win7 Windows 7 Performance Issues

[cbrookhart]

Last night, for some unknown reason, my computer became unresponsive. I would try to launch Firefox, and it wouldn't open. In an attempt to find out what was going on, I pressed ctrl+alt+del hoping to see a message that Firefox wasn't responding, but nothing happened when I pressed ctrl+alt+del. I ended up having to do a hard restart. After restarting, Windows displayed a prompt asking if I wanted to run the Windows repair or start Windows normally. I chose the repair option, but it seemed to get stuck. I did another hard restart and again selected repair with no results. I did another hard restart and selected the start Windows normally option, but got no results. I did one last hard restart and selected the repair option again. This time, I let it run overnight. When I checked on it again, Windows was in the process of running a repair check.

I have now since been able to at least get into Windows, but now I am finding that it's running extremely slow. Files are taking a long time to open and in some cases, Windows is showing that the application is not responding. Startup and shutdown also seem to be taking a long time to complete.

What do I need to do in order to get Windows back up and running the way it used to run?

[Kool Box]

I would run a hard drive test eg via Seagate Seatools and see if it finds any faulty sectors.

[devHead]

Have you run some kind of anti-virus scan? Check out what processes are running with Task Manager. Additionally, view your Event Viewer to see what new things might be running or starting that may be slowing things down.

If not that, it is possible that some hardware is failing. Perhaps a hard drive.

[cbrookhart]

I did notice that there were approximately 90 processes running. I don't know what the number was before I had these issues, but I definately don't think it was that high.

I really can't do anything with this computer other than login. The web browser stops responding when it's opened. Files won't open.

I really hope this isn't an indication of a hard drive failure.

[ArialBlue]

90 is a bit much, that means there is about 40 processes that you yourself installed and running (bad).

Maybe do a CLEAN BOOT,

Press WINKEY + R

A dialog should pop up

Type in "MSCONFIG" without quotes

Go to "Startup" TAB,

Press "Disable All" Button and then "Apply" Button

Go to "Services" TAB

Check "Hide all Microsoft Services" to hide all things you shouldn't disable

Click "Disable All" and click Apply

Reboot

Then scan your computer with AV

[cbrookhart]

I ended up taking the computer to Best Buy for evaluation. The hard drive light was steady rather than flickering. It took at least 10 minutes to get the computer started up.

I will have to spend the money to have a diagnostic run to determine if some software issue is causing this or if there is a hardware issue. The system responsiveness issue started yesterday and now the following day, I am having problems with opening files and applications. Prior to this, there were no issues.

[+Warwagon MVC]

90 is a bit much, that means there is about 40 processes that you yourself installed and running (bad).

I have 12 gb of ram and 120 processes! I have a lot of stuff running next to the clock. Looked at the m all and I use them all.

[cbrookhart]

Apparently it was the harddrive that failed, according to the Best Buy diagnostic. I primarily used this computer for school, and it also runs better than my XP computer. I just started a school course and have work on this now failed harddrive. I decided to have another harddrive put in. Am I going to be able to retrieve data from this drive and have it be connected to the computer as a second drive?

This computer is an HP and this is the second time I have had an issue with the hard drive. This computer was purchased when Windows 7 was released, so it isn't that old. How can the drive go bad so soon?

[mduren2445]

have either you or the Geek squad install the original hard drive as a slave (according to your post it was still running( but barely) when you took it in) and when you get the computer back up and running The FIRST thing you do it save your data to the new drive before it fails. Once you have the data you need then pull the bad drive so performance is not affected. Another thing you could do is to buy and usb enclosure for the bad drive and make an external drive out if it GOOD LUCK

[Detection]

Just stick it in as a 2nd drive and copy what you need across, if that still doesn't work, An overnight session with "Spinrite" should give you enough access time to copy what you need from it

I think I would have tried reinstalling Windows before trusting a shop to tell me the HDD was dead I would never trust a shop to tell me a HDD or any other hardware was faulty

[mduren2445]

as for the issue with the drive going bad so soon remember OEM drives are not always the best out there

[kiddingguy]

Got like a 90-95 processes running. Also 12 GB RAM.

CPU usage around 15%

Phys.memory about 26%

[+BudMan MVC]

"This computer was purchased when Windows 7 was released, so it isn't that old. How can the drive go bad so soon?"

So around Oct 22, 2009

Not that old?? Almost 3 years seems to me -- in computer years, which are even worse than dog years. That box is like 98 years old with Alzheimer's. ;)

Drives die, they all die - some sooner than later.. Now you might get lucky, I had an old 6GB drive that just ran and ran and ran in my router box. Finally retired that old p3 800mhz.. But drive was still kicking.

I ordered a drive while back, and powered it up all ok - and next day dead, had to RMA it.

Curious - are you the kind of person that powers your machine on and off all the time? I personally don't think that is good for the life of the drive, does your machine run hot? Again not good for the life of the drive.

But if you got almost 3 years out of it, now not great - but I would not say died young or before its time. If oem highly doubt it had 3 year warranty, but some retail have 3 to 5 years. Check with the maker of the drive to see if under warranty and you could get a replacement. But most likely it was only 1 year.

As to OEM drives not being as good as Retail -- that is just nonsense. They work just as well, and can last just as long.. That 6GB drive that was still going was OEM from compaq.

[Detection]

"This computer was purchased when Windows 7 was released, so it isn't that old. How can the drive go bad so soon?"

So around Oct 22, 2009

Not that old?? Almost 3 years seems to me -- in computer years, which are even worse than dog years. That box is like 98 years old with Alzheimer's. ;)

:laugh: So true

Curious - are you the kind of person that powers your machine on and off all the time? I personally don't think that is good for the life of the drive, does your machine run hot? Again not good for the life of the drive.

I always set my power profile to leave the HDD running for at least 240 minutes before spinning down for both lifespan and to stop the annoyance of having to wait for it to spin up every time I want to access a file

[mduren2445]

leaving your computer on 24/7 can cost you an extra $20+ a month on your power bill. Check this out

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2005/10/the-cost-of-leaving-your-pc-on.html and I had the same thing told to me by a friend who works in the power company

and the second reason not to is security..if you have a broadband connection and if you are on 24/7 you could be hacked

[+Warwagon MVC]

and the second reason not to is security..if you have a broadband connection and if you are on 24/7 you could be hacked

Router much?

[+BudMan MVC]

"leaving your computer on 24/7 can cost you an extra $20+ a month on your power bill."

Where did you come up with that.. Even that link you posted comes up with only about 7$ for normal PC using 65 watts.

You really need to do your own math!!

So my computer currently is using 73 watts - this is with my Monitor ON!! Now if I turn my monitor off it uses 40 watts.

So lets do some math. Lets bump it up to 85 watts just to say my box is actually doing something more than me typing this post.

So .085 kw * 24 hours = 2.04 Kwh per day * the even with taxes I pay 12.5 Cents per Kwh so that equals total for the month. 2.04 x 0.125 * 31 = $8 a month to leave my machine on 24/7. And don't even both to shut off my monitor or have it go into standby, etc. So no not paying anywhere near that to leave my PC running.. That would be worse case, which is not even $10 total.

So how exactly is it $20 MORE???

Lets say I only use my machine 2 hours a day not 24 so -- that works out to about 0.60 cents a month vs the $8, nobody ever said it was not going to cost more a month but its no where near $20.. Unless you got some box just sucking down the watts!!

So you have to do your own math on how much your use your machine a day vs leaving it on. Keep in mind if your not using it shut off your monitor yes, if you not using it have it go into standby sure. Nobody ever said any different, nor did I even suggest you should leave your machine on 24/7 -- I asked if shut his down.

You might want to actually read the post you linked too before you go spouting that it cost $20 more a month to leave a PC on 24/7

As to the getting hacked??? Yeah that would also be a where did you get that from??

[Daniel_Pooh]

Probably just bad luck coupled with a low quality drive, hard drives should be lasting over a decade.

[+BudMan MVC]

"hard drives should be lasting over a decade."

I think they should be 25 -- what they should be doing, and what they actually do is two completely different things ;) The tires on my car should last 500k miles but they don't. The light bulbs in your house should last 100 years, but they don't ;)

If they should be lasting 10 years, then the maker would be giving out 10 year warranties.. Show me one HDD maker that does this??? You can get some with 5 years.. But no where near 10.

You might say he got lucky that he got almost 3 years use out of it before it failed, if warranty is only 1 year. Saying something should last X years is very hard to do. Now if you look at all the drives made by specific maker, do the math of what they report for their MTBF, etc. Then sure there is going to be ones on the low end and some on the high end if we look at the total population. Without knowing what his specific drive was, what the MTBF stated by the maker, how he used his drive.. Was it run in hotter than it should be temps? Was it power cycled more than expected? What was the actual on time? etc.. etc.. Its impossible to say the drive is before or after its expected failure.

[Kami-]

leaving your computer on 24/7 can cost you an extra $20+ a month on your power bill. Check this out

http://www.codinghor...your-pc-on.html and I had the same thing told to me by a friend who works in the power company

and the second reason not to is security..if you have a broadband connection and if you are on 24/7 you could be hacked

$20? What're you using some form of beasty super computer? or a standard PC/Monitor you'd be lucky to run up half that!

Security? Seriously... geez

[mduren2445]

question? if your computer is on 24/7 and a good hacker finds your ip address (hard but not impossible) whats to stop a good hacker from getting in your pc or if this hacker finds the mac address of the router ? remember not all of us change mac address and if you use a internet service provided modem/ router you can't. Not posting where I got this info because I do not want to give anyone ideas

and depending on psu is where that $20+ comes from check this out

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/2404

personal experience when son was living with me just before he went to college, my average power bill was $50+ a month he was running pc from the time he got up till he went to bed (try tell a teenager to not play video games all day) minute he went to college my power bill dropped to $35 a month

as we all know the internet can be very dangerous and to me its like leaving your door unlocked in your digital house its just one more small step I take

[+BudMan MVC]

"whats to stop a good hacker from getting in your pc or if this hacker finds the mac address of the router"

For starters that would be the Router your behind not allowing any unsolicited traffic into your machines because its doing nat. Unless you have turned on remote management, that router would not be listening on any ports for a "hacker" to access in the first place. So your saying this hacker is going to hack the router without any service to connect to? Sure this is not out of the realm of possiblity. But I was say if that is the reason you turn off your computer/router your tin foil hat is a bit tight. What about when your ON it, this same hacker could just as well wait until you turn your devices on to hack you ;)

As to "finds the mac address of the router"

What?? :blink: Do you understand what a mac address is? From this statement I have to think no. So my mac address of my router is wan interface is 00:50:56:00:00:01

hac away!!! ;)

As to 20+ $ from your teenagers computer being on all the time.. And was his box sucking like 250 Watts constantly or something? No normal PC would draw anything close to that.. You can not look at the rating of the PSU and use that number, that is what its rated for -- now what your PC draws! If your actually interested pick up a killawatt meter and plug your devices into them to see what they draw and use over a period of time. http://www.p3interna....com/index.html

I don't doubt your elec bill dropped when your teenager left.. But lets not forget the lights they leave on, the extra dishes you have to wash, the extra cloths you have to wash/dry (elec appliances), the extra water they use (elec waterheater). The extra your AC has to work for having more warm bodies in the house, etc.

I find it hard to believe the only elec your kid was using was from his PC ;) And that it was sucking 250 watts plus 24/7

[cbrookhart]

I got a harddrive docking station and got most of my data back. There was one video that was in the video folder on the old hard drive. Now this video won't play and it won't transfer over to the new video folder. How is that all the data except for one video transferred over? Is the reason that the video won't transfer over or play because it just happens to be on the bad area of the drive?

[+BudMan MVC]

"Is the reason that the video won't transfer over or play because it just happens to be on the bad area of the drive?"

Very possible. If you can not read it to play it, then yeah its going to be hard to copy/move it as well.

you should feel lucky that you only lost one video, sure hope it was not a home movie type that can not replaced. You need to have a Back UP of all your critical files!