Windows 7 Random applications starting to lag on new computer

[sina12345]

Hi,

A few months ago I got a new computer, its a Core 2 Duo E8400 @3.00ghz, 8GB of Mushkin Ram, Gigabyte mobo, which for the life of me can't remember the name, but I can get it if I need to. It's a very fast computer, and it's working great with most of the programs I'm using. Oh and I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit build 7100.

Unfortunately about a month ago it randomly started having these horrible lag spikes on some of my applications. It started with chrome, that whenever I scrolled, clicked, or opened a new tab, it would lag for around 3-5 seconds, if not more. So I switched to mozilla, which thankfully is running smoothly so far. But maybe 1 week after this, Divx 7 had the same problem, it would lag for around 3-5 seconds when I would be watching clips or movies, including the webplayer (running in mozilla) and the normal player running on my desktop. Recently it has gotten so bad that I cannot open Windows live messenger anymore because that lags for about 10-20 seconds, and Quicktime 7 which lags constantly throughout the entire clip.

It is getting so bad that I can't even use my computer comfortably on a day to day basis, which was the REASON i got a new computer. Again this problem started around a month after I got my new computer, and everything worked fine before that, it is slowly spreading to my other apps too, so I'm thinking it could be a virus, in which case if someone could refer me to a trusted anti-spyware/virus program since I don't have one at the moment as the hog up ram and processing power.

Hopefully this problem has arised before, and I just missed it in the forum and google searches I did. I hope someone can help me out with this problem, since it is slowly driving me nuts.

Thank you in advance!

Sina

 

[kemical]

Hi sina12345 and welcome to the forum.

For a decent free antivirus app try this: Link Removed
For Spyware : Ad-Aware by Lavasoft - Antivirus software, free spyware removal, firewall

For a spot of cleaning, old temp files ect : Download CCleaner 2.22.968 - FileHippo.com

Lastly, a really good guide on how to keep 7/vista clean can be found in this guide: Link Removed

Currently there is only a guide for XP and vista. The guide though will give you enough to deal with 7 as they are virtually identical in many respects..

 

[sina12345]

Thanks kemical for your response. I'm assuming that the links to the spyware/anti-virus software means no one really knows what's going on , if that fixes the problem I'll update here for anyone with similiar issues.

Thanks!

 

[kemical]

Well it could be a number of things so I always try to start at the beginning...get the pc clean and then if the problem still persists try other methods....
Pleas post back and let me know how you got on..

 

[sina12345]

I did the AVG full scan, and all it found was a couple warnings in my internet cookies, but besides that it was completely clean. It did warn me about 2 game cracks, but those always show up as warnings in scans, and the problem started before that.
I'm not sure if AVG does a spyware check as well, for some reason I'm under the impression that it does, but just to be safe I'll try the other link you posted as well, but I doubt it will come up with anything.

Thanks again mate.

Sina


UPDATE: I installed and ran the spyware software that you recomennded, and again nothing showed up except some cookies, and all the problems are still there.

Any ideas as to what could cause this? :S

 

[kemical]

Did you try the cleaner I posted too?

Also make sure your drivers are up to date if you need pointers post your system spec with as much detail as possible and I'll post the driver links..

 

[sina12345]

Yea I ran the cleaner you posted as well, I did the temp files and my registry. I could list my specs for you, but I might miss out on something, so if theres a specific program that bundles up all my specs in a neat little package I could download that..but for the time being, here are my specs.

Oh, and I'm 99% sure I have all the latest drivers, because I had a lot of trouble with my Adobe CS4 programs I made sure I updated all my drivers about 2 weeks ago, so I highly doubt there's been anything new in the last few weeks.

ATI Saphire Radeon 1GB 4870 HD
Intel Core2 Duo CPU E8400 @3.00GHz
8.0GB Mushkin RAM
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P ATX LGA775 P45 DDR2 2PCI-E SATA2 RAID HD Sound 2GLAN 1394a CrossFireX Motherboard (That's a mouthful)

I think that's all, if theres anything missing I'll post asap.

Thanks

Sina

 

[kemical]

Thanks for that...
You say your running the latest drivers..What about the bios? Check the latest release here:

Link Removed

 

[sina12345]

I installed my mobo drivers with the CD it came with, and I only bought it maybe 2 months ago, seeing as how the dates in the support site say it has been there since april, I think I probably have the lastest drivers. The thing is, I've never flashed my bios before, and I've had really bad experience with majorly messing up my computer in the past, is there a way I can check my bios version without flashing?

Thanks for the links and support again btw.

Sina

UPDATE: I went to the link you posted and I saw there was apperently some sort of update for my realtek HD audio drivers. So I went ahead and installed the Windows 7 64-bit update release, and 1 restart later all my sound configurations for my surround sound were gone, and it no longer played in true surround. So I had to go and fish for my CD that came with my mobo, and reinstall it, and set up my configurations again.

This is the kind of thing that scares me to flash my bios.

 

[kemical]

The motherboard you use has whats called a 'Dual-bios' which means you have a back up. If the flashing process goes wrong then the motherboard always has a good bios to use because you have one in back up.. I too have a gigabyte mobo and find the best method of flashing is using Qflash. There is also an automated process called @bios but sometimes this will give you an older bios as you have no control on which bios it's going to update you with. It just access's the server and if the latest bios on there is older than your current one it will still install it, hence why i don't use it.
If you check out this page here: Link Removed

It will give you instructions on how to use Qflash. ther is also a pdf guide you can download which I suggest you read and print off.
Don't hesitate to ask if you need more help...

 

[sina12345]

Thanks for all the help kemical, I'll flash my bios either tonight or tomorrow once I have read all the instructions and stuff.
I'm curious though, as how my bios could affect these random applications to lag? :S

I have not read anywhere else of someone who has had these problems, and my friend who also has Windows 7 with a similiar build doesn't have ANY problems at all.

 

[kemical]

What bios are they running though?
To keep your machine running the best the manufacturer intended then these updates are there for that purpose. When a piece of kit is released into the wild, usually because of money constraints, it won't have the best firmware/software/bios. These will come later as the product matures and the manufacturer recieves feedback from it's product release. Also every machine is slightly different with parts used from various manufacturers so the variables are enormous (this also makes you kinda realise how amazing the software really is)..

 

[sina12345]

Sorry for late response, with school starting I didn't find the time to come check these forums.
It seems that I have the latest bios 'drivers' already installed. The only other one is in beta stage, and it doesnt specify what the update does.
On another note, I installed PC Wizard on my computer and it says I have 640GB of hard disk space, when win 7 is telling me I have 595GB. When I first installed my hard drive I knew I had this much space missing, but I didn't make it a big deal as I had bigger issues, but since those ones aren't seeming to be fixed anytime soon, I thought I'd mention this one as well.

Either way, it seems PC Wizard recognizes my hard disk's true capacity while Win 7 cannot.
I know when formatting and such there is always 1-5 GB gone for the FAT or something, but never 55GB.

Thanks in advance!

 

[kemical]

Hi,
it sounds like the space thats put aside for the shadowstorage or system restore space..

If you check out the screen shot you'll see that it's adjustable down to 1.5GB..

 

[sina12345]

Yea I noticed that myself the first few days I got Win 7, and I brought it down, but that still doesn't account for it not showing up when I went to INSTALL Win 7 the first first time, or why it doesn't show up anywhere else expect PC Wizard.
I print screened it.

 

[kemical]

Not sure why it didn't show up...but to to be sure that it is actually that, you could always delete a few system restore points and see if the amount goes down..

 

[sina12345]

I have already tried that as well, and nothing has worked. The thing is though if I allocate that much room for System Restore, it would still show up in My computer, but as USED space, and I don't mind that, because I at least know what is using it.
But right now it's not even telling me how much space I really have, which is really weird.

And to top that off, the issues in the beginning of this thread still exist!

 

[kemical]

Ok... I reread your post from the beginning... Let's sort out the first thing and then move on to the second..


You wrote that your drivers were installed off the cd that came with the motherboard.. These are nearly always old and so it might be worth chasing down the new versions..
I see that your current bios should be F9 with the next version still in beta..

When you first installed 7, was it a fresh install or an upgrade?

 

[DragoonEX]

I joined just because of this, but I believe I can share some more information about this problem since I am experiencing it too.

I am using Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit on an HP Pavillion dv6976ca laptop, specs are as follows:

2.00 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5750
4 GB of DDR2 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS (256MB dedicated)
320 GB Harddrive

I've been using Windows 7 ever since May and have never experienced any major problems with it. Around the end of August I decided to reformat my computer so it would be clean for school and it worked fine for a few days. Around the beginning of September however, I began to notice some lag spikes just like the original poster. The problem has crept up and now my computer is almost unusable.

I originally suspected a virus, so I installed AVG but alas couldn't find any. I then tried to update my graphics card drivers to newer versions (tried 3 different versions in total) and that did not fix it. I then reverted the graphics card drivers to the ones I had back in May, that also did not fix it. Since I couldn't use my computer for any serious work, I reformatted my computer again 2 days ago, but the problem has returned.

I'm at the end of my wits here and I'de rather not go back to using Windows Vista since Windows 7 has been a great experience up until now. I hope this extra information may help.

Thanks.

 

[kemical]

Hi DragoonEX and welcome to the forum

I must admit, it's bit of a mystery, have you checked your HDD over? Like do you defrag it regular? Or even run a chkdsk to see if there are any bad sectors (don't forget to check the fix broken sector box)....