2

Laptop specs:

i7 Q720 @ 1.60GHz
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series (this is what device manager lists it at but it should be 5830 to be exact)
6 GB of RAM

It's an HP Envy 15-1000se CTO, other specs can be reviewed based on that model.

Eliminated all processes I knew were unnecessary and still had lag issues. Processes running:

~70

The computer used to run fine before the last wipe and load I did, but now it lags when using firefox or gaming. Here are the differences:

- Removed Linux partition
- Many additional applications and games installed

Removed my Linux partition to extend the C drive. Extending the C drive corrupted Windows so I had to reinstall to boot up properly again. Could this cause any issues? If so, is there any way to investigate?

I have many more games installed than before the reinstall. (Couldn't help myself with the Steam holiday sales) How much does it affect system performance to have more applications installed? Again, processes running at the time of lag was only ~70, none of which were the games I had installed.

Finally, the laptop is nearing two years old. I know age of electronics can affect performance but how much of an issue is this usually? How can I gauge whether this is a hardware or software issue?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

6
  • Sounds like your hard disk is dying
    – Sathyajith Bhat
    Jan 24, 2012 at 12:14
  • Hm, that's fun... Any way to verify that's the issue? Windows experience index gives the lowest rating to the processor at 4.7 and the hard disk is next at 5.7. Not sure how accurate that is though.
    – Matt
    Jan 24, 2012 at 15:42
  • Windows Experience Index isn't really an benchmarking tool, neither is it a tool to detect for failures in hardware. Try using a tool like HD Tune to check for SMART errors or failures. Also have a look at this question - How to check the health of a hard drive
    – Sathyajith Bhat
    Jan 24, 2012 at 15:45
  • Didn't think it was. I'll check those out, thanks.
    – Matt
    Jan 24, 2012 at 16:30
  • (C7) Ultra DMA CRC Error Count (3 interface communication errors, may be caused by a damaged cable). Reading up on it it doesn't seem like a big issue. Not sure how to check for SMART errors though, didn't see anything on it other than a checkbox on the info tab. I'll be back in a bit to try it out again.
    – Matt
    Jan 24, 2012 at 16:51

1 Answer 1

0

This feels like a dying hard drive, but I wouldn't diagnose a computer I'm not sitting at. Why not open up Resource Monitor and see where your bottleneck is.

I'd pay special interest to your disk's queue length. If it spends a lot of time with anything in the queue, I would assume it is the disk. Running a program that could check your SMART status, like HD Tune, may tell you the drive is going bad, but SMART can and does give false positives, if the drive does not log errors to SMART.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .