Laptop slows down: Try running it without Internet connection?

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My laptop (HP Pavilions dm1), running on Windows 7, gets slower and slower, I assume because of all the secret software which sneaks in when I am connected to the internet. I can speed it up by doing a factory reset, but re-installing all the software is very tedious and can take up to two days. I last did this six months ago, but it is now back to very slow running again.

I am thinking of getting a second laptop, or maybe tablet which I will use for internet browsing, email, and managing ebooks. If this one slows down, it should then be easy to re-install the operating system.

I will then do a factory reset on the current laptop, install the software again. Some of this requires it to be connected to internet but one I have done this, I propose to disable the internet connection. If I need downloaded from the internet, I propose to transfer these on a USB stick. This should then not slow down, as it is no longer connected to the internet.

The programs which I use which do not need live access to the internet are (1) word processing (2) spreadsheets (3) databases (4) money management (5) photoprocessing (6) family history (7) mp3 file editing. Possibly others.

It seems like a very old-fashioned approach but I’m not sure else to do. I wonder if anyone else has done this. Or this there another solution?

Ant advice welcome.

PS. I am using Avast anti-virus.

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epzcaw,

Get a copy of AutoRuns from SysInternals. You can use this to find the software that is starting at boot and disable it. HTH :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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I’ve done that but have no idea what I should disable and what I should leave alone.

Any help welcome

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I’ve done that but have no idea what I should disable and what I should leave alone.

Any help welcome

For Autoruns, I only pay attention to what is under the Logon tab. Here’s a screenshot of my settings, which are rather lean:

38926-Autoruns-selections

I use the free avast antivirus software on an eight year old computer and everything works fine. Here’s a screenshot of the modules I install, which I keep to a minimum:

38927-avast-antivirus-setup

Avast used to have a cloud function, and when the computer was disconnected from the internet, that cloud function would suddenly start consuming enormous computer resources trying to find an internet connection. The latest version seems to have abandoned the cloud function. There used to be selections for it, but I see no evidence of it anymore. So, check to make sure you have the latest version of avast. For the free version starting on the main screen, go to Settings > Update > Program. If it says Current version, then you’re fine. If it says there is an update or new version, then follow through and obtain that.

Another post mentioned PUPs as a culprit. Avast used to have some PUPs scanning functions disabled in the default. I don’t know if that’s still the case, so check to make sure all are enabled. From the main screen, go to Settings > Active Protection > File System Shield > Customize > Sensitivity > Enable PUP and suspicious files. Do the same thing for the Web Shield. Also, do the same thing for the scan settings. From the main screen, go to Scan > Scan for viruses, and for each type of scan that you use go to Settings > Sensitivity > Enable PUP and suspicious files.

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epzcaw, Avast has really slowed my older laptop down over time with all the updates and upgrades. Also, if you’re not, try just running only one program at a time. Use windows task manager to check and see if any programs are working in the background. You can bring up task manager by right clicking on the task bar and selecting task manager from the menu. I have found a program called CCleaner to be very useful for cleaning crap out of my computers. It does a good reliable job and there’s a free version that works very well. I wouldn’t use the registry checker part of it unless you know what you’re doing. I haven’t had any problems at all with it and it is a very good cleanup program. Hope this helps, and good luck.

Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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I have tried CCleaner and it has not made any significant difference.
Yes, I am relucant to start playing about with the Registry as I know very little about that part of the system.
If I turn off programs using Task Manager, am I in danger of crashing the system? Or will it be ok once I restart?

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Run this MS Fixit for performance issues to see what it finds – click on the Detect and fix problems (Recommended) option http://support2.microsoft.com/mats/slow_windows_performance

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No, make sure you choose the Applications tab, and things you close should not cause a crash and you will be able to start it again if you need it.

Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Hi all,

Thank you all for your suggestions. I’m trying to respond one by one.

CE Scott – the only application running is my browser but there are loads of processes running (maybe 25?) -i have no idea what ost of them are, but don’t want to close them down and cause a crash.

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CE Scott – the only application running is my browser but there are loads of processes running (maybe 25?) -i have no idea what ost of them are, but don’t want to close them down and cause a crash.

epzcaw, 25 processes doesn’t sound excessive (depending on what they are). I run Firefox ver. 34 and task manager shows it using over 272 MB’s of memory right now. When I’m done with FF, it gets clicked off. Processes are something I wouldn’t recommend messing with unless it’s a last resort. It is rather hard to know what you’re looking at. The recommendations made by others on this thread are much safer and that’s what you want. One other thing you might check if you haven’t already is the size of your “Swap File”. If this is too small it may be slowing things down. Depending on how much hard drive space you have left, you may want to increase the swap file size. If your hard drive is getting pretty much full, that could be part of the problem too. Good luck!

Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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I’ve run the Microsoft fix program. It allowed me to stop various programs running at startup but when I restarted, Skype appeared again even though it was supposed to be removed. Don’t know about the others.
Doesn’t appear to have speeded the laptop up at all.
Over the last few months, I have tried a variety of solutions suggested online, but nothing seems to help.
This is why I am inclined to try to run two systems, one offline, and the other online. The offliine one should remain stable if all I ever add is pdf, jpeg, and maybe occasional doc and xls files.
It will be much quicker to reset the online one as it will have only very limited software on it.

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Skype used to set an internal switch that tells Skype to load upon boot as a default. You can reset this in Skype itself. I suspect that a Skype update may reset that switch again.

As a more general solution, why don’t you take a hard drive image after resetting your PC back to factory specs and re-installing all of your applications? This will avoid having to re-install all of the applications again.

Kevin

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Skype used to set an internal switch that tells Skype to load upon boot as a default. You can reset this in Skype itself. I suspect that a Skype update may reset that switch again.
Kevin

Yes, I have noticed on every Skype update in the last year or so, they automatically check the box that tells it to run with system startup, but the attentive user will uncheck that box so that Sype only runs when one starts it explicitly.

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Skype used to set an internal switch that tells Skype to load upon boot as a default. You can reset this in Skype itself. I suspect that a Skype update may reset that switch again. I don’t use Skype a lot, but have reset this switch on a number of occasions in the past.

As a more general solution, why don’t you take a hard drive image after resetting your PC back to factory specs and re-installing all of your applications? This will avoid having to re-install all of the applications again.

Kevin

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epzcaw,

The DM1 has many different configurations. Could you please provide the exact specs of your hardware and the version of the OS as the documentation for the DM1 mentions Win Starter Ed? :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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It’s possible the Skype Updater service is activating it.

Go Start – type msconfig and press enter.

Under the Services tab check the box to Hide all MS services then scroll down to and uncheck the box for Skype Updater – Apply – OK and Restart as prompted.

While you’re in msconfig check to see what is checked under the Startup tab.

After the reboot go Start – type services.msc and press enter.

Scroll down to Skype Updater and check to see if it displays as Disabled.

If it isn’t, right click on it and select Properties where you can change its Start up type in the dropdown box, although I’m not sure how much that would slow your Internet down if it’s constantly checking for updates.

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I don’t think Skype is the problem as I only recently re-installed it, and the problem has been longstanding.

It is not even easy to measure or quantify the speed. I opened a 48 page PDF document and it took over a minute for it all to readable. I repeated this and it then opened in 8 secs. So not consistently slow. But I have the same problem with all programs and documents – the time taken is very variable but can be very tedious.

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I’ve seen Notebooks running slow and many times it was because of the settings for cutting the CPU speed when on battery only. Running on AC power wouldn’t restore the CPU speed to the max. Right-click Computer/My Computer/This PC and click Properties, see what speed is shown. I’ve seen a 1.86GHz Notebook slowed to less than 800Mhz. Power Options should have settings that can be changed.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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I’ve looked at the properties page and the only thing I can find relating to speed is
AMD with E-450 APU with Radeon(tm) HD graphics 1.65GHz

It gives “Window Experience Rating” as 3.9.

Should I be looking at a different page?

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That speed of 1.65GHz appears to be normal for your Notebook. Many Notebooks don’t have the same performance level of Desktops although they both do mostly the same thing except fall down a bit when doing powerful gaming.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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Whenever you factory reset a computer you end up with all of the bloatware that the vendors preinstall such as trial programs for Office, an AV program or other programs that you may never use – but if in doubt leave or you can run Decrapifier.

http://pcdecrapifier.com/ (Click on Download in the menu bar)

Using a 3rd party Uninstaller is the best method of getting rid of these programs – I use IObit Uninstaller which does a deep scan for the bits that Windows Uninstall generally leaves behind. http://www.iobit.com/advanceduninstaller.html

If you do decide to give IObit a go, look out for the small box for Drive Booster to uncheck as it’s installing – if you miss it then you can use IObit to uninstall it.

If you’ve unchecked any boxes in msconfig for any of these programs, then recheck their boxes before uninstalling as you’ll end up with orphaned files.

From the factory reset, all of your drivers will be out of date and going to the computer’s support site to check for updates could help performance.

http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/support.html

If it gives you one for your AMD graphics and after installing it, it puts a red hue on your screen, you can go into Device Manager/Display adapters – right click on the Radeon HD – select Properties and under the Driver tab you can select Roll back driver.

Go Start – type %temp% and press enter.

If that is overpopulated with files, that will cause a severe slowdown.

To remove those click on Organize – Select all – Organize – Delete – Confirm then check the box and click on Skip.

That would normally just leave the Debug file but if there are others left, repeat the steps and then empty the recycle Bin.

Go Start – type disk cleanup and right click on Disk Cleanup and select Run as administrator then follow the prompts.

Letting it delete the default items is sufficient and this should clean out a few GB from the HDD.

When you’ve done that, go Start – type disk defragmenter and press enter – then click on Analyze – you may have to uncheck the box for the scheduled defrag.

After having had a clean out, it will probably show a % of fragmentation – click on Defragment Disk and wait for it to do its thing and then see if there’s any improvement in performance.

You may also want to check the items under the Startup tab in msconfig again of which you don’t really need any and as with all computers, it’s best to completely shut them down now and again.

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I personally love Comodos Kill Switch program and run it on my…wow, almost ten year old HP Pavillion laptop. I use two screens, one (laptop) has whatever I’m actively doing, the other (external) is split between Kill Switch and a Ice Dragon window for my wireless router set to the network traffic screen. I can see what’s happening on the laptop, and also see the network load.

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Go back to the Task Manager, and select the Performance tab. Look at the memory use. If it is using more than 90% of physical memory, then go to the Processes tab, and see which processes are using a lot of memory. There is a good chance the biggest user will be a browser.

I’m not saying that this is the problem, but it is easy to check.

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Memory use is 1.36Gb. Computer memory is 4GB.

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How many Quick Launch icons? If any, what are they? That could be adding to the slow-down.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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Hi Sudo15,

Than you for all the suggestions. I have run the decrapifier and the iobit programs, but don’t think they have made any difference.

I have tried to produce some objective measurements of speed so have compared a few actions on the HP with a Dell Inspiron laptop bought in 2005 which is running Windows Vista

I did a restart on both and then opened Word (2007). The times taken to be ready to start typing

Dell Vista – 1:54mins HP Windows 7 – 3:24mins

Time to open up and get to the bottom the same PDF document

Dell Vista – 3s | HP windows – 20s

Time to open and get to the bottom of the same Word document

Dell Vista – 3s | HP Windows 7 – 14s

Of course, this would suggest that I should revert to the old laptop. I only replaced because I wanted something smaller and lighter. But seems like an even more perverse solution than running two computers in parallel, one online, one off line

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Did you clear the %temp% folder and empty the Recycle Bin and have you been to HP support to check for any driver updates and have you defragged ?

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Story so far:

I’ve run Autoruns from Sysinternals
I’ve run Fixit from http://support2.microsoft.com/mats/s…ws_performance
I’ve run the decrapifier from http://pcdecrapifier.com/
I’ve run iObit unintaller from http://www.iobit.com/advanceduninstaller.html
I went to http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/support.html to check AMD driver. The version there pre-dates my laptop.
I deleted all the %temp% files
I cleared the Recycle bin
I defragmented the hard disk.
My HDD is only half full – 149GB used, 123GB free
I removed everything from the start-up menu except Avast

I then re-started the laptop, and it took just short of 4 minutes for me to open Word and have it ready to add text.

It took 20 seconds to open and be able to scroll through a PDF document.

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Since you’ve made every reasonable effort and performance is still slow may i suggest another possibility? Your hard drive may be wearing out. Based on the total amount of space in use on your hard drive i recommend that you buy an inexpensive SSD (solid state drive). Right now you can get a 240GB SSD from Crucial, PNY, Sandisk or other for around $89 with free shipping. Check out Newegg.com or Amazon.com or TigerDirect.com or even Staples.com for a bargain deal. You’ll need to either clone (copy) the contents of your existing hard drive onto the new SSD or, alternatively, make the effort to re-install Windows afresh plus all programs. Either way your system will surely and certainly run MUCH faster. SSD makers offer free cloning software for download on their websites, or you can try the free and easy to use Macrium Reflect software for cloning the system. Personally, i’d recommend doing a fresh install of Windows on the brand new SSD. Replacing the old drive is fairly easy even if you’re non-technical. HP support website probably has a video tutorial or step-by-step printed instructions for replacing the hard drive. Or, go to Youtube.com and find a video there. Or, buy from a store like Staples and maybe they’ll install the SSD for you. Everything else you’ve tried has failed. It’s gotta be your ol’ hard drive!! P.S. Did you try blowing the dust out of the laptop’s air vents with a can of compressed air? If dust buildup leads to overheating then the laptop’s processor will throttle itself down to a much slower speed to prevent damage.

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Wow. You would think after doing all that you’ve done it would be faster. It seems as though some program running in the background is draining processor and memory resources. In all likelihood your Avast antivirus is the culprit. Not that Avast is not a good antivirus program, but does a LOT of things and can be a real resource hog. Try going through all the settings on the Avast program and see if there might be something that runs all the time that you don’t really need. The Processes and Services part of Task Manager might have it listed. You can disable services that you may not need, but it’s better if you can do it within the actual program. 4 minutes to open a Word document is slow! Hope things work out for you.

Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Avast Software Updater can be turned off. Grimefighter can be turned off. Sandbox can be turned off. Also, every shield and scan has their own report file, I think turned off by default, if you want any recent report, and not a history, simply set report from append to overwrite. I have the Pro/Premium version because of greater configuration / settings control. Samo samo about turning things down or off regarding 3rd party firewall, malware-fighters, etc.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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My laptop (HP Pavilions dm1), running on Windows 7, gets slower and slower, I assume because of all the secret software which sneaks in when I am connected to the internet. I can speed it up by doing a factory reset, but re-installing all the software is very tedious and can take up to two days. I last did this six months ago, but it is now back to very slow running again.

I am thinking of getting a second laptop, or maybe tablet which I will use for internet browsing, email, and managing ebooks. If this one slows down, it should then be easy to re-install the operating system.

I will then do a factory reset on the current laptop, install the software again. Some of this requires it to be connected to internet but one I have done this, I propose to disable the internet connection. If I need downloaded from the internet, I propose to transfer these on a USB stick. This should then not slow down, as it is no longer connected to the internet.

The programs which I use which do not need live access to the internet are (1) word processing (2) spreadsheets (3) databases (4) money management (5) photoprocessing (6) family history (7) mp3 file editing. Possibly others.

It seems like a very old-fashioned approach but I’m not sure else to do. I wonder if anyone else has done this. Or this there another solution?

Ant advice welcome.

PS. I am using Avast anti-virus.

For many years I refused to pay for cloning or imaging software. Now there are quite a few that can do that at no cost. I use free Macrium Reflect. I bought a cheap backup external drive for $29 years ago. Still using it. Make a new image once a month. To keep files updated. You can image the hard drive after reinstalling the system and software that you want on it. And then when it slows down you can use that image to bring it back to where it was faster. Minus any updates or change in software since then. It takes maybe 6 or 8 minutes to restore. An absolute time saver. Not hours or days. Depending on the size of your hard drive you can probably get by on a cheap 80gb or 160gb drive. My image is 13.5 gb. I have several on it in case one should falter or not work. Never has yet.

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You might have done this already but, if not, backup your system, get an SSD drive that fits your computer. (Most laptops are the same size, but check.) Replace your regular hard drive with the SSD and restore.

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I also own an HP dm1 laptop (or is it mini-laptop or netbook?). And 2 more HP-dm1 I ‘manage’ for friends/relatives.
Yes, I have slow down problems and I hope my experience helps.

1.HP installs its own Power Management software that runs automatically.
2.Windows (I have W7 x64) has its own Power Management that also runs automatically.
These programs help the laptop for extended time use under pure battery power. If, you are like us, using the laptop as a ‘portable, quick packing, always plugged-in desktop’, then set the laptop at max speed and best performance.
Two basic slow-down culprits:
1. Laptop power management(s)
2. Number of background+running programs, including auto-update, auto-backup.

#1 should be tested/modified first. I’ll let others help you on #2.
For #1:
Do *NOT* UNinstall HP Power Management (a group of software)! This includes fan speed management, CPU clock throttle (usually make slower clock speed) and others.
Yes I did make a mistake: uninstalling HP Power Management (I’ll call it HPPM) and saw a slow-down problem that I could only fix by restoring to factory original condition.
The slow-down depends on WHEN you uninstall the HPPM! When HPPM throttles down CPU clock, and/or other power savings are active, the uninstalling keep the PC that way! I could not get back to 100% speed and full performance, hence my caution. Maybe there is a quicker way to fix it (short of restoring) but I did not know how.
Strangely, select Power Management by Win7’s rather than HP’s did not help. Maybe there is hardware level access by HPPM. Just guessing.
Solution:
1. Pop up the the HPPM. In it select full CPU clock speed (100% performance). Select full fan speed. (You’d want max cooling for the full-speed CPU.) Basically, you are disabling HPPM, in a way.
2. Under admin rights, go to Control Panel-Power Options.
Select “High Performance”, rather than HPPM. Then on the right of it click “Change plan settings”. The basic setting is: turn off monitor at N minutes, etc. Click “Advanced power settings”. Set everything to max performance, especially CPU power management. Then click the “Save” button to save the settings to a name such as “My Custom Plan1”, or “Full Speed”.
Back to the Power Options Windows. Now you can see your own setting “My Custom Plan1” on the list. Select it. Close the window and get out of Control Panel.
Reboot and do a trial run.
If you did uninstall HPPM. You may have to restore to factory condition.
[If haven’t done already, make a Windows recovery USB pen drive or CD/DVD. Read details in HP manual or online.]
1. Image the *entire* drive.
2. Verify the image.
3. Do a factory restore:
a. Full power down (not Restart)
b. Power on
c. As soon as text is on screen, push ESC key (the Escape key). Use the laptop keyboard, not the external wired/wireless keyboard. The external keyboard has a delayed activation at boot up.
d. Select factory restore.

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@epzcaw:

From what I gather here your computer is likely full of PuPs. And since you use it always the same way it gets regularly re-infected (shocked? please keep reading).

An all too common way of getting this junk is described here. And some visual examples of other common tricks are here.

All this PuP junk can usually be removed. I suggest you download AdwCleaner (please ONLY from here!) AdwCleaner is free.

Close all running programs and run AdwCleaner. If it finds ANYthing I feel justified in my shocking assumption that your computer gets re-infected quickly even after factory resets.

Any questions? Please feel free to contact me via the forum’s messaging capability. My email help is free.

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It’s been my observation that many users are not attentive…LOL

K

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It’s been my observation that many users are not attentive…

Too right mate!!! :D:

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I think that will always been the case if a person is being to hasty looking for an answer. They always want it straight away.

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Above post #37 does not contain any link.

The email that announced it DOES contain a link.

The link leads to an Iobit page advertising their products.

!. How did they do this? (No link, link)

2. IMHO Iobit is no good at all; for years I remove their stuff whenever I see it on a customer’s computer.

Comments welcome.

Happy New Year.

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Above post #37 does not contain any link.

The email that announced it DOES contain a link.

The link in the E-Mail Notification was to a 1-pixel by 1-pixel image, just a white dot in the middle. Probably was edited out.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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The link in the E-Mail Notification was to a 1-pixel by 1-pixel image, just a white dot in the middle. Probably was edited out.

Sorry, the email I got from WindowsSecrets DID CONTAIN A LINK.
I do not keep these forum notifications so I can’t produce proof.

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Try removing, fully, all your security software, and only run Microsoft Security Essentials. I have found this to be the one that least uses processor resources. Also disable or uninstall all the monitoring systems you seem to use . They all consume precious resources, too.

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Have a look at AutorunOrganizer from Chemtable (http://www.chemtable.com/autorun-organizer.htm). I previously used msconfig and Windows Services to find and stop them from auto-starting at boot – this tool also finds those started by registry entries.

This tool lists the programs involved – if your not sure what the program does, “Google” it. If still unsure, leave it and ask for assistance

Look for programs you have installed that you don’t want to start automatically at start up or updater’s for programs (you can manually run updates)

Of course, then there is malware that has been inadvertently installed which can be hard to stop running without removing it (have a look at Spybot and Malware Antibytes – I recently used SpyHunter 4 which I found better than those good “oldies”)

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One can just > Task Mgr > Startup tab & disable everything possible, which, is probably, ideally, all.

Only in Windows 8 or 10; not in Windows 7, which this thread was about.

Bruce

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Hi epzcaw, would be nice if you can update this thread and post if the tip given worked on your case.

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