Member Avatar for ekroop

Hello,

Today, seemingly at random, my laptop seems to be running quite slow. I haven't changed anything lately.

To be more specific, my laptop seems to be lagging and has intermittent "pauses". Also when I watch a youtube video or try to skype there seems to be a stutter or buzzing sound occuring along with the "pause". Similar to this, it happens about 2 second in. Sorry for bad quality, it isn't my video It is quite random, but seems to happen more often when I run a lot of programs or have a lot of tabs open in Chrome.

Note: Yesterday, out of the blue. My computer screen froze and became unresponsive. Then 3-4 seconds later my mouse froze. During this time I could steal speak to my friend on Skype and I could hear him too. Then my laptop made a lout beeping noise and went back to normal. The rest of the day, nothing else happend.

If you need any more information just ask :) Thanks for reading and I hope you can help!

  • 2 Contributors
  • 4 Replies
  • 113 Views
  • 16 Hours Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by ekroop

Dani AI

Generated

A few targeted steps to separate software, driver/DPC, disk, and hardware causes — and to gather evidence before making big changes.

Start by collecting data while a pause happens: run Task Manager or Resource Monitor and watch which process spikes (CPU, Disk, or Network). If audio stutters, use a DPC/latency checker like LatencyMon (https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon) to see whether drivers are causing audio gaps. For a deeper process view use Process Explorer (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer) to identify unexpected services or processes that spike at the moment of the freeze.

Quick prioritized checklist:

  • Run an offline/second-opinion malware scan (for example Malwarebytes) if infection is still suspected (use the rescue/offline tools if a normal scan finds nothing) (https://www.malwarebytes.com/).
  • Check disk health/SMART and temperatures (CrystalDiskInfo or HWMonitor) — severe I/O errors or overheating will cause pauses.
  • Test in Safe Mode or do a Clean Boot (disable non-Microsoft startup items) to see whether the problem disappears. Use Autoruns or msconfig to isolate startup items.
  • Update or roll back graphics, audio, and chipset drivers and the BIOS/UEFI if updates are available. Audio/video driver issues often cause stutter in real-time apps.
  • Export System and Application Event Viewer logs around the time of a freeze to look for driver, disk, or service errors.

Run these commands from an elevated prompt to check system files and disk integrity:

sfc /scannow
chkdsk C: /f /r

(chkdsk may require a reboot; back up important data first.)

If these steps don’t reveal the cause, capture a Process Explorer log or the Event Viewer exports and the output of msinfo32 or driverquery before posting them. That data makes it much faster to pinpoint whether the issue is malware, a failing drive, a throttling/thermal problem, or a bad driver. This approach follows ’s malware angle but adds driver/DPC and hardware checks so the root cause can be isolated.

Recommended Answers

All 4 Replies

Member Avatar for ekroop

A note: At idle my Physical Memory usage is about 50 % (I have 4gb memory installed) which seems high to me, although I may be wrong, I don't know too much about computers. Also I have around 87 processes running, which seems odd to me.

I have windows 7 64-bit.

Member Avatar for rubberman

I assume you are running some version of Windows? If so, then you probably do have a virus or a trojan of some sort that is trying to steal your secrets (passwords, bank account ids, etc). What anti-virus are you running?

Member Avatar for ekroop

I'm running Microsoft Secuirty Essentials, and yes I'm running Windows 7 64-bit.

Member Avatar for ekroop

I ran a virus scan with MSE and it didn't find anything. The problem still persists.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.