Dell computer slow down

[paulat585]

Hi Guys, I have a Dell Inspiron 15 which has been working well enough until Dell installed an update a few weeks ago. Now it is painfully slow to load in the morning. Took almost an hour this morning to open my Chrome browser. If I call up the task manager, I can close a few unneeded things to speed it up a little. I've used the Windows cleanup and the free AVG one. Task manager says my disk use is usually 100% but I don't know what that means. The other things on the Task Manager I can get down to about 65%. Any recommendations for things I can do on my own to help this problem? Thanks

[Bill14564]

Look at memory usage on the Task Manager; is that above 90%?

When mine have slowed down it has been due to running out of memory. Dozens of programs are trying to run and use memory but there isn't enough. The way the system handles this is to move some of the program out of memory and onto the disk. Then it swaps some of another program off the disk and into memory. It runs a little of the program that is in memory and then moves onto the next program. To make room, it now swaps the current program to disk and retrieves the next one back into memory. This causes the disk usage to hit 100% because it is constantly swapping programs into memory. All this takes time and causes the computer to run slowly.

It is suspicious that this started happening after Dell installed an update. If you were very behind in your Windows updates then that might explain some of it (newer versions use more memory).

It is possible, though not likely, that the Dell update is limiting the amount of memory Windows is allowed to use. For example, your system used to be able to use THIS much but after the update it is only allowed to use this much even though that is less than what is installed. That would be odd but not impossible.

Do you notice any new programs or services running that you didn't use before? Maybe Teams or Skype or some Update Service? These could have been enabled by the update and are now using a lot more memory than before.

You might tell the Task Manager to sort by memory to see if anything is using way too much. Be careful though, Firefox, mail tools, and certain other programs normally use a lot so it is difficult to tell whether they are using more than they should. On my system, Firefox is using 1.8GB, about four times as much as the next highest user and 20 times as much as most other processes.

For me, the rest is mostly magic. I stop some processes that I feel I don't really need and get the system to work reasonably well while I order a new one. Not the best solution perhaps but easier than finding a computer tech to figure out why my ten year old system is running slowly.

[villagetinker]

I would check the wireless performance on task manager, it is possible that the update screwed up the driver. Also, I have seen the hard disk at 100%, and the computer really slows down, in my case this appears to be antimalware and some other windows programs working in the background. I did change the timing of the updates to avoid when I am typically using the computer.

[Arctic Fox]

Hi Guys, I have a Dell Inspiron 15 which has been working well enough until Dell installed an update a few weeks ago.

What version of Windows are you running, and is it 32-bit or 64-bit?

How much RAM do you have?

It may not help, but try installing and running the free version of ccleaner (I have used it for years and it is very safe).

Odd that an update would cause such a major slowdown, but if you keep turning off or disabling or uninstalling the background programs that you don't use that may help a bit. Just be careful that you have backed up your data, and have a restore point so you can go back one step if uninstalling a program causes a further problem.

[Pinball wizard]

Hi Guys, I have a Dell Inspiron 15 which has been working well enough until Dell installed an update a few weeks ago. Now it is painfully slow to load in the morning. Took almost an hour this morning to open my Chrome browser. If I call up the task manager, I can close a few unneeded things to speed it up a little. I've used the Windows cleanup and the free AVG one. Task manager says my disk use is usually 100% but I don't know what that means. The other things on the Task Manager I can get down to about 65%. Any recommendations for things I can do on my own to help this problem? Thanks

If you are saying that Task Mgr. says that disk utilization is 100% you have a runaway application. If you click on the work DISK you can sort the applications by disk utilization. Find the runaway app and let us know what it is.

[Topspinmo]

Windows like model t ford compared to Apple Mac.

[biker1]

What is a little bit funny about that statement is that the Mac's OS is essentially Unix, which was first developed at Bell Labs in 1969 and therefore predates Windows. Regardless, once I retired I purged anything with Windows from my home and I often suggest that others do the same.

Windows like model t ford compared to Apple Mac.

[Topspinmo]

What is a little bit funny about that statement is that the Mac's OS is essentially Unix, which was first developed at Bell Labs in 1969 and therefore predates Windows. Regardless, once I retired I purged anything with Windows from my home and I often suggest that others do the same.


Agree, IMO gates should be arrested for selling that slow locking up full of malware antiquated software.

[blueash]

When you do an update, is almost always true that the update first created a restore point for you. If you are sure this is related to the update not working well, you might consider doing a restore back to what you had before the update.

[PJ_Smiley]

Norton 360 and Norton Ultimate Utilities

[JoelJohnson]

If you don't really need the power of Windows (Windows only programs like Quicken, Adobe, etc) consider Linux Mint. I got rid of Windows 7 years ago and put Linux Mint on the PC. I helped a few people convert and they will never go back to Windows.

[Babubhat]

Glary utilities free version. Or roll back the update via restore and see if the problem resolves

[paulat585]

Thank you all! I do think the problem was a runaway app. I fixed it by accident this morning. Don't know exactly what I did except for deleting some mov. files, but the disk usage is now ranging from 0-60%. Will keep all your other suggestions for later.

[bopat]

100% disk usage is either something scanning the hard drive, like antivirus, which should in theory stop at some point, or something using lots of memory, in which case it's using disk to page or swap programs from memory to disk.

Updates to windows and other programs generally use more memory as they add new features and bugs to fix with more updates to continue the cycle ;)

You can bring up activity monitor and sort by memory utilization, see which programs are using the most memory, and if you really need them.

Then go into the control panel -> add/remove programs, and get rid of all the stuff you don't use, then reboot.

Also, if you have an SSD or NVMe solid state disk (non-spinning), they generally slow down as they get full. Get rid of stuff you aren't using (go into the disk properties and do the disk cleanup to get rid of temporary files and saved system states and update backups).

[Justputt]

Hi Guys, I have a Dell Inspiron 15 which has been working well enough until Dell installed an update a few weeks ago. Now it is painfully slow to load in the morning. Took almost an hour this morning to open my Chrome browser. If I call up the task manager, I can close a few unneeded things to speed it up a little. I've used the Windows cleanup and the free AVG one. Task manager says my disk use is usually 100% but I don't know what that means. The other things on the Task Manager I can get down to about 65%. Any recommendations for things I can do on my own to help this problem? Thanks

I use Norton Utilities to go through my system. It regularly cleans up junk files, repairs registry issues, frees up memory, and alerts you to unnecessary Startup files.

If the update was major, there could just be a lot of baggage that needs to be cleaned up. Bill Gates has yet to meet the processor he couldn't bog down.

[Steban]

You can restore your original system performance by wiping the hard drive and reinstalling Windows. Don’t install games or other crap software on it.

[BlueStarAirlines]

I sometimes have the same issue-100% hard drive usage and its usually Malwarebytes performing a scan. The schedule was for it to scan overnight, but since the PC is shutdown it performs it first thing at boot up. I rescheduled it for in the middle of the day and that addressed the large use of hard drive resources first thing at boot up.

[Berwin]

I think it is important to note that the OP stated that Dell installed an update, not Windows. I also have an Inspiron 15 and the Dell utility occasionally tells me it has an updated driver to install. These are usually related to the disk drive (SSD), USB ports, graphics, WiFi, etc. OP, glad your system finally started running better.

[thevillager1988]

Forgive me if I am repeating ... but I didn't read all the responses. I had the same issue some time back, and took my computer to the best buy geeks. They determined that my computer was too old to support the update I took, and they put me back to the latest version my computer could support. They cleaned up some other stuff too. I hope this is helpful.

[oneclickplus]

Hi Guys, I have a Dell Inspiron 15 which has been working well enough until Dell installed an update a few weeks ago. Now it is painfully slow to load in the morning. Took almost an hour this morning to open my Chrome browser. If I call up the task manager, I can close a few unneeded things to speed it up a little. I've used the Windows cleanup and the free AVG one. Task manager says my disk use is usually 100% but I don't know what that means. The other things on the Task Manager I can get down to about 65%. Any recommendations for things I can do on my own to help this problem? Thanks

Retired computer tech here.

Arm chair diagnosis: it is almost certainly your hard drive. The 100% you see is not a space issue. It is reporting that the drive is 100% active; that is, it is performing 100% of the time. So, by extension, the drive at 100% activity is your performance bottle neck. Any recent update by Dell or Microsoft is not the cause of the problem. A sudden slowdown almost surely indicates that the drive is failing. But, it hasn't failed yet so you have time to act. Replace it now before it collapses.

Solution: replace the drive with a new Solid State Drive (SSD). Buy a Crucial mx500 series on Amazon of sufficient size to hold the contents of your current drive with room to grow. It comes with a free software download to image copy your failing drive to the new SSD. Once that process completes, you just replace the current drive with the SSD. All your programs / files / settings are intact.

Done this 100's of times for customers. Not local to help you at this time though.

YouTube (video) is your friend for any details on how to replace the drive in your laptop.

[bobchap]

Before trying anything drastic like wiping the hard drive or installing a new disk drive, I would start with simple things first. Since you have a dell you must have their Dell Support Assist app installed. Try running this app to see if it will fix your problem.

Like someone already said, go to an earlier restore point before the update. Some times updates to not install correctly. If you don't have an earlier restore point to go to try going is settings, Update and Security, view update history, uninstall updates. Then uninstall the latest update.

If those do not work, run command prompt as an administrator. type in the following:
sfc /scannow and press enter. It will scan your system files and replace any system files that are corrupt.

Go to the link below to read more about the scan:

Use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files - Microsoft Support (https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system-files-79aa86cb-ca52-166a-92a3-966e85d4094e#:~:text=The%20sfc%20%2Fscannow%20comm and%20will,the%20Windows%20operating%20system%20fo lder).

The above is where I would start. Computer problems can be very frustrating. Good luck.

[BettyInFL]

When my Dell does it's slow down, I run the Dell SupportAssist app.

It can take awhile if you haven't done it in awhile. I usually select all to run, then head for bed. Next morning all is usually well.

[nn0wheremann]

Hi Guys, I have a Dell Inspiron 15 which has been working well enough until Dell installed an update a few weeks ago. Now it is painfully slow to load in the morning. Took almost an hour this morning to open my Chrome browser. If I call up the task manager, I can close a few unneeded things to speed it up a little. I've used the Windows cleanup and the free AVG one. Task manager says my disk use is usually 100% but I don't know what that means. The other things on the Task Manager I can get down to about 65%. Any recommendations for things I can do on my own to help this problem? Thanks
First, install a lightweight browser such as Opera. Then remove Chome and reinstall the latest version. Then go to the Dell website and download the correct drivers and install them.

[Notsocrates]

What is a little bit funny about that statement is that the Mac's OS is essentially Unix, which was first developed at Bell Labs in 1969 and therefore predates Windows. Regardless, once I retired I purged anything with Windows from my home and I often suggest that others do the same.

Download the update again. It might have been incomplete and the computer is looking for something that is missing.

[DAVES]

Hi Guys, I have a Dell Inspiron 15 which has been working well enough until Dell installed an update a few weeks ago. Now it is painfully slow to load in the morning. Took almost an hour this morning to open my Chrome browser. If I call up the task manager, I can close a few unneeded things to speed it up a little. I've used the Windows cleanup and the free AVG one. Task manager says my disk use is usually 100% but I don't know what that means. The other things on the Task Manager I can get down to about 65%. Any recommendations for things I can do on my own to help this problem? Thanks

Far from a computer expert. My computer also a dell. Mine is ten years old.
Some said buy a new one and have the data transferred. The tech that I trust told me it needs a new hard drive. I read the life of a hard drive s 2-10years.

Again I not a computer expert. I had the hardrive replaced and my computer is as fast, if not faster than it ever was.

[paulat585]

Hi, Just an update on what worked. I ran ccleaner & it looked like Dell Support Assist was the main culprit, so have put that as well as some other apps to sleep & now the computer is working well. Thank you all!