Ask EU:slow computer.

[Steve Hague]

I replaced my PC in January, and it's been fine up till last Thursday,
when it took half an hour to boot up and another hour before everything
was functioning normally. It's been the same every day since. I've
removed everything non essential from the start up menu, but it hasn't
made any difference. It's running Windows 10. Only the collective wisdom
of UMRA can help.
Steve

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[krw]

Post by Steve Hague
I replaced my PC in January, and it's been fine up till last Thursday,
when it took half an hour to boot up and another hour before everything
was functioning normally. It's been the same every day since. I've
removed everything non essential from the start up menu, but it hasn't
made any difference. It's running Windows 10. Only the collective wisdom
of UMRA can help.
Steve

Try booting into safe mode and seeing if it is still as slow. If it is
you need an expert.

If not then there are ways of turning on bits of software until you find
out what is causing it.

Are any of your disks nearly full - first thought is that the cache to
disk is being used heavily with no write space.

[Serena Blanchflower]

Post by krw
Are any of your disks nearly full - first thought is that the cache to
disk is being used heavily with no write space.

I had problems, some years ago, when my computer ground to a halt with
the C drive filled to overflowing. When I got someone in to help me
sort it out, he downloaded <https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/>
for me, which shows you which folders / files are using the space.

In my case, Windows Photo gallery had saved humungous numbers of
thumbnails which were taking up a spectacular amount of space. We set
CCleaner (which I run regularly, anyway) to delete everything in that
folder whenever it runs and that fixed the problem.

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

Post by Serena Blanchflower

Post by krw
Are any of your disks nearly full - first thought is that the cache
to disk is being used heavily with no write space.

I had problems, some years ago, when my computer ground to a halt with
the C drive filled to overflowing. When I got someone in to help me
sort it out, he downloaded
<https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/> for me, which shows you
which folders / files are using the space.

Although the OP has said that _isn't_ his problem, here are the two
(free) utilities I find excellent for seeing what's using disc space:

Scanner, from Steffen Gerlach http://www.steffengerlach.de/freeware/ - a
sort of hierarchical pie-chart

WinDirStat https://windirstat.net/download.html

Both of those show, IMO, what's eating your disc in a very
understandable way - WinDirStat being the finest, but Scanner maybe
being fractionally quicker. (Though both are quick, and give progress
indication.) They're also IMO easy to use - you just run them.
[]

[Steve Hague]

Post by Steve Hague
I replaced my PC in January, and it's been fine up till last Thursday,
when it took half an hour to boot up and another hour before
everything was functioning normally. It's been the same every day
since. I've removed everything non essential from the start up menu,
but it hasn't made any difference. It's running Windows 10. Only the
collective wisdom of UMRA can help.
Steve

Try booting into safe mode and seeing if it is still as slow.  If it is
you need an expert.
If not then there are ways of turning on bits of software until you find
out what is causing it.
Are any of your disks nearly full - first thought is that the cache to
disk is being used heavily with no write space.

My HDD has vast amounts of free space, so ***@s not that.

[Mike]

Post by Steve Hague
I replaced my PC in January, and it's been fine up till last Thursday,
when it took half an hour to boot up and another hour before
everything was functioning normally. It's been the same every day
since. I've removed everything non essential from the start up menu,
but it hasn't made any difference. It's running Windows 10. Only the
collective wisdom of UMRA can help.
Steve

Try booting into safe mode and seeing if it is still as slow.  If it is
you need an expert.
If not then there are ways of turning on bits of software until you find
out what is causing it.
Are any of your disks nearly full - first thought is that the cache to
disk is being used heavily with no write space.

However, not all space is equal, have you checked if the hdd needs
defragmentation lately? It is quite possible to have oodles of space but
dotted around in small fragments making for slow accessing.

[Chris B]

Post by Mike

Post by Steve Hague
I replaced my PC in January, and it's been fine up till last Thursday,
when it took half an hour to boot up and another hour before
everything was functioning normally. It's been the same every day
since. I've removed everything non essential from the start up menu,
but it hasn't made any difference. It's running Windows 10. Only the
collective wisdom of UMRA can help.
Steve

Try booting into safe mode and seeing if it is still as slow.  If it is
you need an expert.
If not then there are ways of turning on bits of software until you find
out what is causing it.
Are any of your disks nearly full - first thought is that the cache to
disk is being used heavily with no write space.

However, not all space is equal, have you checked if the hdd needs
defragmentation lately? It is quite possible to have oodles of space but
dotted around in small fragments making for slow accessing.

The OP said the machine was replaced in January - If that means new in
January it is very unlikely to be fragmentation causing a problem. 10 or
15 years ago maybe but not on modern machines.

IME a machine which has not been on for a while (a week or so) can be a
bit slow at boot up as Windows Update does a full check of the HD to see
if any updates are needed. This is particularly apparent with a netbook
I own that was originally shipped with W7 and now has W10. If used
regularly its fine - if left off for a week or so the Hard Disk activity
as shown by task manager is close to 100% for the first 20 minutes or
so. Investigation of the running processes shows it is windows update
to blame.

My suggestion
Start the task manager (Search "Task Manager") (or Cntrl+alt+del > task
manager)

Look at the performance tab CPU and Disk activity and memory to see if
any of those are close to 100%

Look at the process tab and sort by disk/CPU/or memory to see what is
using all of the resources.

Come back for more advice.

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

Post by krw

Post by Steve Hague
I replaced my PC in January, and it's been fine up till last
Thursday, when it took half an hour to boot up and another hour
before everything was functioning normally. It's been the same every

Once everything _is_ "functioning normally", is it OK - i. e. is it only
during startup (even half an hour's worth) that it's slow?

Post by krw

Post by Steve Hague
day since. I've removed everything non essential from the start up
menu, but it hasn't made any difference. It's running Windows 10.
Only the collective wisdom of UMRA can help.
Steve

Try booting into safe mode and seeing if it is still as slow. If it is
you need an expert.
If not then there are ways of turning on bits of software until you
find out what is causing it.
Are any of your disks nearly full - first thought is that the cache to
disk is being used heavily with no write space.

Or, are you using a lot of your memory? Have a look in Task Manager
(lots of ways to start it - I usually right-click an empty part of the
task bar), and look at the "Performance" tab. (I'm speaking from W7, but
I think W10 is similar.) If the "Memory" graph goes over - or even near
- the amount of Physical Memory, the computer _will_ slow down, and you
need to find what's using it (the "Processes" tab will show you). Also
look at the CPU usage.

[Steve Hague]

Post by J. P. Gilliver (John)

Post by Steve Hague
I replaced my PC in January, and it's been fine up till last
Thursday,  when it took half an hour to boot up and another hour
before everything  was functioning normally. It's been the same every

Once everything _is_ "functioning normally", is it OK - i. e. is it only
during startup (even half an hour's worth) that it's slow?

Post by Steve Hague
day since. I've  removed everything non essential from the start up
menu, but it hasn't  made any difference. It's running Windows 10.
Only the collective wisdom  of UMRA can help.
Steve

Try booting into safe mode and seeing if it is still as slow.  If it
is you need an expert.
If not then there are ways of turning on bits of software until you
find out what is causing it.
Are any of your disks nearly full - first thought is that the cache to
disk is being used heavily with no write space.

Or, are you using a lot of your memory? Have a look in Task Manager
(lots of ways to start it - I usually right-click an empty part of the
task bar), and look at the "Performance" tab. (I'm speaking from W7, but
I think W10 is similar.) If the "Memory" graph goes over - or even near
- the amount of Physical Memory, the computer _will_ slow down, and you
need to find what's using it (the "Processes" tab will show you). Also
look at the CPU usage.

Everything is fine once everything's up and running. I left it on
overnight, and this morning it's really fast.
Steve

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

Post by Steve Hague

Post by J. P. Gilliver (John)

Post by Steve Hague
I replaced my PC in January, and it's been fine up till last
Thursday,  when it took half an hour to boot up and another hour
before everything  was functioning normally. It's been the same every

Once everything _is_ "functioning normally", is it OK - i. e. is it
only during startup (even half an hour's worth) that it's slow?

[]

Post by Steve Hague
Everything is fine once everything's up and running. I left it on
overnight, and this morning it's really fast.
Steve

Could you just leave it on? Obviously this doesn't get to the root of
the problem, but ...

[krw]

 Everything is fine once everything's up and running. I left it on
overnight, and this morning it's really fast.

I often have one slow boot after an "update" from Microsoft. Which is
about the only time it gets a reboot these days.

[Penny]

On Wed, 13 Jun 2018 14:22:44 +0100, Steve Hague <***@gmail.com>
scrawled in the dust...

Post by Steve Hague
I replaced my PC in January, and it's been fine up till last Thursday,
when it took half an hour to boot up and another hour before everything
was functioning normally. It's been the same every day since. I've
removed everything non essential from the start up menu, but it hasn't
made any difference. It's running Windows 10. Only the collective wisdom
of UMRA can help.

I haven't noticed a slow boot but there was an update the other day which
messed with my start-up settings - putting AV SafeZone browser back into
it. There seems to have been another this afternoon as, when I came in from
gardening, my puter was rebooting itself and installed updates before
starting.

[BrritSki]

Post by Penny
scrawled in the dust...

Post by Steve Hague
I replaced my PC in January, and it's been fine up till last Thursday,
when it took half an hour to boot up and another hour before everything
was functioning normally. It's been the same every day since. I've
removed everything non essential from the start up menu, but it hasn't
made any difference. It's running Windows 10. Only the collective wisdom
of UMRA can help.

I haven't noticed a slow boot but there was an update the other day which
messed with my start-up settings - putting AV SafeZone browser back into
it. There seems to have been another this afternoon as, when I came in from
gardening, my puter was rebooting itself and installed updates before
starting.

No problems here touch wood. Whenever I do get problems though, the
first thing I do is run Glary Utilities which checks stuff out and
cleans up nicely.

[Marmaduke Jinks]

I replaced my PC in January, and it's been fine up till last Thursday, when
it took half an hour to boot up and another hour before everything was
functioning normally. It's been the same every day since. I've removed
everything non essential from the start up menu, but it hasn't made any
difference. It's running Windows 10. Only the collective wisdom of UMRA can
help.
Steve

You should check what starts up when you start up.

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_search.php

I use msconfig in the command window to launch the list of applications that
start up. You can use that link (above) to check what's really necessary to
start up and then untick it is it's not necessary.

Have you installed a new anti-virus recently? If you have 2 on your system
then each takes umbrage with the other.

MJ

[Steve Hague]

Post by Marmaduke Jinks

I replaced my PC in January, and it's been fine up till last Thursday, when
it took half an hour to boot up and another hour before everything was
functioning normally. It's been the same every day since. I've removed
everything non essential from the start up menu, but it hasn't made any
difference. It's running Windows 10. Only the collective wisdom of UMRA can
help.
Steve

You should check what starts up when you start up.
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_search.php
I use msconfig in the command window to launch the list of applications that
start up. You can use that link (above) to check what's really necessary to
start up and then untick it is it's not necessary.
Have you installed a new anti-virus recently? If you have 2 on your system
then each takes umbrage with the other.
MJ

This morning it installed a huge update. All has been well since.
Steve

[Sid Nuncius]

Post by Steve Hague
This morning it installed a huge update. All has been well since.

I did wonder about that; whenever my computer develops alarming symptoms
it's usually because it's sickening for an update, but I was a bit shy
about suggesting it as a possible cause.

(This latest update took four boodly restarts before it finally decided
it was happy. I'm just relieved that it hasn't nuggered anything up -
or at least not that I've noticed. The last major update meant I
couldn't use Excel 2002 any more. I owe umra yet another big thank you
for having told me about LibreOffice, which I'm now happily using instead.)

[Jenny M Benson]

Post by Sid Nuncius
(This latest update took four boodly restarts before it finally decided
it was happy.  I'm just relieved that it hasn't nuggered anything up -
or at least not that I've noticed.  The last major update meant I
couldn't use Excel 2002 any more.  I owe umra yet another big thank you
for having told me about LibreOffice, which I'm now happily using instead.)

I haven't had a problem with updates, but my sis's lapdog converts to US
keyboard every time Windowsjigs itself.

Glad you are happy with LibreOffice, Sid. I couldn't get on with it and
when I needed to move on from ancient MS Office I was very grateful for
the (probably Umratic) advice to purchase a copy of MS Office 2010.
(This was within the last couple of years.) I was able to buy a legal
copy (1) with licence for 2 machines really, really cheaply and it works
perfectly for all my porpoises, though upgrading an important database
to Access 2010 involved something of a learning curve.

(1) After buying one elsewhere which the seller insisted was legal and
Microsoft insisted wasn't. Given the appalling translation (from
Chinese?) of the information on the packaging, I was more inclined to
believe MS than the seller. He did refund me.