Why Is My New Laptop So Slow And CPU So High?

[joshl_1995]

Hello Daniweb Community,
I've finally gotten around to doing it but can someone for the love of god please help me and give me help with fixing my slow ass laptop.
I have only recently purchased it, as soon as I set it up I installed Windows 10 (coming from Windows 8.1) then from there I started installing all the same programs I had on my previous laptop (which is also running Windows 10, but runs fine) and it's just running so slow like it could sometimes take about 5 minutes to load Facebook or even if I go to watch a video on YouTube the video will stop and go to the lowest quality all using Google Chrome.

So whats weird is sometimes I could be just have Spotify and Windows Live Mail running (not fetching emails but just going through them) and the CPU could be bouncing around the 98% mark.

Laptop Details:

[jKidz]

Joshi,
It seems some thing went wrong with your internet connection not with your laptop.
First of all, it is better to test your internet connection's speed.
You can check out the speed of your internet connection from here http://speedtest.net/
Please let me know the results. Then I can guess what happend to your laptop.

[joshl_1995]

I'm pretty sure its the laptop. The overall use of it is slow.

[rproffitt]

I see a LOT of updates at hp.com for this for W10.
http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/HP-15-Notebook-PC-series/7771410/model/8525054 hopefully gets you there but I see 10 or more items to install. Did you do that?

[jKidz]

Ok Josh,
Use TuneUp http://www.tune-up.com/ .
Up can tune-up your pc and you can get notified the failures of any of your hardwares.

[misi]

Install Malwarebytes and check for malwares.
https://www.malwarebytes.org/lp/sem/5/?sfc=sem-gs_b_anz_en&gclid=CPbUrIPfrckCFY8kvQodY1gCzw

[IntegratedTweak]

The crapware that is installed with it too might be a problem.

[joshl_1995]

Sorry for the late reply.
@rproffitt I've done all the necessary updates required, latest Windows 10 update and latest updates from HP.

@misi I've ran so many virus scans, malware scans, clean up scans and so on. At the moment I've got AVG PC Tuneup installled and have gone through that which did clean up a bit but still didn't help. In the past I've had Trendmicro, Comodo, Bit Defender, Malware Bytes and AVG installed on my computer and neither have ever picked something up. So I highly doubt it would be somekind of virus or something.

@IntergratedTweak I've gone through the computer and uninstalled a few things that I don't require I hate companies that install so much unneeded crap on deviced which is why I try to stick with HP my sister brought a Toshiba a while ago which was filled with so much crap, like Toshiba notice board or something to tell whats new with Toshiba or something like that. Like that is totally needed.
So the programs I've got on my laptop from HP is CyberLink, 3 Cisco Modules, HP Documentation, HP Registration Service, HP Support Assistant, HP System Event Utility and HP Wireless Button Driver.
The rest is all the programs I use, I usually like to keep my computer free of programs I don't use a lot only the main essentials, or programs to do with devices I have. So I got no idea.

At the moment I only have this Daniweb tab open in Google Chrome and Task Manager open and the CPU is bouncing between 25% - 40%. Here is a screenshot of the processes tab in Task Manager

[IntegratedTweak]

How much RAM is installed on the PC? 2, 4 or 8GB of RAM?

Try and run Speccy which can be found here: https://www.piriform.com/speccy/download/standard

And a tutorial as well to upload the link to the web: https://www.piriform.com/docs/speccy/using-speccy/publishing-a-speccy-profile-to-the-web and then copy and post the link in your next post.

I might be inactive for a couple of hours, but I will get the chance to look at it later :)

[joshl_1995]

There is 8GB of RAM and 1TB hard drive and what will Speccy do?

[IntegratedTweak]

It sees the temps of your PC and lists all the known problems with your PC. If you want to you can also create a topic in BleepingComputer: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/

These are experts that can assist you in a great way and they offer friendly advice too :)

[rproffitt]

@josh. That 1TB wouldn't be a Seagate? Over the last few months, too many stories. Speccy lets you generate a report of what's in the machine.

[joshl_1995]

If you look at the picture I posted at the start it should say all the details needed and I think it's a Toshiba hard drive.

[joshl_1995]

I'll try that Speccy when I get home

[IntegratedTweak]

Seagate is a hard drive that I don't use anymore after the incident that nearly destroyed my machine. It caught fire... and looking at failure rates for those are very high.

[rinston]

Are you sure it wasn't on your internet connection? Sometimes it is the cause. Do you have cooler in your laptop?

[IntegratedTweak]

Still need help???

[joshl_1995]

Yeah I've just been busy talk later

[IntegratedTweak]

Ok :)

FYI: I might jump off for the night :)

[joshl_1995]

Well I've got Speccy but I don't see any error checking thing or whatever you said it has and like the picture and model number I posted at the start (that seems to be invisible to some) says details of my laptop. So IntergratedTweak what am I doing from here? if there are any details you want from Speccy I take a screenshot of it

[rproffitt]

So you have Secure Search. https://malwaretips.com/blogs/avg-secure-search-virus-removal/ and other sites are unkind about that. That said many want more security at any cost. Here I use WOT (Web Of Trust) without the usual issues of AVG's Secure Search.

[IntegratedTweak]

Ok so no errors so now i'm beginning to suspect it's a malware issue. There's this guide that will help you remove viruses easily: https://malwaretips.com/blogs/malware-removal-guide-for-windows/

If it still runs slow after the removal process then i'm running very low on good ideas. rproffitt might be able to help you further if I run out of ideas.

[joshl_1995]

Thats all well and good but I think my first few comments have been ignored about the fact the my CPU is sky rocketing. I can see all the processes running but I don't know why they are even running. Again... I could only have a few things running and it could be at 99% and on my previous laptop I could have about the same amount of programs running and it would run perfect and stay around the 50 or so % mark and my previous laptop has 4GB less ram than my new one which has 8GB so I have no idea what the problem is.

[rproffitt]

There are priors about CPU skyrocketing over the HDD and of course that secure search.

I get the feeling you are hoping for someone to tell you "That's it" and have yet to change a thing. There are suspects but are you removing items from the suspect list?

[joshl_1995]

I'd love someone to know the right answer, but (don't get me wrong I appretiate the community trying to help) all I'm getting is it's the internet, hard drive, etc... although I've posted a picture and details about my computer stating what hard ware it contains and have said it is also slow offline.

[Reverend Jim]

It's time to start ruling things out. Run task manager. Disconnect from the internet (yank the cable or turn off your wireless). Does your CPU usage go down? Boot into safe mode. Is CPU still high? If the CPU is maxed out, what task(s) are responsible? The snapshot you posted doesn't show high CPU. Try running SysInternals Process Explorer.

[IntegratedTweak]

There are 11 possible reasons:

1. Are you running torrented applications? Bittorrent, Vuze etc.
2. Are you running two antivirus applications on your system?
3. Yes also viruses and malware can max out the CPU. Also optimizers are pesky and they just clog up your system.
4. Is your hard drive almost full? Full of movies and some other unknown trash that just slow your hard drive down to a halt.
5. Is your hard drive fragemented? Gosh this one is annoying it probably needs to be defragmented.
6. Faulty CPU. This is when a CPU is not doing something right and it needs to be replaced.
7. Faulty RAM. You may have not known this, but if one of your RAM sticks have blown this may cause a lot of CPU usage. Using MemTest to check for errors are a good way to rule out a problem with the RAM.
8. Overheating: If your computer is experiencing heat issues this can also be an issue of high CPU Usage. This puts a lot of pressure on the CPU and wears it down over time thus making your computer very slow. Stock thermal paste should be reapplied with something better.
9. Startup programs are also a problem even when they load from boot.
10. Windows Update can also slow down your computer since it may use heavy loads of CPU while downloading fixes.
11. GPU lag is possibly the most annoying scenario that you'll encounter. You may experience slow cursors or slow applications.

We will try and help you a lot with this problem.

[Popc0rn]

Programs that say they will optimise your computer may do a little bit of help, but they also become part of the problem. These are some of thethe programs and steps the professionals work with.

Create a clean working area by restarting your computer and don't open any programs one you've logged in, etc. Microsoft recently released a huge update for Windows 10, so this may be slowing down your computer as it's downloading/installing, you can check this with the notification icon on the bar.

Uninstall all the "optimizer" type programs you know about, including the ones mentioned in this discussion thread. They waste space and resources, you'll see why in a moment. Keep your antivirus program running, but disable the AVG optimizer thingy making sure that AVG is only working as an antivirus tool.

To optimize their computers the professionals only use programs that step in, look around, tidy up, and then step out again. You don't want things running in the background unless you are the sort who downloads programs from dubious places. So, open your browser and download the highly rated Superantispyware. This program really does find all the stuff others can't. Go into preferences and tell it not to start when Windows starts. Do a full sweep, which may take about an hour. Tick all the boxes to whatever it finds and tell it to clean them away. Superantispyware will clean out all of the trackers, pup's, and malware you have collected over the last few months. Once finished close it and right-click it's icon on the bar and tell it to exit.

Do the same with a program called Malwarebytes, that gets rid of the heavy stuff that Superantispyware may have missed. Run both those programs independently at least once a month or when you notice a slow down/problem.

Computers don't work well when they're hot, so don't use it on your lap or anywhere that obstructs the ventilation on the base or at the sides.

[rproffitt]

@josh I think you are waiting for the one answer that cures it all. I see others have pitched in with it's time to start running it down. This isn't a new thing to me as I have run into computer owners that think there is an answer, if only someone will tell them.

I shared a thing that stood out and others have lists of things to start working on. At some point you begin working on it or like many just factory restore it. That works too.

[joshl_1995]

I'm in the middle of trying a few of your possible solutions and I will get back to you...