slow performance

Greetings. New poster here. I've lurked around for a while and now have an issue of my own that I could use some help with. My issue is as follows:

My machine performs fine on initial boot up. Things gradually degrade over a period of hours, necessitating shutting down and booting back up. Every problem that I'm experiencing only occurs after either hours, or sometimes a days worth of use. Everything works fine when I first turn on my computer.

-Over a period of hours taskmgr starts using more CPU even when the machine is idle. When I first log on, taskmgr CPU usage runs at about 3-4%. Over time it climbs to 25% and stays there even when I close all open browser windows and programs.

-Over a period of hours I gradually lose Windows functionality. Weird stuff; e.g. icons in the lower right hand corner become non-functional, such as volume icon, clock, etc. If I click on them when I first boot my machine they open fine . If I leave my machine on for the entire day they don't open at all. I left-click and right-click and nothing happens.

-Also, when the machine has been running for a while I lose the ability to open attachments from an open email message, or from a file in my Documents folder (opening files from the Desktop works fine). I see the open email window working at it, but attachments fail to open. Or when I try and open a file from my Documents folder a dialogue box will pop up with something like "The pathway cannot be specified". In fact this (opening files from an email attachment of my Documents folder) is one of the actions that sets in motion degraded performance. And the degraded performance is noticeably longer hang time before a link opens in a web browser (doesn't matter whether IE, Firefox or Chrome), taskmgr CPU usage climbs and stays there, can't switch between open programs or browser screens, everything just starts to run slow and hangs up, etc. At its worst, I see the little blue circular spinning thing working on my desktop seeming to be working on something even with all programs and browser screens closed.

-If I need to replicate the problem with my machine, the most sure fire way to do so (but by no means the only trigger) is to open up an email in Outlook, and then open an excel or word file attachment. Other things that seem to trigger this behavior is heavy video or picture viewing until such point that videos/pictures cannot be opened at all. But just the passage of time (6-12 hours) always does it too.

-Machine will not shut down using "shut down" button in the start menu, instead displaying "Logging off" interminably. I need to power the computer off manually using the on/off button on the computer. When I force a power off I see a very brief dialog box open with dire looking colors and a red x indicating something along the lines of "The pathway cannot be specified" and something about "lacking the necessary permissions". There's more but the box just flickers briefly so I can't read it all. On the other hand, if I try shutting down after only fifteen minutes of usage the computer shuts down normally.

-Over time taskmgr climbs to and then runs at 25% even when machine is idle.

While it's possible my machine is infected by a virus, at this point I don't believe that to be the case. I'm very diligent in maintaining my machine, anti-virus scans come up empty (Defender and Webroot), my admittedly self-analyzed Hijack this log looks clean (I'm not a pro at reading them though), malware scans come up clean, and every analysis of running processes never seems to reveal anything funny running. That said I understand that it's possible my machine has become infected and I'm just not proficient enough to discover it.

Attached is info on my system.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

Greetings, Paly94301, and welcome to MajorGeeks.

You might try the following:

1. Boot the machine into Safe Mode and see if the symptoms change.

2. Boot the machine into Normal mode but physically disconnect from the internet to see if the symptoms change.

Both tests might require some diligence/perseverance but they may shed some light.

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We may need more detailed machine information: please download and run Speccy, a free system information tool.

When the scan completes select 'File', 'Save as Text file', name the report, and save to an easily found location such as your Desktop.

Be advised: the report will display your IP Address and Windows Product Key. You may delete this information if you so wish.

Then attach that file to your next post.

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You might also consider going through the steps listed in the Read & Run Me First guide, then start a new thread in the Malware Removal Forum and attach the requested logs to your first post(s) in that thread. I know that you stated that you think your machine is clean, but it might be a good idea to let the Malware Removal gurus take a look to be sure.

 

Thanks Caliban. Just got home from work and so I'll first start by working in safe mode and see if things change. As you noted it make a day or so in order for me to see if the same problems persist inasmuch as it usually takes some time for the symptoms to manifest.

I'll reply further tomorrow.

Thanks, I appreciate your help.