Mysterious Freezes And Other Performance Issues With My Laptop Computer

Hello, MajorGeeks -- you may remember me from my other thread about my other computer, but I've been having some issues lately with a different computer of mine, and don't really know where else to go.

I'm using a Gateway Intel Atom N2600 laptop computer which runs Windows 7 Starter, and have been experiencing some unusual problems in the past week, while some errors have actually lasted for longer than that. I'll start with the most recent problem: for the past several days, after otherwise normal operation, my laptop's operating speed has slowed to a crawl -- so much so that it can take upwards of two hours or more for me to open a browser window, and the entire computer has become unresponsive on several occasions, forcing a kill-switch shutdown to be performed. The computer is also very slow to shut down or start up under normal circumstances as of late. A couple of days ago, I decided to try opening my computer in Safe Mode and noticed that many of my common apps both loaded and responded faster than in Normal Mode, suggesting that some operation in Normal Mode is causing the sluggishness. The biggest problem of all is my laptop's inability to properly function with a WiFi connection, either failing to detect any, or abruptly disconnecting from it. Apart from being a problem in using Internet browsers, this has crippled certain applications that require an Internet connection, such as the virus and spyware definitions update for Microsoft Security Essentials, for instance. I already have an appointment to replace our WiFi receiver hours from now, so I'm hoping that matter will be corrected soon enough. I'll be sure to update the forum once I'm able after the tech visit.

Another issue I've noticed for a little while is an error message on start-up that says, "Windows was unable to connect to a Windows service." I presumed this might have stemmed from Windows' decision to end support for Windows 7 later this year, but now I'm not quite as certain why this happens on nearly every start-up. I've attempted to troubleshoot this issue a few times already, with no real success to speak of. In recent weeks, however, this error message never appeared, and all taskbar and desktop functions and behaviors seemed normal for a while up until the freezing and unresponsiveness issues began this past Tuesday. I wonder if this inability to connect with the Windows service might be the root of the other issue I've described, or perhaps it's wholly separate from the other problems.

Retracing my steps on the Monday before the problems started, all I did prior to shutdown was use the RealDownloader app to capture a few videos from Facebook, and conducted a normal proper shutdown to turn off the computer, but don't recall anything unusual that might explain the terrible performance on start-up the next morning. I recently used Microsoft Security Essentials to conduct a near-16-and-a-half-hour full scan of over 1,575,000 files on my hard drive, which detected no problematic files; however, the virus and spyware definitions seemingly can't be updated because of the network connection problems, and haven't been updated since the day before the performance problems surfaced last week. I've performed a few disk cleanup operations and doubled my disk space by moving some files to external drives, but it hasn't seemed to help very much -- especially considering the slow rate of speed the cut-and-paste task took. The best clues to the issue were the complications of our home WiFi network, and how certain applications worked better while tinkering around in Safe Mode.

I'm sorry I can't offer a lot of specifics right this minute, but I wanted to ask for everyone's expert opinions on possible causes for these performance issues, and for any tips or suggestions on how to fix the problems, or otherwise improve my laptop's performance. If more information is needed, please ask, and if possible, I'll try to get it for you. Don't know if I can expect any miracles here, but I'm asking for everyone to just try to give a guy some help.

Thanks in advance,
adonisunlimited

 

Welcome plodr -- thanks for your reply.

First things first, the technician came out earlier today to perform some tweaks on our WiFi network. While it did improve performance on some of our wireless devices, the WiFi still wasn't connecting well for my laptop, which was the biggest problem as of late. Both the tech and I came to the conclusion that the laptop was having its own problems, despite the repeated assertions from Windows troubleshooting applications claiming that thee were problems with our connection; likely, whatever's going on with the laptop is interfering with the device's ability to receive WiFi signals. I said I would provide an update to today's service call once I was available, so here it was.

To answer your particular question, plodr, if not mistaken, I currently have 7 or 8 Gigabytes of space left on the hard drive out of a maximum of about 250GB. It was as low as 3 or 4GB last week before the trouble started. I attempted a transfer of a number of files to an external drive to free up space, but the process was going about 2MB/sec and occasionally much lower than that, so I stopped the process once the space got to about 8GB again. Not to mention the assorted disk clean-ups that have been performed over the last week to create even more space, on top of what was done with the aforementioned file movements. I've had the space get far lower than this in the past and didn't have this much trouble, but for good measure, I'll be attempting to complete the transferral of files once again sometime tomorrow, which could get me at or around 15GB of free space once completed.

Of course, if this doesn't work, I'll be back to let everyone know and ask for any other tips that might correct these issues.

Thanks,
adonisunlimited


P.S. I am also open to suggestions of any optimizers or cleanup tools that might be useful in such a situation. I invested in a FixMeStick a couple of months ago, well before the computer performance got this poor, but it hasn't seemed to work as well as advertised (it freezes after scanning, but performs no cleanup tasks). Sure, I'll take common-sense suggestions and apply them wherever possible, but they may have been tried already and didn't quite work, so please keep mulling over some probable solutions and feel welcome to share them here.

 

It does seem that the answer might be to get a bigger drive and clone your existing disk onto it.
500GB SSD's are not too expensive. You would also need a SATA usb connection.
Good luck.
s.

 

You do need space to work efficiently, as Plodr said.
It will be slow removing files, for some time- best done in small stages, of say a couple/three at a time, and for as as many files as you can. As the space increases,then it will speed up transfers, but it will take time and patience
If it only has 1gb ram, it seems that you can upgrade to a 2 gb stick

One user has said,
"Computer is a little slow with 1gb ram, but I installed a 2 gb stick , and a 4gb sd card that helped. On occasions it would reboot by itself. I upgraded it with all new drivers and it improved a lot".
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/58916/Intel-Atom-Processor-N2600-1M-Cache-1-6-GHz-

You would use the sd card as readyboost to boost yours
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb...ia-readyboost-with-a-sd-card-or-a-flash-drive

 

Welcome Stephen_c16 and baklogic (a familiar name on my other topic); thanks for sparing some precious time to come here.

Before replying to our latest guests, I'll update on events since my last message. Again, still a bit confused about why low drive space would cause wireless connection problems, but as I said I would, I went ahead and finished the relocation of a number of files (and a couple of old program folders in my C:// drive that were kind of just taking up space) onto a couple external disk drives earlier this afternoon/evening, ultimately creating 21.1GB of space on my laptop's drive. As an added measure, out of an abundance of caution, I'm leaving the laptop alone to rest until sometime tomorrow; hopefully, both performance and connectivity will improve upon start-up. I also have a couple other things I'm expecting to try in the next couple of days that might help out, whether this newfound room on the drive helps the situation or not. I also wanted to take some time to share a quick image with everyone here:



Sorry if the picture doesn't read so well; I wasn't sure if a screengrab would have worked, so I just snapped a pic of my computer screen with my Smartphone. The reason nothing is displaying on the desktop at this point is that this is during a slow start-up and the desktop items are still loading, but the taskbar (improperly loaded) and the error message I described before has come into view. You may have trouble reading the message (I struggled a bit myself, honestly), but it says:

"Failed to connect to a windows service - Windows could not connect to the System Event Notification Service service. This problem prevents standard users from logging on to the system. As an administrative user, you can review the System Event Log for details about why the service didn't respond."

I followed a YouTube tutorial a while back on how to correct it, but it didn't take; I'm not sure if this was part of the low drive space problem or not. Also, as I'm sure you may not be able to see in the image, but the icon on the bottom-right of the taskbar that indicates an Internet connection is "loading" at this early stage of start-up, but more often than not will fail to detect wireless signals, as I had the misfortune of explaining to the technician that recently visited to correct our home network. Don't know if this new information helps anyone understand what I'm dealing with, but I'm trying to be concise with all of you.

In response to Stephen_c16, part of this discussion came up on the tail end of the technician's visit, about how the single-processor makeup of my laptop and fullness of drive contents would contribute to the slow performance. It was also suggested to get the device "tuned up" at a Best Buy, if not investing in a faster laptop altogether. Nonetheless, I'll be sure to keep your suggestion under advisement. To baklogic, the links you've provided look pretty valuable for what I'm hoping to do, so I'll try to look them over more thoroughly once I have more time to do so.

Thanks again, everyone -- I can't call the matter resolved just yet, so feel free to add whatever you feel is helpful. I will try to provide another update soon.


- adonisunlimited

 

Welcome back, plodr -- I'll get to what you've replied with in a moment.

OK, first things first, unfortunately, there hasn't been a change in condition with the laptop so far. Despite recovering over 20 gigs of space out of 284GB, I'm still struggling to prevent freezes or easily connect to our WiFi. I'm even trying out another stratagem from the people at FixMeStick to resolve their respective freezing issue, but I'm fighting with the computer every step of the way. After one of several killswitch shutdowns today, I tried another reboot in Safe Mode, which yielded somewhat better performance; if only I could use that knowledge to whittle down precisely what may be causing the problem. I've taken a couple more images (some of which may help you a little, plodr) to share with everyone, hoping that the info within might be of use to one of the experts out there:





Generally, these images tell you what the specs are for the laptop in question. Nonetheless, I have some small reason to be optimistic; I've managed to open up a session in Safe Mode With Networking (Safe Mode with an Internet connection) and got an immediate WiFi connection and moderately improved performance. I admit I'm nowhere near as adept with this stuff as a lot of you, but I do recall Safe Mode experimentation as a troubleshooting mechanism before, during, and after junior high, and that improved performance in Safe Mode is typically indicative of something specific in Normal Mode that causes trouble. Again, I refuse to pretend like I know better than anybody here, but this does give some reason to hope for the best in time.

In quick response to plodr, yes, that Walmart link appears to show my exact model, and yes, I will keep the Crucial device in mind for later.

I might be more or less resigned to shelving my laptop and getting a new one sooner before later, but for now, this is still the only one I got. I have to try to patch it up somehow.

Thank again for your time, everyone
adonisunlimited

 

Personally, I would download Sysinternals Autoruns and check what StartUp programs are enabled or check in MsConfig if you are having difficulties getting to internet

 

Hello everyone -- please forgive the long wait; between family issues and the computer problems of which I speak, it's tough to find enough moments of downtime to come here, let alone apply whatever advice anyone gives me here. Same is true for my other topic.

Firstly, welcome to the discussion, risk_reversal; it's important to me whenever new people offer their help on posts I make anywhere online -- responses on my assorted issues all over the web tend to be sparse at best, so thanks for your time. I'm skimming through Google searches for both "Sysinternals Autoruns" and "MsConfig" as we speak, so hopefully I'll have a chance to apply one or both to my laptop as soon as I can. Thanks very much for your tip. Safe Mode With Networking helps for dealing with the important stuff, but I'll need to be able to handle the full range of my system in Normal Mode again, preferably sooner rather than later.


- adonisunlimited

 

Here's a video how to use Microsoft (Sysinternals) Autoruns as well as a download link.
https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page/how_to_use_microsoft_autoruns.html