Will a hardware malfunction cause processor slowdown?

I have a Toshiba Laptop - about 2 years old. It has a celeron mobile 4A processor running at 1800Mhz, 256MB ram, running windows XP home edition.

About 1 month ago, the computer began running very sluggish. It will not even play a CD from the drive without multiple breaks in the music, takes 5 seconds to open a window etc. It behaved like a spyware attack, so I got help from the guys at the spyware forum. Nothing we did made any difference, so in frustration I backed everything up, and nuked the unit back to the original factory settings with the recovery CD's they sent in the unit. This performs a complete hard drive format and re-install of Windows and other assorted junk.

After a complete wipe and re-install, I find that the unit still has the same problem. The only thing that seemed to have survived the install was the BIOS power-up password I was using before I wiped it. When I rebooted after the the install, it still wanted the same password.

Is it possible that some hardware error is causing the machine to run this slow, or could it be something in the BIOS.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated - I am getting to the point where I want to take the machine out back and relieve my frustrations with a very large hammer.

Thanks

 

The Bios password is stored seperately from the information on the hard drive, so that explains that. As for the slow downs, normally I'd recommend a virus scan, but with a complete format, there shouldn't be any. I'd use memtest first of all, and make sure your ram is still good. I also recommend trying FreeRAMXP. It works wonders for my computer, which is a lot slower than yours. Might also consider a battery check, to make sure you're receiving full power from it. Unless you're on AC, in which case...

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I ran memtest - it seemed to run o.k., but closed itself down without any report about the results of the test so I am assuming it worked o.k.

I also upgraded the bios to the latest one toshiba has.

Still no improvement - machine runs very slowly. In addition now, the fan seems to have quit cooling the machine.

Any other ideas

 

If it closed itself down, I think it should be run again. Most of the people here normally suggest leaving it go for a few hours. Might not be an option for you, but...

The only other idea I have is: Buy a new laptop, and donate this one.

 

Thanks for your help - I think I may follow your suggestion.

Have a great day

 

Since you did a fresh format/install of Windows, I also wanted to comment on couple of other factors that would effect the system to start running significantly slower than before:

~ Failed fan on PSU and or CPU causing overheat (or failing PSU).
~ Failing HardDrive.
~ Also (a small but valid possibility) a fresh install including format/fdisk may not clear boot sector virial infections!