Regarding my slow Dell computer: Thanks to all of you who have responded with observations and suggestions. I have run MalwareBytes - nothing found I have not yet tried removing some...

AnotherBob

Thanks to all of you who have responded with observations and suggestions.
I have run MalwareBytes - nothing found
I have not yet tried removing some of the the RAM to determine the impact of that.
I do normally run McAfee, which can be a CPU pig, but Task Manager does not indicate that to be the case currently. I have removed it from "startup."
Access to my new Samsung T7 external SSD is quicker than accessing any of the three internal drives. Will experiment with shutting down internal drives D and E to see the impact.
CCleaner was basically an ad for "Buy our Pro version." Accomplished nothing.

I'm still working on it. My not responding to each suggestion does not mean I am not reading them. I appreciate your input. /Bob

nison777 Loc: illinois u.s.a.

To start McAfee and Norton will generally suck the life out of your computer... Eventually...

You may want to try using Kaspersky ect...

If you choose to change to another...
Run the software removal tool for the previous anti virus software to permanently remove all traces...

HitMan pro is another virus check option...To start McAfee and Norton will generally suck the life out of your computer... Eventually...

You may want to try using Kaspersky ect...

If you choose to change to another...
Run the software removal tool for the previous anti virus software to permanently remove all traces...

HitMan pro is another virus check option...

joanloy Loc: St. Louis, MO

nison777 wrote:

To start McAfee and Norton will generally suck th... (show quote)

I would recommend against Kaspersky because it is a Russian company. I use
ESET which runs quietly in the background, and is not a space hog.

BebuLamar

joanloy wrote:

I would recommend against Kaspersky because it is a Russian company. I use
ESET which runs quietly in the background, and is not a space hog.

I have a computer and our IT dep installed Kaspersky on it. I reformatted the hard drive. Reinstalled the OS and it run about 10 times faster.

alexol

You mentioned 24 GB of RAM.

This is an unusual number - I've never heard of anything other than 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and for very lucky people, 128.

Is it possible that you should have 32 and one bank of 4 has failed?

Such a failure would slow everything down in the manner of a flat tire on a car. The other three might be perfect but...

delder Loc: Maryland

On the memory front, check the manual for your SPECIFIC Dell Computer for "ALLOWED " memory configurations.
MY XPS 8930 has SPECIFIC slot allocations, expecting each bank to be populated the same or empty.
Sometimes it involves replacing existing smaller chips.

User ID

alexol wrote:

You mentioned 24 GB of RAM.

This is an unusual number - I've never heard of anything other than 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and for very lucky people, 128.

Is it possible that you should have 32 and one bank of 4 has failed?

Such a failure would slow everything down in the manner of a flat tire on a car. The other three might be perfect but...

That is addressed in the opening post.

If theres some special procedure for it, that possibly the OP neglected to follow, maybe you could dig deeper into that !

BebuLamar

alexol wrote:

You mentioned 24 GB of RAM.

This is an unusual number - I've never heard of anything other than 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and for very lucky people, 128.

Is it possible that you should have 32 and one bank of 4 has failed?

Such a failure would slow everything down in the manner of a flat tire on a car. The other three might be perfect but...

My computer came with 12GB. I could upgrade to 24GB but I upgraded to 48GB. None of the amount match your numbers. The reason? My computer has 3 memory channels instead of 2.

Earnest Botello Loc: Hockley, Texas

AnotherBob wrote:

Thanks to all of you who have responded with obser... (show quote)

Bob, I only run Windows Defender and MalwareBytes on mine, that is all you need IMHO. I have been running it like this for many months along with Chrome, it works great for me.

rgschini Loc: East Peoria, IL

Don't see where you did a restore to a earlier time when it was running ok. Usually fixes for me.

Polock

Try running crystaldiskinfo
https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/
that spinning disk could be slowing down everything but still work, then one day it won't
what drive is your OS on? please don't say the spinny disk

letmedance Loc: Walnut, Ca.

have you checked the CPU heat sink and fan. A dirty heat sink or slow fan can cause the CPU to step down to a slower speed in order to allow cooling of the CPU.

dan59019 Loc: Washington Mi

I recently had the same issue with my laptop - it is about 3 years old - I came to the conclusion that it was time for a severe housecleaning. I backed up all my applications and data and made sure I had all my licenses documented. Then I has a strong drink and formatted the hard drive and reinstalled Windows 10. It took me a while to reinstall everything as a clean install. Once done I was really surprised by the new found speed! not having all of the "updates" and their associated leftovers as well as a clean windows install really made a difference - it is like a bought a new laptop! It was also less expensive and I did not have to worry that there were viruses or malware hanging around.

BebuLamar

dan59019 wrote:

I recently had the same issue with my laptop - it ... (show quote)

That what I suggested but I think few people want to do that. But try installing more software to weave out the old bad software isn't going to work very well.

tcthome Loc: NJ

AnotherBob wrote:

Thanks to all of you who have responded with obser... (show quote)

Do you know the temps your cpu & gpu are running at? Sometimes opening it up, cleaning helps & there is a gel that i believe you put on the cpu (probably a video on how to apply the gel on you tube) to help keep the temp down which should help with the performance of your machine. Good luck.