Talk of The Villages Florida - Dell computer slow down

Talk of The Villages Florida (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/)

- Computer questions (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/computer-questions-92/)

- - Dell computer slow down (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/computer-questions-92/dell-computer-slow-down-346638/)

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.

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.

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.

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulat585 (Post 2288888)

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.

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.

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

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulat585 (Post 2288888)

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by biker1 (Post 2288917)

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulat585 (Post 2288888)

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.

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!