb here and say it's your HDD.

Why? Well, because no other component just "half breaks" as in... reduces in performance. Your other components either work 100%, or die.

The HDD is not like that. The HDD keeps getting slower and slower and breaks more and more until it dies completely. If that ever happens.

Here's what you should do:

Get a 128GB mSATA SSD and put Windows and your software on that one.

Re-format (deep format, strip it down to its soul) and defragment the 1TB one, also do a bad sector check, then use that one as storage (for you know... movies, games, your **** collection, etc.)

Also check if your fans are running full speed. If they are, chances are your temps are too high and as a result the CPU is being throttled down in order not to go into full nuclear fusion.

Get SpeedFan (google that, download, install, run) and check your temps. None should go over 85 celsius in full load. If they do, order of Amazon or whatever some Artic Silver MX-4 or IC Diamond thermoconductive paste (CPU paste), open your laptop, take off the nice copper tubes off your cpu, clean with 99% alcohol (or you know... some perfume) both parts and apply some nice new paste.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Also worth mentioning you've got a wireless card with driver issues. If it's purely browser stuff that's the issue, it could be related to that.

 

[mantadog]

Alright hands up I missed the RAM.

But the OP hasn't been back for about 2 weeks, so unless he comes back with new info we're pretty much stuck.

 

[amoshi]

What about malware? Maybe you have a Bitcoin miner running?
Do a scan with MalwareBytes