Random Win7 slowdown

Redmelo · 17 Feb 2014 at 12:03

The problem is, randomly windows will slow down to the point it won't even shutdown properly.
The issue doesn't pop up immediately, it just pops up completely randomly. It starts with whatever window I have open, lets say chrome, and windows explorer will take any where from 30 seconds to 5 minutes to process a command (Once programs load they are fine, no lag, no locking up, no nothing. The problem is purely with windows processing my commands. Once I'm in a program it's smooth sailing). After that I realize I need to restart and I'll go to the start menu and the process will hang there for awhile till finally the start menu will open. Once I manage to get the option to shutdown in will take about 5 minutes to logout and just hangs there for 10 or more minutes.
After a reboot the problem is usually not fixed. It will take ages to log in and to load windows completely. The only thing that seems to temporarily fix the issue is completely disconnecting the PC from power and leave it off for a good few minutes.

Being as I've never had the issue before and windows doesn't lock up completely, I have no idea where to start looking.

This problem first started while using my SSD so I stopped using it and switched to my HDD but eventually it started to happen on that one too.
I realize this is a bit of an unusual problem but any help would be greatly appreciated!

F2kSel · 18 Feb 2014 at 23:49

Only time I have something like that is when I have two Anti Virus software programs installed. They then have a fight to see who's opening what file and it drags the system down.

Open your task manager and see what programs are using all the resources.

Redmelo · 21 Feb 2014 at 09:14

Thanks for the reply.
Last time it happened I did not notice any resource hogging process but I'll take a closer look when it happens again.

Redmelo · 21 Feb 2014 at 17:28

I've noticed that there are a whole bunch of services on 'stopped'.
Could this be a virus? Scanning with Avast, Spybot and Malwarebytes has not come up with any infected files tho..

mrk · 21 Feb 2014 at 17:39

Stopped services is normal. My machine shows 70% of services as "Stopped" in task manager. Services will start and stop as needed by the OS or host applications.

Your issue most likely lies with old or faulty drivers. Perhaps you have a piece of failing hardware in the system too.

I would suggest disconnecting all but the absolutely essential and running the PC for a few hours to see if the slowdowns come back and if they don't then add the hardware back one by one in a process of elimination.

It's not uncommon for USB controllers and/or USB devices connected to cause slow response issues and again that could be motherboard drivers or faulty hardware.

Redmelo · 21 Feb 2014 at 17:52

Ok. I've disconnected everything except for 2 HDDs, keyboard and mouse and I'll leave it running till something happens, or not.
I haven't changed anything on this PC in ages tho, so not sure why drivers would start acting up now.

mrk · 21 Feb 2014 at 18:17

But it started when you initially started using the SSD so that would be an indicator of something changing at that point

bledd · 21 Feb 2014 at 23:29

Sounds like a broken hard drive is causing these issues to me, they can create odd issues.

Check Event Viewer, under the System tab, do a filter for anything that says 'disk' in it.

Post a screenshot

Redmelo · 22 Feb 2014 at 08:14

Seems the pc shut down over night and there are a whole bunch of errors in event viewer. Looks like this is indeed a disk related issue.

Redmelo · 22 Feb 2014 at 08:27

I found this on Google:

First thing – check the SATA/EIDE and power cable connection between your hard-drive and the motherboard. If possible, try another SATA outlet on motherboard or another SATA cable if available.

If it still happens, the bad news is that this is likely a disk controller error, which is especially problematic since nowadays disk controllers are built into the Motherboard. If you are in a budget crunch, one potential workaround is to slow down your HD to use different PIO. This may avoid hangs, but will slow overall performance, so no fun solution…

Proper solution appears to be to replace motherboard, hence replacing disk controller. There are many motherboards starting at just $50 and in most cases it will improve overall performance and stability for you, even if you keep the same CPU and other components.

I guess I'll start by switching around SATA ports on the mobo and see how it goes. Hopefully its just an iffy cable and I don't have to replace anything else.

hawkhench · 22 Feb 2014 at 09:26

Are your SATA ports at a point on the motherboard where your graphics card is pretty much touching them? I know I had trouble with stuff seemingly working itself loose (despite the annoying clips) that I could only put down to the graphics card vibrating enough that they'd work their way out over several weeks.

bledd · 22 Feb 2014 at 09:31

Great, at least we found which area the problem is in.

What I would do now..

List on here how many hard drives you have, and the make models of them.

If your system will run with just one hard drive, then disconnect ask of the other drives for now.

Then see if you get more disk errors after an hour or so of running Windows.

If you do, try a brand new Sata cable (or swap with an old one).

If it's runs fine, then shutdown, add a second disk. Test for an hour.

If this is fine, remove that second disk and try the third etcetc.

Hope this makes sense, writing this on my phone

I'll write a better reply after I've got out of bed

Redmelo · 22 Feb 2014 at 11:11

hawkhench said:
Are your SATA ports at a point on the motherboard where your graphics card is pretty much touching them? I know I had trouble with stuff seemingly working itself loose (despite the annoying clips) that I could only put down to the graphics card vibrating enough that they'd work their way out over several weeks.

Yes, that's exactly where it was plugged in. The cable for my main disk seemed pretty loose when I disconnected it (it was a cable without a clip even). I now moved to a different slot & cable which is a bit better located.

Seems to be running error free for now so I've added my storage disk too. If all goes well today I'll switch back to my SSD and hope for the best. At the moment it seems like the problem really was just a loose cable

These are my current disks:

Seagate ST3500418AS
Samsung HD103UJ

Redmelo · 23 Feb 2014 at 15:10

Quick update.
It seems to be OK now. No disk errors this far. But I did see an error and a warning. Is this anything that needs fixing?

Error:
The SBSD Security Center Service service failed to start due to the following error:
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

Warning:
Custom dynamic link libraries are being loaded for every application. The system administrator should review the list of libraries to ensure they are related to trusted applications.