PC painfully slow for the longest time, feels like it's getting slower

AbsoluteGuardian · Oct 9, 2018

Bear with me on this as I doubt this is an issue isolated to Windows 10.

Let me list off my specs first and then I'll get into it proper:

GPU: Zotac GTX 1050Ti Mini
CPU: AMD FX-8120
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970-D3 (rev1.1)
RAM: 16GB DDR3 @ 671Mhz (TeamGroup)
HDD: Seagate ST2000DM001
PSU: Corsair CX600
OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit

I've had this PC since ~2013, the only hardware I upgraded in that time has been the GPU and the PSU.

This PC has had issues with BSODs and slow performance pretty much since I got it, but I didn't really do anything about it because...Well it's easier to just let things slide. The BSODs didn't happen that often and the slowdown was bearable.

Come 2016 it all started to ramp up. I was getting BSODs a few times a week. When this started happening I started asking around to see what it might be, people threw out plenty of suggestions, in the end I ended up buying a CPU cooler (Coolermaster Hyper Evo 212) and then I upgraded the PSU (that was probably the dumbest thing I did really, since I had exactly 0 proof the PSU was the cause of anything). Sure enough, neither of these helped.

Windows 10 came out around that time so I thought great, an excuse to do a clean install and maybe that'll help. It didn't. In fact my computer was so messed up at that point I wasn't actually able to upgrade to Windows 10. What I had to do was do a clean re-install of Windows 7, and only then did it let me upgrade to Windows 10 (before that it would keep throwing out errors or failing).

And of course, Windows 10 wasn't a fix in the slightest. The computer was still slow, I had no BSODs for a while but since then they pretty much come in waves. I'll get a few in a month, then nothing for half a year and then the same thing again. They happen at completely random times, sometimes during periods of constant gaming, other times I can leave my PC idle, doing nothing, and I'll come back to find out it had rebooted after crashing. I've kept a bunch of minidumps from these BSODs and if anyone is willing to glance at them I'd love to share but just keep in mind I've tried basically everything that people have thrown my way. Running memtest for a gorillion passes, uninstalling drivers, reinstalling drivers, updating the BIOS (which, unfortunately the latest version for that is from 2013). As well as other methods I can't remember because this is an issue I try to tackle every once in a while but get nowhere with it.

Recently BSODs haven't really been a problem but the computer is just getting slower, while in-game it will hang for a split second quite often and opening basically any bit of software or even a folder takes way longer than it has any right to.

I realise the age of the PC could be an issue but realise that it's been this way basically from the start.

If anyone can help I'd appreciate it.

luckymatt42 · Oct 9, 2018

Is it or has it been overclocked?

AbsoluteGuardian · Oct 9, 2018

luckymatt42 :

Never.

luckymatt42 · Oct 9, 2018

If it's gone on for half as long as you say, and you've tried half the things you say you've tried, it's more than likely hardware related. You said you changed out the PSU...have you tried changing memory? Maybe bad memory stick, or worst case bad memory slot on motherboard.

In any case, if I were in your shoes I'd start with memory. And start saving for a new system.

jay.wooster · Oct 9, 2018

Can you download and run CPU-Z software from CPUID and let us know what the "Core Speed" is on the lower left portion of the CPU tab when you open it. Should be at 3100 if not auto overclocked by BIOS....

AbsoluteGuardian · Oct 10, 2018

jay.wooster :

Downloaded it, checked and...It's not constant to say the least. It jumps from 1400 to 3400 and will occasionally show 4000 or 3100 but that's less common.

Colif · Oct 10, 2018

upload minidumps to a file sharing web site and show link here, i can ask someone to convert them into a format I can read.

Try running this on hdd - https://www.seagate.com/au/en/support/downloads/seatools/seatools-win-master/

I remember helping you before?

AbsoluteGuardian · Oct 10, 2018

Colif :

Yeah you do. I ran SeaTools before and every test comes up fine.

Minidumps

johnbl · Oct 10, 2018

remove
Netgear Neutral Wireless Solution
\SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\scmndisp.sys Mon May 28 00:51:48 2012

it corrupts system memory and can crash any driver on the system.

update your razer drivers to the current version. some of the old versions cause memory corruption in certain cases (takes over hours )

update this driver:
Realtek NICDRV 8169 PCIe GBE Family Controller driver
from here:
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

(old version can crash virus scanners and streaming software for the GPU)

update the motherboard sound driver from the motherboard vendors website.
old version can crash video drivers sound support for HDMI.

try some of the updates and remove the one driver and see if you still bugcheck

also, go to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/rammap
and download this tool, run it, find the menu called empty and select each sub item on the menu. this will clear all of the programs windows loads in to standby memory. you should not see any effect unless there is some issue with the disk, then it should be faster since it will not have to load old programs.

also see my other note about drivers you have that cause data corruption problems.

sometimes when people say their machine is getting slow, you have to ask a bunch of question. like what is getting slow network access. there are certain bugs in wireless drivers that cause things to slow down. there are also some stupid apps that tie up limited network resource and introduce a 300 second wait for network resources.
often these can be found if you start cmd.exe or powershell as an admin and then run
netstat.exe /b
(my machine only shows 2 connections now)
the tool will name the .exe that is using the connection. look for something using a lot of connections and look state (TIME_WAIT or CLOSE_WAIT) each of these are timers that have to complete before the connection resource is free to be recycled.
when to many connections are used they network will throttle the connection.

there are also various bugs that will cause the connection to become very slow.
(best to update the network drivers rather than try to figure them out)

smorizio · Oct 11, 2018

one issue with the fx cpu is the 8x chips are so power hungry that a lot of the mb vrm over time can over heat and or fail.

AbsoluteGuardian · Oct 11, 2018

johnbl :

remove
Netgear Neutral Wireless Solution
\SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\scmndisp.sys Mon May 28 00:51:48 2012

it corrupts system memory and can crash any driver on the system.

update your razer drivers to the current version. some of the old versions cause memory corruption in certain cases (takes over hours )

update this driver:
Realtek NICDRV 8169 PCIe GBE Family Controller driver
from here:
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

(old version can crash virus scanners and streaming software for the GPU)

update the motherboard sound driver from the motherboard vendors website.
old version can crash video drivers sound support for HDMI.

try some of the updates and remove the one driver and see if you still bugcheck

also, go to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/rammap
and download this tool, run it, find the menu called empty and select each sub item on the menu. this will clear all of the programs windows loads in to standby memory. you should not see any effect unless there is some issue with the disk, then it should be faster since it will not have to load old programs.

also see my other note about drivers you have that cause data corruption problems.

sometimes when people say their machine is getting slow, you have to ask a bunch of question. like what is getting slow network access. there are certain bugs in wireless drivers that cause things to slow down. there are also some stupid apps that tie up limited network resource and introduce a 300 second wait for network resources.
often these can be found if you start cmd.exe or powershell as an admin and then run
netstat.exe /b
(my machine only shows 2 connections now)
the tool will name the .exe that is using the connection. look for something using a lot of connections and look state (TIME_WAIT or CLOSE_WAIT) each of these are timers that have to complete before the connection resource is free to be recycled.
when to many connections are used they network will throttle the connection.

there are also various bugs that will cause the connection to become very slow.
(best to update the network drivers rather than try to figure them out)

Thanks for your reply.

I've ran through everything you mentioned, deleted/updated the relevant drivers. Downloaded RAM Map and did what you asked, nothing seems to have changed. The PC chugged for a few minutes after I selected everything but that's about it.

I ran the netstat command and the vast majority of it is just chrome with over a dozen TIME_WAIT states at least.

Important to note this slowness is as a whole on the PC, even opening the start menu can take 10-15 seconds sometimes.

johnbl · Oct 11, 2018

you might start cmd.exe or powershell as an admin and run

dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
then go to control panel and turn off the system virtual memory to delete your c:\pagefile.sys, reboot and turn it back on.
then do a malwarebytes scan.

I would also go your browser and delete the internet cache files if you have not done so already.

after that I would download and run crystaldiskinfo.exe to see if the drives are having problems. I would also make sure the drives are in AHCI mode rather than ide mode.

there are some USB devices that just flood the system with errors over and over it puts them in a internal error log.
and can really slow the system down. These devices leave their device driver even if they are unplugged from the system. the device driver becomes hidden. you can have the system show hidden devices and remove them.
this tool from here can help find some errors in the USB. here is a good version of the tool:
https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html

be sure to do a malwarebytes scan or a adware scan. lots of the new malware is being run off of the graphics hardware to calculate bitcoins.

AbsoluteGuardian :

AbsoluteGuardian · Oct 11, 2018

johnbl :

you might start cmd.exe or powershell as an admin and run

dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
then go to control panel and turn off the system virtual memory to delete your c:\pagefile.sys, reboot and turn it back on.
then do a malwarebytes scan.

I would also go your browser and delete the internet cache files if you have not done so already.

after that I would download and run crystaldiskinfo.exe to see if the drives are having problems. I would also make sure the drives are in AHCI mode rather than ide mode.

there are some USB devices that just flood the system with errors over and over it puts them in a internal error log.
and can really slow the system down. These devices leave their device driver even if they are unplugged from the system. the device driver becomes hidden. you can have the system show hidden devices and remove them.
this tool from here can help find some errors in the USB. here is a good version of the tool:
https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html

be sure to do a malwarebytes scan or a adware scan. lots of the new malware is being run off of the graphics hardware to calculate bitcoins.

AbsoluteGuardian :

Ran the dism command multiple times in the past, always comes up with everything being fine.

I'm a bit skeptical about deleting the pagefile...

Deleted the internet cache, used crystaldisk before and the speeds seem somewhat slow.

I've wanted to switch from IDE to AHCI but the last time I tried it, Windows 10 would not boot in AHCI and then had to 'repair' itself multiple times before it started working again on IDE.

MBAM scan is clean. I tend not to download linkinpark.exe

johnbl · Oct 11, 2018

to change from ide mode to ahci mode you have to make a registry setting in windows before you change the mode in bios. the registry setting will load the driver you need and will let the system recognize the drive.
google something like "how to change from ide mode to ahci mode without reinstalling windows"
and you should find the registry info that you need to set. AHCI mode will be faster and will have fewer bugs in the driver.

deleting the pagefile.sys is useful in certain conditions. it can dump some malware that is hidden in the pagefile.sys
and it can fix certain issues where a pagefile.sys is stored on bad sectors or on a SSD that has firmware bugs preventing relocations of blocks. just turning off virtual memory and turning it back on should delete the file and create a new one. I would use a different size to make sure.

the new windows 10 version that came out on 0ct 9 (the fixed version) should block more malware that is messing up video cards.

AbsoluteGuardian :

johnbl :

Ran the dism command multiple times in the past, always comes up with everything being fine.

I'm a bit skeptical about deleting the pagefile...

Deleted the internet cache, used crystaldisk before and the speeds seem somewhat slow.

I've wanted to switch from IDE to AHCI but the last time I tried it, Windows 10 would not boot in AHCI and then had to 'repair' itself multiple times before it started working again on IDE.

MBAM scan is clean. I tend not to download linkinpark.exe

Colif · Oct 12, 2018

malware messing up video cards?

Listen to john, he might be able to fix the problems that have lingered

AbsoluteGuardian · Oct 12, 2018

johnbl :

to change from ide mode to ahci mode you have to make a registry setting in windows before you change the mode in bios. the registry setting will load the driver you need and will let the system recognize the drive.
google something like "how to change from ide mode to ahci mode without reinstalling windows"
and you should find the registry info that you need to set. AHCI mode will be faster and will have fewer bugs in the driver.

deleting the pagefile.sys is useful in certain conditions. it can dump some malware that is hidden in the pagefile.sys
and it can fix certain issues where a pagefile.sys is stored on bad sectors or on a SSD that has firmware bugs preventing relocations of blocks. just turning off virtual memory and turning it back on should delete the file and create a new one. I would use a different size to make sure.

the new windows 10 version that came out on 0ct 9 (the fixed version) should block more malware that is messing up video cards.

AbsoluteGuardian :

johnbl :

Ran the dism command multiple times in the past, always comes up with everything being fine.

I'm a bit skeptical about deleting the pagefile...

Deleted the internet cache, used crystaldisk before and the speeds seem somewhat slow.

I've wanted to switch from IDE to AHCI but the last time I tried it, Windows 10 would not boot in AHCI and then had to 'repair' itself multiple times before it started working again on IDE.

MBAM scan is clean. I tend not to download linkinpark.exe

Switched to AHCI successfully.

Deleted the page file.

Ran MBAM again, came out clean.

Windows is up to date.

Still slow

Peter Martin · Oct 12, 2018

get an ssd

AbsoluteGuardian · Oct 13, 2018

Another BSOD just now but still no minidump, this is despite the fact that all my settings are set up to save one.

KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED
storahci.sys

johnbl · Oct 13, 2018

you should provide the minidump file so it can be looked at with a windows debugger.
the first parameter of the bugcheck is generally the error code. it can be useful in predicting the cause of the problem.-

generally a bugcheck in a storage driver can be several things:
disk errors (run crytstaldiskinfo.exe to read smart error report)
storage driver host controller is out of date or does not match the bios version. Update the sata driver for the cpu chipset and any external usb 3.x chipset from your motherboard vendors website.
some malware can infect storage drivers, generally you would run cmd.exe or powershell as an admin and run
dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
then run a Malwarebytes scan

there can be many other causes, it depends on the error code in the bugcheck.

AbsoluteGuardian :

AbsoluteGuardian · Oct 13, 2018

johnbl :

you should provide the minidump file so it can be looked at with a windows debugger.
the first parameter of the bugcheck is generally the error code. it can be useful in predicting the cause of the problem.-

generally a bugcheck in a storage driver can be several things:
disk errors (run crytstaldiskinfo.exe to read smart error report)
storage driver host controller is out of date or does not match the bios version. Update the sata driver for the cpu chipset and any external usb 3.x chipset from your motherboard vendors website.
some malware can infect storage drivers, generally you would run cmd.exe or powershell as an admin and run
dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
then run a Malwarebytes scan

there can be many other causes, it depends on the error code in the bugcheck.

AbsoluteGuardian :

...Like I said, the computer didn't save a minidump, despite my settings being configured to save one.

Also like I said, I ran the dism command and it came out fine. Nothing was fixed by it. I've also ran two MBAM scans, also like I said.

johnbl · Oct 13, 2018

overheated cpu will start to throttle the cpu to low speed.
force a kernel memory dump and provide a link so it can be looked at
---
google "how to force a memory dump using a keyboard" then make the registry setting and then force the memory dump while the system is working. provide the memory dump file. it can show problems well before the system crashes.
if you change the memory dump type to kernel, and provide the much larger memory.dmp file it will have the internal error logs that can be looked at. it will also have more hardware info about problems with the USB subsystem and plug and plug and play.

generally, if the system will not save a memory dump:
update the bios, update the sata drivers from the motherboard vendors website.
check the status of the drive using crystaldiskinfo.exe
make sure you have virtual memory paging file on c:\pagefile.sys and it is large enough
make sure there is free space on drive c:

only certain classes of bugcheck will not save a memory dump.

AbsoluteGuardian :

AbsoluteGuardian · Oct 13, 2018

johnbl :

overheated cpu will start to throttle the cpu to low speed.
force a kernel memory dump and provide a link so it can be looked at
---
google "how to force a memory dump using a keyboard" then make the registry setting and then force the memory dump while the system is working. provide the memory dump file. it can show problems well before the system crashes.
if you change the memory dump type to kernel, and provide the much larger memory.dmp file it will have the internal error logs that can be looked at. it will also have more hardware info about problems with the USB subsystem and plug and plug and play.

generally, if the system will not save a memory dump:
update the bios, update the sata drivers from the motherboard vendors website.
check the status of the drive using crystaldiskinfo.exe
make sure you have virtual memory paging file on c:\pagefile.sys and it is large enough
make sure there is free space on drive c:

only certain classes of bugcheck will not save a memory dump.

AbsoluteGuardian :

There are no SATA drivers available for my motherboard. The BIOS is already at the latest version (which came out in 2013)

AbsoluteGuardian · Oct 16, 2018

Looks like it's gg friends.

Was playing a game earlier today, computer suddenly switched off. No freeze, no BSOD, just instantly off.

Tried to turn it back on, it wouldn't.

I gave it a couple minutes and tried again, it started to switch on and then I noticed a thin line of smoke that came up through the case vent. I just killed it via the power button and that's that.

I've opened the case, no scorch marks on anything. Can't see any capacitors blown on the motherboard, but I guess that's it. Can't afford a new PC or to get this one checked out so that's game over. Thanks for playing.

Colif · Oct 17, 2018

PC painfully slow for the longest time, feels like it's getting slower

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