Why has my laptop suddenly gone really slow?

Yesterday, I turned on my laptop, and was greeted with a black screen. This black screen remained for 10 whole minutes, and took a further 25 minutes to boot. When it had finally booted up, it was so slow that it was completely unusable. To load the Start menu (and yes, I timed it), it took 2 minutes and 23 seconds.

The day before, it was completely normal. It was a nice, speedy machine, but now it is slower than my PowerMac G3 (literally).

I even booted from the disc and installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 which took the entire day to install. Yet still, it was unusable.

Here are the specs: Dell Inspiron 1545 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.20GHz 3GB RAM 250GB HDD Windows 7 Ultimate

I know that this is a pretty decent specced machine, and I can't understand why it has dropped it's performance so suddenly.

I have had it since 2nd February 2009 making it 2 years, and 6 months old (or 30 months old). I has been used very nearly almost every day since then.

And yes, the warranty has expired.

slow windows laptop dell performance inspiron

asked Jul 28 '11 at 19:13

User_1002
241●52●56●65

UPDATE: I have since fixed the laptop, and it appeared that the hard drive was on it's last legs. Luckily, the busses on the motherboard were still fine. Thank you to catchatyou for the fast, and correct answer, and to everyone else who helped resolve the issue.

I ran a diagnostic test, and the hard drive came up as 'RUNNING' after every other components had 'PASSED', so this confirmed that it was the hard drive. So I just borrowed my sisters laptop, switched the hard drives to test it, and everything was fine.

So I went out, and brought another hard drive, and everything is running great. I'm still a little annoyed that I lost a whole lot of web design, but that can't be helped.

(Aug 21 '11 at 22:22) User_1002

To prevent the web design loss from happening again go out and either buy another HD and use that as an external backup or look into online solutions. I would have been left with no computer data many times had it not been for my external backups.

(Aug 21 '11 at 23:26) ThatMacGuy

3 Answers:

oldest newest most voted

I think something's gone wrong with either your hard drive, or one of the various busses on your motherboard.

answered Jul 28 '11 at 19:40

catchatyou
20.7k●89●166●383

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll try replacing the Hard Drive tomorrow though it hasn't long been replaced. :S

(Jul 28 '11 at 19:43) User_1002

Just make sure that it's the right replacement (SATA, PATA...), and you'll be fine.

(Jul 28 '11 at 19:46) catchatyou

Alright. :-)

(Jul 28 '11 at 19:58) User_1002

Is a virus a possibility? I know that could cause a huge problem like that. Which, if any, antivirus software do you have installed?

answered Jul 28 '11 at 20:57

iGeek3
1.6k●39●49●72

I initially thought that it was a virus, but he said that he re-installed Windows 7 on it, which would've gotten rid of the virus (unless he put all of his old files back on it).

So taking into consideration the obvious fact that he re-installed Windows 7, I'd say it is highly unlikely that it is a virus.

(Jul 28 '11 at 21:50) catchatyou

Correct. On the machine right now, is just a clean Windows 7 install. Nothing else. I haven't even changed the wallpaper yet. It is a completely fresh install.

(Jul 29 '11 at 09:05) User_1002

Try starting in safemode with cmd- type in sfc /scannow

see what happens

answered Jul 28 '11 at 21:35

Samuel Jones
1

Wouldn't do any good after a clean install. Sounds like a dying hard drive, download Seatools from Seagates website and run the long generic scan with no repair options. That will tell you if the drive is bad or not.

(Jul 29 '11 at 10:18) Josh_M

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