HP Pavilion Laptop Slow Performance Problems

[ValentineKills]

I bought an HP Pavilion laptop very recently. It has Windows 8, and arrived in the mail not more than a week ago. The first thing I did after the obligatory setup process was to restore the files from my old laptop (which broke) via ClickFree (currently I have 625 of 677GB free), and once that was completed, I installed several programs (Office, Vipre, Photoshop, etc.). Apart from that, I have done very little to the actual hard drive of the computer, since I save everything externally on my ClickFree.

My problems started occurring rather suddenly, early Wednesday morning. In Firefox, I opened a tab to go to Facebook, and scrolling through the news feed seemed rather sluggish. I closed the tab, but the sluggishness continued in the other tabs I had open, and then spread to programs not involving the Internet. These problems have gradually worsened.

On the Internet, performance is especially slow. I have given up on video players like Netflix, since they freeze the browser to the point of crashing. Loading pages is extremely delayed, even typing this message experiences freezes, despite the fact that I have nothing else running in the browser. There are frequent messages warning of unresponsive plugins and scripts (though ironically, these messages often become unresponsive before I can end the offending plugin or script). It is difficult to actually do anything on the Internet, as loading pages and switching tabs can take many minutes. Just clicking can cause the browser to freeze for minutes at a time.

Off the Internet, programs load extremely slowly, often freezing. Opening folders sometimes, with increasing frequency, results in a green loading bar at the top of the screen. Sometimes this bar gets stuck and cannot finish, and I cannot access the contents of the folder; this happened while I tried to open Control Panel, to get more specific information about the computer to include in this message. Sometimes programs, like video players, open without actually playing the video file, or they don't open at all. Often these programs freeze, and sometimes crash; the desktop and the explorer bar at the bottom of the screen (with the Start menu, etc.) are not unlikely to freeze or disappear altogether, for varying degrees of time. When I first got the computer, CPU usage averaged around 4-6%, but now it averages 40-60%.

Starting up the computer has also become difficult and time-consuming. The last time I restarted, I entered my login password only to be granted a completely black screen for at least half an hour; my desktop and icons only appeared when  I pressed control-alt-delete. After that, I stopped turning off the computer (this was not long ago). This morning, I opened the laptop to log in, but was only given a "please wait" while the computer tried to load the login page. This took ten-fifteen minutes, and then I was finally able to enter my password.

These issues are only getting worse, and I'm sure I am forgetting several, but I believe what I have included is sufficient to illustrate my problem. This is a brand new laptop, but it runs almost as poorly as my old laptop, which became unusable recently and had to be replaced with this one. I can't imagine what is causing this, but I would really love to have it fixed. I installed a program called Fix-It Utilities (the installation disc came with the laptop) to try to improve the laptop's performance, but to no avail. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[SuperMario1 · Accepted solution]

Hello ValentineKills. I understand the computer is slow. I will do my best to assist you!

This can be caused by a hardware failure or software/driver/virus conflict. However, we won't know until troubleshooting is done.

I'm going to provide a few official documents that provide information on how to speed up the computer. I want you to follow all the steps, in all the documents. This way, if the issue exists, it will narrow down the root cause. Here are the documents I want you to try:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2746761

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03460887

Since you are running Windows 8, I do have an additional suggestion: Complete all Windows updates, then update the computer to Windows 8.1. While the operating system is upgrading, try using the computer and see if the speed is any different.

Please respond when you complete this troubleshooting. I'm only here to help!

Mario

[Drulz]

Please my hp dv6 laptop slows when it plays movie.. Started a2days back.. It uses windows 8.1 . Help i have refreahed system

[Dordon]

 The PC slows due to some common problems related to hardware & software.

Visit the link below to identify the problem in your case and possible solution:

Link to possible solutions

[julialloyds2988]

HP Pavilion Laptop  Performance speed is determined by three things: the CPU, the memory and the disk drive(s). The primary reason a disk slows down is fragmentation. Fragmentation is essentially little bits of data or information that are spread over a large disk area causing the hard drive to work harder and slower than previous.Disk fragmentation is a natural occurrence and accumulation of each and every time a computer whenever it is used. When files are saved in small pieces scattered across the hard drive, the system must work harder to locate the exact data. 

With the help of the Reimage Repair tool you can increase the performance of your PC it helps in defragging the disk easily with 1 click.  Reimage not only scans your operating system for problems, but it also keeps an eye on your hardware to identify whether it has any problems. It is the ultimate performance optimizer for PCs and laptops. It stores files contiguously, end-to-end without fragmentation, so you get faster PC— without any effort.  

[Kountryboy02269]

I have an hp with windows 7 I have been having problems for awhile now it is running very slow and won't download files anymore and won't register my iPhone as being connected it wouldn't even boot up for two months then one day I was finally able to reboot it what do I do

[jephta]

I recently bought a HP pavilion 15 with windows 8.1 and it takes long time to boot, please help me out

[LazIce02]

Hi, I think we have the same problems
I brought HP Pavilion model 11-n028TU. Its a 64-bit laptop tablet with genuine Windows 8 instaled. I've updated it to Windows 8.1 and it was perfect. But when I update it to the windows 10, it is really bad that I wish to have the 8.1 back.
The Windows 10 is not stable for my laptop. Some games I play have frame drops. Some of them hangs. The Edge is the only browser that only can be used. When i tried Chrome, it was really laggy. And many more that i don't have to tell about it.
Since the genuine Windows 8 is installed from the factory build, can I get back from Windows 10 to a genuine Windows 8 ? Is it possible to have a genuine Windows 8 without wasting money buying it ? Tell me how, please !

[shubham_yadav]

2 months ago I have bought this hp pavilion 15-r008TX after installing android studio and some updates it's speed is tremendously decreased what should I do to boost up it's speed or at least I should get my old speed back all this is happening after installing some updates of 8.1....inform me fast

[ferenczoltan]

HP TS-11 e004au windows 8 - slow as a wet week

Upgraded to 8.1 - a bit better but it still felt like my 486 on dial-up 20 years ago.

Upgraded to Windows 10 - a bit better again but still slow.

Reset to factory, upgraded to 8.1, updated and immediately upgraded to Windows 10 - now it feels like a late model PC 🙂