Slow and laggy laptop

PeterKT

New Member
Hey guys,

After looking all over the internet for answers with no luck what so ever, I've been forced to write in a forum like this - I really hope that you can help me.

The past few weeks or so I've been having a lot of problems with my almost brand new laptop. It's an Dell XPS 13 (2015), with an Intel Quad-core I7-5500U CPU and 8 gigs of RAM. Lately it has been performing really laggy and slow. I have another laptop I use for work with a worse processor than my own, and it is performing a lot more snappy.

Just some examples: In chrome pages takes AGES to load, and when the page is loaded it feels laggy and unresponding at times. Small online games have massive frame drops and lags like crazy.

When looking at the performance tab in task manager, the CPU seems to be locked at 0,77 GHz, even though it should be able to run at 2,4GHz. What can cause this? What can I do to boost it and make the computer responsive and actually usuable? Or does it have nothing to do with the CPU?

I've tried updating my BIOS, as I've recently upgraded to Windows 10, and I've tried to delete all unnecessary programs and files, but nothing seems to work.

I really hope you can help me with this, as I'm very frustrated that such an expensive purchase doesn't perfrom how it should.

Best regards,
Peter
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Sounds like a hardware issue - test RAM and hard drive. You can test the RAM using Memtest86, the tool you use to test the hard drive will depend on the manufacturer of the hard drive.
 

PeterKT

New Member
I did make a hardware diagnostic through dell's System Detect software, which didn't find any problems with the hardware. I'll try the Memtest.
There are 2 Samsung SSD's in the laptop.
Sounds like a hardware issue - test RAM and hard drive. You can test the RAM using Memtest86, the tool you use to test the hard drive will depend on the manufacturer of the hard drive.
 

PeterKT

New Member
Yup test the memory with Memtest86 for a few hours. It's on Hiren's Boot CD which can be downloaded here: http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

Burn the ISO to a CD and boot off it, or use Rufus to create a bootable USB drive: https://rufus.akeo.ie/

I'll need to get myself an USB then, as the laptop doesn't have a CD-drive. How much space should there be on the USB that I buy?

And is there anything else you'll recommend I try? :)

Thanks for the help so far, Spirit
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
I'll need to get myself an USB then, as the laptop doesn't have a CD-drive. How much space should there be on the USB that I buy?

And is there anything else you'll recommend I try? :)

Thanks for the help so far, Spirit
It only needs to be very small. I think I have it on a 2GB USB stick but the ISO itself is about 500MB so anything bigger than 500MB will be fine.

It's best to do one thing at a time so let's see if the RAM is causing issues and if not then we can perhaps try removing one of your SSDs, though if they're in RAID-0 you will need to back up your data before you remove one of the drives and install Windows fresh on the single SSD in the laptop.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
I would also suggest doing the following and post the logs to make sure you don't have any malware on your system.

1.

Please download AdwCleaner by Xplode onto your Desktop.



•Please close all open programs and internet browsers.
•Double click on adwcleaner.exe to run the tool.
•Click on Scan.
•After the scan you will need to click on clean for it to delete the adware.
•Your computer will be rebooted automatically. A text file will open after the restart.
•Please post the content of that logfile in your reply.
•You can find the logfile at C:\AdwCleaner[Sn].txt as well - n is the order number.

2.

Please download Junkware Removal Tool to your desktop.

•Shutdown your antivirus to avoid any conflicts.
•Very important that you run the tool in this manner:
Right-mouse click JRT.exe and select Run as administrator
Do NOT just double-click it.
•The tool will open and start scanning your system.
•Please be patient as this can take a while to complete.
•On completion, a log (JRT.txt) is saved to your desktop and will automatically open.
•Post the contents of JRT.txt in your next message.

3.

Please download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and save it to your desktop.
  • Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.
  • At the end, be sure a checkmark is placed next to
    • Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
    • and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
  • then click Finish.
  • If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version. Please keep updating until it says you have the latest version.
  • Once the program has loaded, select Perform quick scan, then click Scan.
  • When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
  • Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
  • A log will be saved automatically which you can access by clicking on the Logs tab within Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

If for some reason Malwarebytes will not install or run please download and run Rkill.scr, Rkill.exe, or Rkill.com. If you are still having issues running rkill then try downloading these renamed versions of the same program.

EXPLORER.EXE
IEXPLORE.EXE
USERINIT.EXE
WINLOGON.EXE

But DO NOT reboot the system and then try installing or running Malwarebytes. If Rkill (which is a black box) appears and then disappears right away or you get a message saying rkill is infected, keep trying to run rkill until it over powers the infection and temporarily kills it. Once a log appears on the screen, you can try running malwarebytes or downloading other programs.

Please post the log that Malwarebytes displays on your screen.

4.

Download OTL to your Desktop


•Double click on the icon to run it. Make sure all other windows are closed and to let it run uninterrupted.
•Click on Minimal Output at the top
•Click the Quick Scan button. Do not change any settings unless otherwise told to do so. The scan wont take long.
◦When the scan completes, it will open two notepad windows. OTL.Txt and Extras.Txt. These are saved in the same location as OTL. Just post the OTL.txt file in your reply.

then post the logs from the following 4 programs.

1. Adwcleaner
2. Junkware removal tool
3. Malwarebytes
4. OTL
 

PeterKT

New Member
Hey John,

Thank you so much for this thorough guide.
I will do all the steps tomorrow after work, and then post the logs.

Best regards,
Peter
 
Top