Sloooowww computer

[Roff]

My wife has this really old Toshiba Satellite laptop. She only uses it for email and Freecell, and an occasional Gogle search, so until recently, it was fine.
The battery has been dead for years, so we leave it plugged in and turned on. A couple of weeks ago, we turned it off while we were cleaning house, and ever since, it works right after a reboot, but very shortly after that it gets so slow that it is unusable. I ran a virus scan on the hard drive with Avast (the free version that always runs in the background). It came back negative. I did a defrag, and that didn't help. I would like to get it running again, but I'm out of ideas. Do you guys have any?

 

[Hank Fletcher]

And the task manager doesn't say anything's running?

Sorry, I'm sure you probably checked that already. But that's about the limit of my PC debugging knowledge!

 

[killivolt]

I know that mine had some trouble recently. I had no virus activity. I cleaned out under the fan on the cpu it was shutting down ? I did a system restore point afterward and removed a few programs my daughter had installed for a pocket pc. I did all the updates and it came back.

What operating system you have ?

In addition were there any other Virus Scanning Software on the Computer ?

 

[Pommie]

It sounds like it could be heat related. What happens if you let it hibernate? Does it come out of hibernation at full speed and then slow? What is you reboot without switching off? Have you tried running it without the battery?

Mike.

 

[things]

Is it possible to get all the information you need off it? I'd say just reformat it, that will wipe EVERYTHING. Just make sure you save all the important stuff first

 

[eng1]

Is it possible to get all the information you need off it? I'd say just reformat it, that will wipe EVERYTHING. Just make sure you save all the important stuff first

I agree. I know that there are a lot of ways to fix computer problems, but if you have already used antivirus and spyware programs, defragged, etc. it might be the last resort. Getting back to a fresh registry certainly improves your PC's performance.

 

[ericgibbs]

Hi Roff,
I use these 3 freeware programs.

Hijackthis: this lists all the autorun programs with options to delete,etc
https://www.filehippo.com/download_hijackthis

Comodo Firewall: excellent firewall, lotsa details.
https://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

Advanced WindowsCare : this checks a number of functions, use with caution.
https://www.iobit.com/advancedwindowscareper.html?Str=download

 

[picasm]

Another thing to do is check the hard drive for errors - perhaps it has some bad sectors that can slow down the pc if it has to make several attempts to read data on some areas of the disk.

Usually you would hear the hard drive clicking much more than normal if it is having these problems.

Try doing a Scandisk (Checkdisk in XP) and tick the option to "scan for and attempt the recovery of bad sectors"

 

[Torben]

Check the CMOS battery and your BIOS settings. Could be a problem there with a machine that old.


Torben

 

[killivolt]

A couple of weeks ago, we turned it off while we were cleaning house, and ever since, it works right after a reboot

I'm thinking a fan. If you shut it off then now's the problem check for a bad fan on the CPU they can't get going from a dead stop ?

 

[Roff]

OK, a lot of good ideas. Thanks, guys. I'll report back when I find the solution (or throw it away).

 

[Bob Scott]

OK, a lot of good ideas. Thanks, guys. I'll report back when I find the solution (or throw it away).

Hi Ron.

I bet you find clogged air cooling or a heat sink that has come loose.

Some of the other guesses don't make sense considering the thing works fine until it warms up.

Bob

 

[UTMonkey]

How old is old? Pentium chips which get too hot throttle down to crawling speed to save the chip.

If you think about it there arent that many moving parts on a laptop, hard disk or fan. Unless the laptop has been dropped you can rule out the HDD, if you are looking for a physical fault go for the fan!

 

[killivolt]

If you do get it going again be sure you do all MS updates.

Remove all installed Virus Scanning Programs/possible conflics.

1. First begin with add/remove in control panel.

2. Then search for any folders under name of program/remove any.

3. Exporting registry/Editing registry.

A. Create a folder on the Desktop (name it backup)

B. Go to run/ type-regedit. This will open the registry editor.

C. Go to File/choose export. In the open box type (backup)
and save look in the folder on the desktop to insure that the registry is there. On second thought do not open it if it is there !!! Only if you entend on re-installing it.

D. Go back to registry editor/ choose (edit) and use (find) type in the Name of the Virus Program eg norton,mcafee ? make sure you hit the +or- symbol on (my computer) this will make the tree come to the top to insure the search is complete.

E. Begin by Deleting the first hit. Then repeat this sequence f3 which will find next item delete and repeat.

F. When finished reboot if it boots ok and all seems good turn off sys restore/ trash the folder marked backup empty trash and reboot again turn system restore back on.


4. Re-install virus program of your choice.

(Pete and re-Pete are in a boat pete fell out who's was left ?)

 

[Torben]

He's running Avast antivirus. At any rate, that's an insane way to remove software unless you have a very good reason. Use Control Panel => Add/Remove Programs to uninstall software without the risk of b0rking your machine badly. In this case no removal is likely to be necessary--as Bob and Mike noted, it's probably just overheating. (Weird ideas like mine with the CMOS battery failing are for after overheating has been ruled out.) It could also be a trojan which needed the reboot to activate, but I'd say check the heat issues first.

Other questions for Ron (Roff):

Does the hard drive thrash or become heavily active when the slowdown occurs?

Are things like mouse cursor tracking and keyboard response slowed down or otherwise affected, or is it just program load times and run speeds (including things like the Windows shell) which slow way down?

Do you have the ability to check using another OS? i.e. can you boot an old DOS or Linux from floppy or CD (or another partition) and see if you still have the slowdown issue? If you do it's definitely hardware and not a trojan or such. Another way to check this is to boot to safe mode command line and try to run some DOS software from floppy (Defender is a half-decent DOS game which I think you can still download) and see if the slowdown still happens. The game is just to try to get the processor active.

What peripherals (if any) are plugged in?


Torben

 

[killivolt]

I'm thinking a fan. But if he has put in more than one anti virus programs or if it came with Norton like most do it will bugger it up with software conflicts. you want them out. And that is the way to completely remove them including registry. Then install the desired program.

 

[Roff]

OK, here's my final report.
I checked the fan, and it was running while the computer was slow. I could feel the hot air coming out the exhaust port. I removed the keyboard anyway, and there was the fan. It seemed to spin freely, but it did have a little lint on it. I sucked air through the exhaust port with the vacuum cleaner. The fan spun up to about a zillion RPM! I put the keyboard back on, powered it up (this was last night before I went to bed). The computer is still working great this morning, after having been on all night.
I guess it was the lint. I'm not sure why turning it off a few days ago caused the problem. Maybe it was coincidental, or maybe picking it up and moving it caused the lint to shift.
Thanks again to everyone who made suggestions, especially the guys in my fan club. Forgive me for not answering everyone's questions. I was up to my ass in alligators, trying to get ready for an RV trip.
I'm just glad I didn't have to reformat the hard drive. I've done that a couple times in the past (on other computers). I would rather get a root canal.
My wife and I are both glad we don't have to share my other laptop.

 

[Krumlink]

How old is old? Pentium chips which get too hot throttle down to crawling speed to save the chip.

If you think about it there arent that many moving parts on a laptop, hard disk or fan. Unless the laptop has been dropped you can rule out the HDD, if you are looking for a physical fault go for the fan!

Suprisingly this computer which I am using had ALL the fans die in it, and the core/CPU temperature would heat all the way up to 172F and cause a thermal shutdown

It still works after putting in a new case, PSU, and some oversized high CFM output fans

 

[Roff]

My wife's computer just went on strike again about an hour ago. Crap!
We shut it down. After it cools off, we'll see what happens.

 

[Pommie]

The reason I asked about running it without the battery is in case allowing it to fully discharge somehow caused an internal short therefore causing excess heating.

Mike.