Slow response computer, with core i7 and 6GB ram

Hi,

I have a very recent installation of Windows 7 - Main Hardware is:

Core i7 920
3 x 2GB ram (6gb)
2 x 500GB HD (ONe for OS, one for data)

Computer randomly starts performing very very slowly. I've checked the average disk queue length, and it hovers around 0.75 - 1.25. Disk time is between 7 - 20%.

What I found strange is there are processes in the task manager having page fault deltas of over 3,000, constantly. One of these is dwm.exe. First of all, aren't page faults swapping from hard disk to memory? I expect with 6GB ram, it shouldn't happen that frequently.

Task Manager is marking RAM as:

Total: 6142
Cached: 1895
Available: 2181
Free: 361

Any ideas why this might be happening? I was thinking it might be the hard disk, and i recently reinstalled windows on a brand new HD, but still it sometimes performs very slowly. Especially, when I am shutdowning and I have quite a good amount of programs opened, it takes literally ages to load a program, click on the close button, etc.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

The hard drive is definitely something I would focus on. I recently bought a new laptop and was having random freezing issues. The entire system would completely lock up for up to 30 seconds, then catch up and keep working. This happened about 4-5 times a day. As soon as I bought an SSD and installed it, I pulled my magnetic drive out of the laptop (2 drive bays in my system)once my data was moved over and used it for a couple more days. No freezing.

Worst part was, all of the diagnostics I ran on the drive since then found no faults or errors of any kind.

If you have a spare drive you can pop in and install a fresh copy of Windows on, do so. No activation is needed.. just run it like you are now... install the same apps and use them like you would any other day. See if the problem goes away.

DWM.exe is actually Desktop Windows Manager and is responsible for the process that generates the windows in their various views and guises on your desktop. The page faults that appear due to this process are normal. DWM is not the cause of your issue. This link is about Vista but the principle is the same for Win 7.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/win [...] t-running/

Check the power settings for the HDD. With that amount of RAM it probably goes for long periods without being accessed. The default is 20 mins I think. When the HDD has to wake up there will be a terrible lag.

Make sure Win 7 is Service Pack 1 with all the required updates.

Make sure your GPU has the latest drivers from AMD or NVIDIA depending on your card. (You didn't state)

Certainly download the latest Drivers for your GPU's. It sounds like you could benefit from a faster HDD. I wouldn't waste my time with readyboost.