Advice on servicing slow laptop

[Nate_007]

Hey guys,

Basically a user is complaining about their laptop being slow (not functional) and programs not responding. The user left a note just stating that. They will be on vacation and I will not be able to interview the user and get more information about it.

I just wanted to know what other techs would do with this type of issue beside the usual scan for virus/ccleaner/defrag etc... I don't really want to delete what I may think are junks, it may not be for the user.

Thanks guys!

 

[Gunbuster]

Run diagnostics to see if HDD is going bad. It's most likely that or virus/spyware.

Boot off a live CD or USB and confirm the laptop runs ok like that. If so offer to backup user data and restore OS. (For $$$ of course)

 

[Ketchup]

It is too hard to say much of anything at this point. You want a scheme that is catered to your personal experience with the laptop. Are there tons of toolbars loading at startup? Is there a virus on the machine? Heavily fragmented hard drive?

Start with your original plan, and then go from there based on what you find. Have you even touched the laptop at this point to see where the slowness is occurring?

 

[Nate_007]

I appreciate the responses guys. I just started working on the laptop just this morning. Basically, its weird. The performance of the laptop overall is slow and sluggish, even accessing files. Opening folders would often give me "not responding" message. I can barely do anything, moving around takes million years. Even booting in safe mode takes even longer.

I swapped a different hard drive from another user to her laptop and performance seems fine on that hard drive. It may be her hard drive, so I'm just waiting for the replacement hard drive to arrive.

 

[Ketchup]

I appreciate the responses guys. I just started working on the laptop just this morning. Basically, its weird. The performance of the laptop overall is slow and sluggish, even accessing files. Opening folders would often give me "not responding" message. I can barely do anything, moving around takes million years. Even booting in safe mode takes even longer.

I swapped a different hard drive from another user to her laptop and performance seems fine on that hard drive. It may be her hard drive, so I'm just waiting for the replacement hard drive to arrive.

Based on what you posted, I don't know how a bad hard drive can be an assumption, unless the user put absolutely nothing on the hard drive.

What does Task Manager look like? Anything using a lot of memory, a lot of CPU? Is there plenty of from memory?

 

[Nate_007]

Based on what you posted, I don't know how a bad hard drive can be an assumption, unless the user put absolutely nothing on the hard drive.

What does Task Manager look like? Anything using a lot of memory, a lot of CPU? Is there plenty of from memory?

Everything is slow, accessing files, read/write, booting etc. I have another exact the same laptop, I swapped the hard drives and results are the same. The other hard drive is working perfectly. I can't troubleshoot anything in Windows because the system is OVERALL unresponsive.

I already tried going to Task Manager, it would load for a very long time. Then it would freeze and give me "not responding message". Even restarting or shutting down takes million years, had to hard reset. I really can't do anything inside Windows, every folder I open it would not respond. I can't even run the anti-virus, nothing. All the same in safe mode.

It could be Windows related, but I don't have repair disk for the laptop. We only have an image file for the laptop. Any suggestions I can try out at this point?

 

[Ketchup]

Try creating a new user account and see if it runs any better.

I swapped the hard drives and results are the same.

Can you elaborate on this? Are you saying it is just as slow and unresponsive on another drive, that presumably works fine on another machine?

 

[Nate_007]

Try creating a new user account and see if it runs any better.



Can you elaborate on this? Are you saying it is just as slow and unresponsive on another drive, that presumably works fine on another machine?

Sorry, so basically I took the 'unresponsive' hard drive and put it to another exact the same laptop. And the results are the same, it still unresponsive.
I just did this to make sure it's not a hardware issue with the laptop.

I really couldn't do anything in Windows, its just slow and unresponsive, even pressing the Start/Window button, it would take ages for the pane to show up. I did not bother trying to create a user because just navigating around Windows is not possible. Never really seen this type of issue before actually.

I know how a slow laptop feels like, but this one I would say its almost unusable. Its not laggy, but just not responsive. If I click C drive, it would take probably few minutes to show its contents. When I open apps, it would give me "not responding" message.

 

[Ketchup]

OK, I know what you are saying now.

Couple things I would try next:
1. Try booting the machine in safe mode. If more responsive, crate a new user from there. If not,
2. Put the laptop in another machine and test for malware. Before doing this, make sure anything the user wants backed up is taken care of.

 

[Gunbuster]

Salvage any user files you can using the drive hooked up to one of your systems or in a USB dock before it gets any worse.

Reload laptop on new HDD. (SSD if they can afford it)

 

[paul878]

You have already isolated the problem to the HD. At this point what you should so is run hardware diagnostic on the hard drive. If hd is ok, reintall if not replace and reinstall.

 

[Ketchup]

Any updates Nate_007?