[praxidice]

Hi there,

I know it has been ages, but I finally figured out how to open up my computer, found some compressed air, and cleaned the whole thing. (I have taken apart several computers, and this one was the hardest!)

It really wasn't very dirty. I was surprised. So why would it be running hot, if it's not dusty?

I ran Speed Fan as soon as I booted it, and within 3 minutes all temperatures were running high. I tried elevating it, angling it, etc., but the temps stay the same.

It is still running strangely (the same as in my original description). If I try to switch between programs with Alt+Tab or do anything too quickly, it hangs up. Even switching between tabs in Chrome hangs it up.

If you have any further ideas, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you.

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Fan could be weak. I like to use the eraser end of a pencil to stop the fan and then let it start again. It should zoom right up to speed. If not it needs to be replaced.

Sometimes the thermal paste needs renwing (some PC makers used a pad instead of paste and the pad will dry out over time.) You have to pull the heatsink (discard the pad if any) and clean the CPU and heatsink surfaces with alcohol then paint on a light coating of thermal paste.

[RKinner]

Fan could be weak. I like to use the eraser end of a pencil to stop the fan and then let it start again. It should zoom right up to speed. If not it needs to be replaced.

Sometimes the thermal paste needs renwing (some PC makers used a pad instead of paste and the pad will dry out over time.) You have to pull the heatsink (discard the pad if any) and clean the CPU and heatsink surfaces with alcohol then paint on a light coating of thermal paste.

[praxidice]

Got it. How can I stop the fan in the way you described while the computer is still on? I have to open up the whole thing to get to the fan (take off keyboard and other external panel, and disconnect keyboard and touchpad).

On a scale of 1-10, how difficult is this process, in your opinion? I am pretty comfortable with computers, but how easy is this to screw up?

Thanks.

[RKinner]

Sorry. Was thinking it was a desktop. Not going to work with a laptop. There are three possible problems with a laptop:

One: Defective Fan (listen do you hear it running? Usually the fan will run for a second when you first turn it on and then once it gets hot.)

Two: Dried out thermal pad/paste

Three: Defective Heat Pipe. This is the copper pipe that runs from the CPU to the heatsink. No idea what is required to change it out.


You might just try putting it on a laptop cooling tray and see if that helps.

[praxidice]

Thanks, I will check the fan and see what I can figure out.

[praxidice]

Hello again,

So! I had the thermal paste replaced and the heat pipe checked. According to SpeedFan and the computer guy, temperatures are good.

The system as a whole is much faster and does not lock up anymore. But, overall, it is still pretty slow to respond to keyboard commands and switching between programs, opening new documents, opening new tabs in my browser, etc.

On my other computer, I had to re-install Windows completely because the viruses, et. al. that I picked up in South Korea had really mangled my system. Do you think that might be happening here?

All my scans (that I can do myself) are still clean, there is loads of room on my hard disk, and everything is up to date. So, I'm not sure what is causing the slowness.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. And thank you *again* for your amazing patience.

[RKinner]

Win 7 is supposed to run a defrag once in a while but perhaps it stopped working. Try doing a manual defrag:

Open Disk Defragmenter by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button. In the search box, type Disk Defragmenter, and then, in the list of results, click Disk Defragmenter.

Under Current status, select the disk you want to defragment.

To determine if the disk needs to be defragmented or not, click Analyze disk. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Once Windows is finished analyzing the disk, you can check the percentage of fragmentation on the disk in the Last Run column. If the number is above 10%, you should defragment the disk.

Click Defragment disk. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Disk Defragmenter might take from several minutes to a few hours to finish, depending on the size and degree of fragmentation of your hard disk.

It's best not to use the computer while defrag is going on despite what Microsoft says.

If it is still slow.
Boot into Safe Mode with Networking

(Reboot and when you see the maker's logo, hear a beep or it talks about F8, start tapping the F8 key slowly. Keep tapping until the Safe Mode Menu appears and choose Safe Mode with Networking. Login with your usual login.)

Run Process Explorer as before and post the log. Does it seem faster in Safe Mode?


Did you ever run a Boot-Time Scan with Avast? I do this while I sleep because it takes so long:

First mute the speakers so it won't wake you up when Windows loads. Click on the Orange ball. Click on Security. Click on AntiVirus. Scroll down to the bottom and find Boot-time scan. Click on Settings. Where it says Heuristic Sensitivity click on the last rectangle so that all of them are orange and it says High. Then change When a threat is found ... to: Move to Chest. OK. Now click on Schedule Now. Close the Avast window and then reboot. The scan will start. It will tell you where it will save the report. Usually it's
C:\ProgramData\AVAST Software\Avast\report\aswBoot.txt but it might change so verify the location. When Windows loads Click on the Orange Ball then Maintenance then Scan Logs. Click on the Boot-time scan log and then View Results. IF it found anything then open the saved Report and copy and paste the text into a reply so I can see it.

[praxidice]

I defragmented (it was 8% fragmented) and it IS faster, but not back to normal.

Next, I ran it in safe mode with networking and NOW it's normal -- functioning regularly.

I will run the Avast boot scan tonight. In the meantime, here is the Process Explorer log.

Thanks!

Process CPU Private Bytes Working Set PID Description Company Name Verified Signer
System Idle Process 91.99 0 K 24 K 0
procexp.exe 3.61 19,884 K 33,404 K 1480 Sysinternals Process Explorer Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com (Verified) Microsoft Corporation
chrome.exe 1.65 52,456 K 61,132 K 2636 Google Chrome Google Inc. (Verified) Google Inc
csrss.exe 0.38 1,580 K 6,548 K 376 Client Server Runtime Process Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
Interrupts 0.29 0 K 0 K n/a Hardware Interrupts and DPCs
System 0.35 48 K 228 K 4
chrome.exe 0.08 59,748 K 84,088 K 312 Google Chrome Google Inc. (Verified) Google Inc
chrome.exe 0.04 12,136 K 12,740 K 3264 Google Chrome Google Inc. (Verified) Google Inc
explorer.exe 0.03 18,744 K 34,280 K 1292 Windows Explorer Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
WmiPrvSE.exe 0.03 2,004 K 4,828 K 1600 WMI Provider Host Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
svchost.exe 0.01 30,372 K 29,280 K 2608 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
svchost.exe 0.01 6,408 K 11,980 K 940 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
svchost.exe 0.01 11,836 K 11,164 K 868 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
services.exe < 0.01 2,820 K 5,552 K 444 Services and Controller app Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
dllhost.exe < 0.01 4,556 K 6,016 K 1676 COM Surrogate Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
winlogon.exe 1,080 K 3,692 K 436 Windows Logon Application Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
wininit.exe 968 K 3,328 K 368 Windows Start-Up Application Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
svchost.exe 2,736 K 5,952 K 656 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
svchost.exe 2,896 K 6,748 K 580 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
svchost.exe 6,284 K 8,960 K 744 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
svchost.exe 2,064 K 4,984 K 828 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
svchost.exe 1,424 K 3,928 K 984 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
svchost.exe 12,096 K 16,456 K 780 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
svchost.exe 1,284 K 4,004 K 1180 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
smss.exe 312 K 880 K 252 Windows Session Manager Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
lsm.exe 1,320 K 3,068 K 480 Local Session Manager Service Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
lsass.exe 3,044 K 7,324 K 472 Local Security Authority Process Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
dllhost.exe 1,080 K 3,644 K 3388 COM Surrogate Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
ctfmon.exe 1,532 K 3,184 K 1336 CTF Loader Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
csrss.exe 1,196 K 3,172 K 332 Client Server Runtime Process Microsoft Corporation (Verified) Microsoft Windows
chrome.exe 47,260 K 57,144 K 2412 Google Chrome Google Inc. (Verified) Google Inc
chrome.exe 28,112 K 33,800 K 1864 Google Chrome Google Inc. (Verified) Google Inc
chrome.exe 22,720 K 27,564 K 304 Google Chrome Google Inc. (Verified) Google Inc
chrome.exe 28,212 K 33,404 K 1080 Google Chrome Google Inc. (Verified) Google Inc
chrome.exe 33,504 K 38,584 K 1436 Google Chrome Google Inc. (Verified) Google Inc
chrome.exe 45,680 K 52,624 K 1952 Google Chrome Google Inc. (Verified) Google Inc

[RKinner]

Possibly the Agnitum Outpost Firewall, Secunia PSI or your video driver.
In the Search box type: msconfig and hit Enter.
Go to Services tab and click on the box to hide Microsoft Services then uncheck
everything that remains. Go to Startup tab and uncheck everything. OK and
reboot. If it doesn't run faster then go back into msconfig and recheck the
things you turned off. If it helps then go back and turn on a few items each
time until you find the culprit. Or you can turn off the Agnitum and Secunia stuff first and see if that makes a difference.

To see if it's the video you can boot into Safe Mode and chose the enable low resolution video option.