Sorry Another Slow System Question

ALyons

Commendable
Jan 27, 2017
9
0
1,520
I hate to ask another "my computer has slowed down" question but i'm at my wits end here. I bought a refurbished dell Precision M4800 about 2 years ago which ran like a beast for the first year-14 months. Then all of a sudden just started creeping. Reset with windows 10 reset function but left the files alone and it was back to its usual lightning self. About 8 months later the same thing happened then about a month after that.
Each time prior to a reset I ran antivirus (kaspersky my main defence), briefly installed and ran Malwarbytes + adwarecleaner, and a few other little junkware removal tools but came up empty most of the time. Uninstalled them afterwards so they are not causing conflicts/using resources.
This last time the computer is still sluggish even after a reset. Particularly noticeable when trying to open file explorer which used to be instantaneous but now takes about 8 seconds, as well as well as the search bar which hangs for a couple of seconds after the first character input.

I have cut down as many startup programs as possible, now only a few sound programs and the antivirus.
This last time I have checked both the SSD which the system is on and the HDD which holds my documents/large-non vital programs (games/music etc). Several different programs have verified that these are running ok.
I have tried with windows-search and superfetch both on and off.
The only changes I have made about the same time as it slowed were to install 2 games (both legit copies through steam and about 6Gb total place on the HDD not the system drive) and a windows update came out a few days before which it won't let me get rid of.

Hardware usage is sitting at less than 6% CPU, >20% Ram, and disk depends on what is happening but sitting sub 10% most of the time

It runs as well as it used to if I start in safe-mode which makes me think that it is either a software or graphics card issue as i think safe mode doesn't run dedicated cards?.

System specs are as follows:
Intel Corie i7-4800MQ
256GB Sandisk X110 SSD (system)
1TB WD HDD (docs/other non-vital programs)
16GB DDR3 Memory (standard Dell issue, not actually sure which brand)
Intel HD graphics 4600 (integrated GPU)
NVIDIA Qaudro K2100M (Dedicated GPU)

The only other difference between the last failure and previous times is that the speakers appear to have picked up a bug as well, buzzing sometimes.

All drivers are up to date.

Anything else I can try would be greatly appreciated- I have to try and get CAD to run on this thing before i head back to Uni which is just not going to happen at the moment.

The only thing I can think of left is to try a memory diagnostic which I will run tonight.

Thanks,

Angus
 
Solution
After some further searching through HWiNFO64, isolated the throttling to On Demand Clock Modulation seemingly being stuck at 43.8%. So now have the usual CPU throttling to save power/temp but have disabled type-c modes in BIOS.
Hope this helps anyone else having issues to at least get back to standard performance even if it is a bit of a rubbish workaround.

ALyons

Commendable
Jan 27, 2017
9
0
1,520
Ok, so after some further digging I have found it was the CPU, seems that Intel's Power saving tech was permanently throttling the CPU to about 13% capacity even when doing benchmark tests. Went through the BIOS and disabled everything that allowed CPU throttling and am now back to 100% usage at bench-marking and 5-10% ish when idle. Only issue now is that the computer is screaming like a banshee and getting warm pretty quick.

Any ideas how to get around this hack job of a solution?
Have updated the BIOS in an attempt to fix it but no luck there.

Thanks
 

ALyons

Commendable
Jan 27, 2017
9
0
1,520
After some further searching through HWiNFO64, isolated the throttling to On Demand Clock Modulation seemingly being stuck at 43.8%. So now have the usual CPU throttling to save power/temp but have disabled type-c modes in BIOS.
Hope this helps anyone else having issues to at least get back to standard performance even if it is a bit of a rubbish workaround.
 
Solution