Super Slow after use of Recovery Disks

[FredWagner]

After 17 months of excellent service, my Gateway (Acer) laptop running Win7 decided not to boot - just gave me the text screen with various choices like 'last good configuration', Repair Windows, etc. I tried them all, no luck. Ordered the recovery disks using the unit serial number, they arrived in a few days, and I used them, with some success. The system now boots, and if I wait long enough, I do get a desktop, but the machine is terribly slow. I'm wondering if there might be a hardware problem (memory controller?) or if I dig down and configure some swap files and such, it might resume normal performance. It's still in warranty - it was a display model, purchased Nov 2010, and Radio Shack doubled the standard 1 year warranty at no charge. Suggestions please - software tweaks, or try the warranty route ?

Fred Wagner

 

[NESWalt]

I'd seriously consider taking it back for service. To be honest, the recovery disks should configure everything the way it came stock, so if it is incredibly slow, that sounds like a hardware issue.

Walt
IT Consulting for Robert Half

http://roberthalftechnology.com

 

[FredWagner]

That's what's been dawning on me, but I thought I'd get another opinion in case I'm missing something! Thanks !

Fred Wagner

 

[linney]

It might be worth checking the hard drive for errors.

Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right-click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking. Try it first by not checking either box (Read-only mode) to see if it flags any hard drive or file problems. If it does, start by ticking both boxes, in any further rerun.

The hard drive manufacturer will have free diagnostic software that is bootable, or that may even run from within Windows, that will thoroughly check the condition of your hard drive.



How does it run in Safe Mode in any case? If it runs OK, how does it run if you disconnect any Internet connections?


How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/929135

What if you create a new user and test with that?


When looking at the Event Viewer for problems, make sure you are an Administrator.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/What-information-appears-in-event-logs-Event-Viewer

Better troubleshooting capabilities with Windows Vista's Event Viewer

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6108150.html

Working with Vista’s new Event Viewer

http://www.petri.co.il/vista-event-viewer.htm

 

[FredWagner]

linney - thanks for the tips -
So far I've run the recovery disks, created one user with Admin rights, it recognizes my home Wifi, I've been able to access hotmail with IE, and downloaded Firefox. Haven't tried safe mode since the reinstall, though I did attempt it during the period before I gave up and went with the recovery disks. Will have it run a CHKDSK tonight and see what happens. Will also take a peek in event viewer.
The Clean Boot article is interesting, but shouldn't really apply since it's a fresh system from the recovery disks. During the recovery install, it downloaded and isntalled some Security fixes, but I don't know if it's got SP2 or not - will look at that tonight also.

Fred Wagner

 

[rclarke250]

If the gateway recovery is similar to the acer recovery, it may not have completed the recovery properly. Several times I have thought that the recovery was done on an acer, because it booted to a desktop, and seemed to just be sitting there. After rebooting into the desktop, it was always very sluggish. After trying the recovery again, I let it sit, for over 12 hours, with the recovery disk in, And the next time I checked it, I had a few more icons on the desktop, and a message that recovery was finished. And from then on, it seemed to respond like normal.

 

[FredWagner]

What's happening is similar to what you describe. When I powered on last night, it announced that is was recovering from failed updates. When I got a chance to make a selection, I took the basic recovery console, and it was nice and snappy, so no hardware issues. I tried a Disk check with no boxes checked, and it said it had issues it wanted to do. So I checked one box and rebooted - didn't SEE it correct anything, but it took its time. When it came up again, back to being slow, but I found an indicator in the toolbar that said it was 42% done downloading updates. It varied between 42 and 49% over an hour or so. The machine has always been on WiFi, and I hadn't had a chance to check the settings, so I gave it a hardwired connection - seemed to help a bit, but can't get to Windows Update to check. I'm inclined to re-do the repair disk operation, but with a hardwired network connection, and just let it run for a few days and see what happens.

Fred Wagner

 

[FredWagner]

Update - thanks for the encouragement. I may need to post a FAQ for anyone who uses recovery disks with Win7 - it turns out that after recovery, Win7 automatically, and almost silently, goes to the mothership to download updates. I saw the first one - four security patches, but then on subsequent boots, it tries again, but the waiting downloads are so huge that the PC appears to be 'hung' - and when they do start downloading (which you don't see unless you dig around and bring up a progress display) the download gets interrupted by Norton Internet Security wanting to be installed - but you have to notice it on the task bar, because it stays behind the Update progress display. To see if things were really happening, I found the network activity display, where I could see the progress count of Bytes Uploaded and Downloaded. when it stalled, due to the Norton interruption, I uninstalled Norton, and let it continue. turned out there were 4 failed installs of a major security update for 64-bit Win7, and several others successful. When I let it shut down for the Norton uninstall, the message appeared - installing update 1 of 96! Things are looking up! It ran all night to get to that point, and when I left for work this morning, the 1 of 96 message had disappeared, it was just 'shutting down' with the activity circle operating. Will continue the adventure this weekend.

Fred Wagner

 

[linney]

The largest update that you might encounter is Service Pack 1 and on some machines (as stated on the SP1 Wizard when manually installing that update) it may take hours to install. However usually the install time is less than an hour for a Service Pack.

 

[FredWagner]

Linney - I figured that the service pack would be somewhere in all the downloads, but the Windows Update in Win7 does not work like it did in XP and Win2K, where you can see specifically what you're getting each time. I did find the log where you can see what did install, and what failed - so tomorrow I'll have a look and see what I got among the 96 items that were installing when I called for a shutdown this morning. Things are looking up though!

Fred Wagner

 

[linney]

One of the first things I do with Windows Updates on a new install of Windows is to change the settings so that it only notifies me of available updates and doesn't download or install them automatically. This allows me more control of updates.

You can always disconnect the Internet connection until you have set up the Windows Update settings.

 

[FredWagner]

The catch here was that I'd been using WiFi at home, so as soon as it booted after the recovery disks, it was downloading. It didn't occur to me to use another PC to get into the router to disable the Wifi first - will keep that in mind for next time!

Fred Wagner

 

[FredWagner]

After the last run of many hours to download updates, it rebooted and came up asking for a boot disk. CMOS showed nothing on IDE0. F12 still showed a Toshiba drive as a boot choice, but nothing would get past the lack of a boot disk. Contacted Gateway support via chat, they told me it was out of warranty, wanted $199 to repair. Told them I had a Premium Warranty, 1 year extension, from the seller, they told me to contact the seller. Took it to my neighborhood Radio Shack where I bought it, they honored the warranty, took it in to send out for repair - expect it back in two weeks or so. It appears the HD was failing without any SMART warnings - I never did get back in far enough to check the event logs. I'll definitely start looking at those at the first sign of trouble in the future1

Fred Wagner

 

[linney]

Let us know the eventual outcome. I hope they get it fixed for you.

 

[FredWagner]

I will definitely give y'all "the rest of the story" when I have it, in the manner of the late Paul Harvey! Thanks for listening!

Fred Wagner

 

[FredWagner]

Good news - my neighborhood Radio Shack called, by laptop was ready to be picked up. Hard Drive replaced. booted up at home, fresh install of Win7 as before. Connected to wired home LAN. spent the next several hours with Windows update - something like 200 Updates, over 600MB of downloads, looking good now. Apologies for clogging an OS forum with what turned out to be a hardware problem, but it wasn't obvious to begin with!
When buying a display model machine, it's probably been running 24/7 for a year or so, giving it some serious hard drive wear. The free Premium Warranty - doubled it to 2 years - was very necessary. with light home use - 10-12 hours a week at most, it should be good until well after it's obsolete!

Fred Wagner

 

[FredWagner]

Even more updates - using wired internet connection at home. Last night it downloaded and began to install Win7 SP1, and I left it running. Come morning, it had installed SP1, and 73 more updates. It is running well, and I hope I'm almost caught up on Windows Updates.

Fred Wagner

 

[rclarke250]

some updates coming this coming Tuesday.