Member Avatar for Its.Obi

Hi Fellows,

Since two days I am facing an issue with my system. Did multiple things but couldn't get rid of it. Here's the problem;

Every program I am opening such as (Word, Excel, Media player, my documents, pictures, videos etc.), there is a lag of 10-15 seconds before the program shows up. Also when I open a new tab in chrome, firefox or IE it loads after sometime. When I type say www.google.com it direct me to the site after few seconds (instead I have high internet speed of 25 Mps but still taking at least 15 seconds to load each page).

I have Microsoft Security Essentials installed since the operating system was installed. I kept updating the MSE frequently and also ran whole system scan at least once a week. I didn't come accross any malware or virus while scaning as yet. Since this problem begin, I also ran other antispam tools like "Emsis Soft Emergency Kit" & "Trend Micro Housecall" but they also dectect nothing suspicious.

*Ran CCleaner and removed all unnecessary files, scanned registry issues. Nothing happened.

*Went to "advanced system settings" > Performance and set "Adjust for best performance". Still laging remains!

*Defragmented partition where OS is installed, still same results.

*Unistalled unnecessary programs (no luck).

Please help me to diagnose and resolve the issue, don't know why my OS is slowing down and taking much time compared as before.

And unfortunately I don't have "System Restore" feature running currently. (I can't restore to previous position)

Thanks for your advices and suggestions!
Obi

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Dani AI

Generated

The pattern — a 10–15s pause for every local program and for browser tabs — points to system‑wide resource contention (disk I/O, excessive paging, or a misbehaving service) rather than a single app. is correct that realtime security software can add I/O overhead; ’s pointer toward a second‑opinion scan is also sensible. The fastest way to get to the root cause is to isolate which resource is bottlenecked and then run targeted repairs.

Recommended diagnostic sequence (do these in order, with admin privileges and a recent backup of important files):

  1. Isolation: boot to Safe Mode with Networking and test responsiveness. If fast, a non‑Microsoft service or driver is likely.
  2. Clean boot: run msconfig, hide Microsoft services, disable remaining services and startup items, reboot — then enable groups one at a time to find the offender.
  3. Check live resource use: run Resource Monitor (resmon) and inspect the Disk tab — sort by Total B/sec and watch “Average Response” (high values indicate slow disk). Also observe Pages/sec and Available MBytes.
  4. Capture I/O if needed: use Process Monitor (Procmon) to record during a lag and filter by process; look for repeated failed file opens or long queries.
  5. System checks (run from elevated prompt):
sfc /scannow
chkdsk C: /f /r   (schedules on next reboot)
perfmon /report
  1. Hardware/software followups: run a memory test (Windows Memory Diagnostic or Memtest86+), inspect SMART/drive utility for bad sectors, and test a wired network/ping (ping 8.8.8.8 vs ping google.com) to separate DNS from connectivity issues.

Cautions and next steps: temporarily suspending realtime AV for a quick test can help isolate I/O cost but should not be left disabled. If Resource Monitor shows very high disk response times or repeated I/O errors in Event Viewer, back up data and prioritise drive diagnostics/replacement (or an SSD upgrade) before spending more time on software tweaks. If logs are required for deeper analysis, collect a Procmon trace plus the System/Application Event Log entries covering a lag event.

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Member Avatar for rubberman

In my experience, this sort of problem is most commonly caused by anti-virus software that encorporates what is commonly called "on access scanning". IE, every file and executable (as well as DLL) is scanned on access when you start a program or read a file. This is VERY expensive in system resource (CPU and I/O) usage. See if you can disable that "feature" in your A/V software. Yes, keeping it on is safer, but it is a LOT slower!

Member Avatar for Rik_

Try running Mbam on it. Google will easily find it. MSE and Trend are virus scanners and cannot deal with most malware whereas Mbam can.

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