Computer gone slow. Checked all the usuals

[The Artist]

Windows 7
Dual core amd 3.2ghz
2gb ram

Cpu usage hovers between 10 and 30% with my usual things running, Chrome, msn, winamp, mse.

Ram usage is usually below 1gb.

Run ccleaner and haven't changed much but it has gone on a go slow for the past 2 weeks. Not very slow but if I click a folder it takes a couple of seconds or playing a video on youtube 360p it stutters unless I close other stuff. I would have thought that this was a lack of ram but it says I am not using over half mostly and sometimes goes upto 1.4gb.

Confusing me. Halp.

[Frost]

How full is your hard disk? Have you changed any drivers recently?

[The Artist]

[el_oso]

download hw monitor or an equivalent and check your temps. if it's getting too hot your clock speed will be rolled back. if it's a laptop it's quite a common problem after a while. if it's a desktop chances are it's not due to getting too hot as it takes a hell of a lot of dust to make a huge impact
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Duke 390
Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
Car: Jeep Wrangler 4.0L

[CaNsA]

Full list of running processes?

[Alpha-9]

Your pc will naturally get slower in windows over time as it gets clogged with shit, as windows is, eventually you'll have to format to get everythign nice and smooth.

Chances are its heat, open your case, get the mass of dust out the fans
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Fzr-600 1999

[The Artist]

[The Artist]

https://i.imgur.com/6aXyN.jpg

[CaNsA]

win key + r (run box)

services.msc

Disable the following:-
Windows Search
Superfetch


Then goto my computer, right click on ur c: drive and do a disk clean up.

After, goto C:\Users\<your profile name>\AppData\Local\Temp

Delete everything.

[el_oso]

i'm fairly sure that ccleaner deletes the temp folder by default. i know it does that on mine.
i also disagree with superfetch. as far as i am aware all it does is keep common programs cached in the RAM and since he has enough i can't see it causing any problems.

i would open resource monitor and check things like hard faults if you are sure it's not getting hot
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Duke 390
Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
Car: Jeep Wrangler 4.0L

[J.M.]

I find the task manager crap when the computer is running slow - it only ever really shows me the things I know will be making it run slow!

Type "Resource Monitor" into the start menu and hit enter, it'll open up the Windows resource monitor and give you a much better view at what's slowing your computer down (in my opinion). You can also look for bottlenecks with the HDD, but that's not your issue.
I usually open the CPU section and then sort it by average CPU usage.

My common culprits (well common as in when it does happen, not that it happens a lot) are Windows Search Indexer and anti-virus scans which I didn't know had started.

I wouldn't really class this as a heat issue at all, sounds more software-related to me.

If my laptop ever gets slow though I use it as a good opportunity to do a fresh install. I install so much crap that I only ever have to use once it's nice just to get rid of it all for good. Seriously, why can't some of these seriously simple programs be standalone with an option of installing?
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2004 R1 & 2018 XSR900

[andym]

Not sure if it's been asked or if you mentioned it but you said you take the fan off to clean the fins... you do put new thermal grease on afterwards don't you?

If it is really causing that much of an issue then download a program called hijackthis, look for the forums that deal with it (can't remember off the top of my head), if you've never used the software before or are a bit worried about it, it is a very indepth process scanner. And the people that use it regularly will tell you exactly where any problems are on your PC.

[Alpha-9]

Looking at your task manager...It's chrome


10% of your CPU isnt much either...
Saying that my chrome is using 0 right now and i'm on a crappy work Dell package

It's fine, deal with it


If things are taking longer than usual to open then your HDD might be a bit derp, is it IDE or SATA?

SATA is much faster.

If you want to really splash the cash get yourself a SSD
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Fzr-600 1999

[The Artist]

I am not a complete n00b at computers.

I have windows search indexer disabled, always have done.

That temp folder, as has been said is wiped by ccleaner and is empty.

Only hard faults come from svchost (Dcomlauncher) between 0 and 2 a second. On the HDD part it is not using anywhere near maximum data transfer rate. It is a SATA drive.

Only one anti virus and it is all disabled unless I do a manual scan. Only thing it does by itself is realtime protection and updates.

I don't take the actual heatsink off, just the fan to expose the fins.

It isn't something obvious which is why I asked.

[J.M.]

Did you check the resource monitor? I know task manager shows cpu usage but often it doesn't show the culprit. Resource monitor shows the services too and what cpu they're using up.

If you have real-time protection, could your computer have gotten infected (unlikely cause though IMO) or (more likely IMO) have you got more than one AV running and they're conflicting at last?

On a side note I use comodo and there was a bug with that which hogged up about 40% of my CPU due to a logging error. Had to disable the logging to fix the error and then the cpu usage for cfp.exe was back down to 0%.

I don't think it is a heat/hardware issue as others have said.

If it's none of the above then have you installed any new drivers/software lately? If so try removing them, etc.

I had a similar problem once though and I could just not figure out the problem. The laptop struggled doing anything multitasking really. I tried to webcam to one person on msn, whilst doing nothing, and was getting about 2 fps (if that). I tried everything including dedicating a whole CPU core to msn and giving it highest priority, but nothing would work.
In the end I got fed up and reinstalled windows from scratch. I can now webcam on msn/skype just fine whilst watching TV on the laptop (though media centre with a TV card), browse the internet/Facebook at the same and do my college assignments (which sometimes use heavy programs like flash and photoshop) without really feeling any performance hit.

Installing is always my fall back because I like a fresh install every now and then to clear out all the crap I get from installing too much software.
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2004 R1 & 2018 XSR900

[The Artist]

[el_oso]

do you have windows defender enabled, or installed any windows updates recently. I'm sure I installed an update once and it messed with the security settings
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Duke 390
Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
Car: Jeep Wrangler 4.0L

[The Artist]

You just reminded me I have 500mb of windows updates waiting.

I will do these and see if it works. They have been there for ages, I just never can be arsed to download them. Got decent internet connection now so should be ok.