Computer Massive slowdown

[crisscross]

My laptop slows down to a crawl randomly even when I am not doing anything CPU intensive like browsing on Firefox (10 tabs at best). Closing everything doesn't help and I have to shutdown and restart my Laptop.

I close everything and check the task manager which takes ages to show up and CPU usage keep hovering between 20% to 100%

I don't see any apps with high CPU Load (Just System process using over 70%)

I checked drive fitness tests with no luck. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Dell Latitude E6410
Core i5
6GB RAM
Windows 7

 

[VirtualLarry]

Either overheating, or malware, I think. Possibly a buggy device-driver.

"System" process, should not be taking over 70%. That means a kernel-mode function is sucking up all of the CPU time, which does not normally happen.

It's also possible that your CPU is throttling due to overheat. Open CPU-Z, and keep an eye on the clocks, and see if they go down when this is happening.

 

[crisscross]

Thanks VirtualLarry. I installed Speedfan and cpu temps were over 60 during the slowdown. It seemed to work ok once the temp cooled down to mid 50's

 

[random2]

You might want to run Malwarebytes Malware Remover and any other anti-virus and spyware aps you might have in safemode.

Knowing how much people like to use their laptops on their laps, on bedspreads etc, at the very least it might also be an idea to clean it out with compressed air . I'd be inclined to pull it apart to clean it, particularly if it's not being used on hard surfaces much.

You can also check how much of the CPU time is being used by the kernel. Bring up performance in Task Manager, hit view and at the bottom of the drop down menu is "show kernel times".

 

[crisscross]

Thanks guys ran Dell Diagnostics for CPU and Processor fan both look to be working fine. Disabled all programs in startup now been 4-5 hours.. no slowdowns so far.

 

[crisscross]

Same problem again. Taskmanager shows 100% CPU Load. Took screenshots on my phone. Sorry about the poor quality of the images guys.

http://imgur.com/a/sGr21

 

[VirtualLarry]

From those pictures, I don't see anything taking up over 20% CPU power.

It appears, that your computer is just slow. (?) Except I just double-checked your specs, and you are running an i5. Def. should not be slow, nor using that much CPU time.

So let's assume that firefox, Lview32, and whatever else your running, all try to spike to 100% CPU time, and they only get a 20% share due to everything running at the same time.

So what would cause 100% spikes in CPU time on those apps? It sounds like device drivers, or hardware. Or a corrupted firefox profile or add-on.

Have you tried uninstalling Flash Player, creating a new firefox profile, and then re-installing Flash Player, and then testing it out?

The other possibility, is that the i5 isn't clocking as high as it should be (stuck in low speedstep states). This can be caused by a malfunctioning power adapter for a laptop, where the center data pin is either broken or damaged, or you are using a 3rd-party power adapter.

 

[crisscross]

Just a quick update. The problem continues but I have realized that I can recover from it by killing plugin-container in firefox under processes in Task Manager. I have no idea what's happening but I think it's firefox/flash which is the problem. Using Chrome for now.