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Extreme slow down and slow restart in Windows 8.1 after hours of usage

Joined
Jan 13, 2015
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Lenovo s210, Windows 8 regular 64 bit upgraded to Windows 8.1 through store, Windows 8 is preinstalled with the new system

Since a month or 2 ago, when I use my computer for a couple of hours in 1 go, my computer will slow down. Sound menu from the notification area will not pop up, I can't open new programs or new windows, and some programs that are already opened will stop working. I can still go start menu and restart my computer, but I usually have to wait for at least 5~10 minutes until I can successfully restart my computer

I remembered when this used to happen on Windows XP, it's because I ran out of system resources, but I don't see why this could happen on my current system. My computer has 4 GB ram and 100 GB of free space, and from my periodic observation of my Task Manager, I never reach 80% of ram usage at any point in time. I never had this problem with Windows 7, so I am suprised to see it again in Windows 8.1.

To prevent running out of system resources too often, I turned off idle system mainteance, but it only allowed me to go on for a couple hours more before I had to restart.

When I don't use my comptuer, I only put it on standby instead of turning it off, I did the same thing with Windows 7 and I didn't have any problems.

I did Windows built in memory test and it said the memory has no errors.

For the most part, I only use Windows Explorer, Firefox, Notepad++ on a regular basis, and I don't have many programs on startup except driver utilities and security software in the taskbar notification area.

I used windows 8 for like less than 5 days, but I have used windows 8.1 for at least 4 months. During this time there were several problems, but the major updates solved some problems while introducing more.

The slow down is a new problem for me, it usually happens when I leave the computer, then come back and then the slowdown happens. I am not sure what it's doing when it's idling. I don't use any fancy screen savor, just the screen turning off after 3 minutes of idling.
 
System specs.
 
Have you done anything like turning off Page file?


If not lets try this, download and run Aida and when it starts to slow down run Aida and post a system log for us. Before you post it you may need to edit our your Windows keys.
 
The fact you have to wait a few minutes means this is a hardware problem. Software wouldn't have such symptoms. Does your laptop feel hot when this happens? How old is it?
 
did you try check a whole system temp ?
once I have Samsung laptop after playing a hour computer goes so slow :-(
you can download "Speccy" show's pcu,mob,hdd temp, gpu u can check in your settings hope so :)

and btw did you chance any settings on gpu like sleep or turn of after some minutes?
 
when it starts to slow down run Aida and post a system log for us. Before you post it you may need to edit our your Windows keys.
what do you mean by editing windows keys?

and I can't run any program once the slowdown starts as I mentioned before. I need to restart before I can do anything meaningful again.

is aida freeware? if not, is there free alternative of it?

The fact you have to wait a few minutes means this is a hardware problem. Software wouldn't have such symptoms. Does your laptop feel hot when this happens? How old is it?
laptop is only 5 months old, max, but it is refurbished, I probably need to check uefi or harddrive hour count to find out.

if it's temperature problem, restarting the laptop shouldn't get rid of the problem because the temperature would stay the same, I think?
 
Yeah, if it's hot and fails when it's hot, then it needs to cool down for a bit first, which is consistent with what you're seeing.

As it's only 5 months old, I think you should RMA it. This is the sort of reason I generally don't like refurbs: hidden faults the seller knows about which you get to find out about later.
 
Hey you know if there's some sort of desktop temperature widget?
If the widget can show all the available temperature info on the desktop, I won't need to open any extra window when my computer slow down and I can see what temperature my laptop is running at that moment.
 
did you try check a whole system temp ?
once I have Samsung laptop after playing a hour computer goes so slow :-(
you can download "Speccy" show's pcu,mob,hdd temp, gpu u can check in your settings hope so :)
Hey you know if there's some sort of desktop temperature widget?
If the widget can show all the available temperature info on the desktop, I won't need to open any extra window when my computer slow down and I can see what temperature my laptop is running at that moment.


That software "Speccy" don't use a lot of resource so easy can left open, and its free to download
https://www.piriform.com/speccy/download
 
I don't know of a utility that works quite like that off the top of my head, but check out Speccy above which might do what you want. Try googling for "hardware monitor" and see what you find.

I've got AIDA64 when tells you everything you could possibly know, but it's not free and needs to have a window open.
 
I don't know of a utility that works quite like that off the top of my head, but check out Speccy above which might do what you want. Try googling for "hardware monitor" and see what you find.

I've got AIDA64 when tells you everything you could possibly know, but it's not free and needs to have a window open.


"AIDA64" you can use TRIAL version, don't know different between TRIAL and FULL but still you can see lots of system specification.
same with "Speccy" you can use Trial and Full, for check temp enough and Trial
 
what do you mean by editing windows keys?

and I can't run any program once the slowdown starts as I mentioned before. I need to restart before I can do anything meaningful again.

is aida freeware? if not, is there free alternative of it?


laptop is only 5 months old, max, but it is refurbished, I probably need to check uefi or harddrive hour count to find out.

if it's temperature problem, restarting the laptop shouldn't get rid of the problem because the temperature would stay the same, I think?


Its free for 30 days, which is long enough for our needs of a couple days.
 
Note that the trial version of AIDA64 shows you cut down information, so the bit you want might well be blanked out. Just try it, it won't cost you anything, lol.
 
defragment your drive ?
 
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