I've been putting up with this issue for about a year now. Any suggestions are more than welcome.
Basically, whenever anything on my laptop puts the disk in heavy use, the whole OS becomes unresponsive until it's done.
The drive is a 750GB 5400rpm HDD, so I'm not expecting lightning speed. However, I don't think it's a hardware issue, and the reason is because the performance worsened significantly after I upgraded to Windows 8.1 last October. It's not triggered by any particular software; by watching the task manager when it happens, I can see the kinds of processes that cause it, such as:
- Windows Search Indexer
- Windows Modules Installer Worker
- Google Drive client (while scanning files)
- Antimalware Service Executable (Windows Defender, literally anytime something interacts with an EXE or creates a file)
- Google Chrome (while installing updates, downloading large files, or restoring cached data, e.g. an unused tab)
Even Explorer is frequently sluggish when trying to retrieve simple assets, such as my tray icons' context menus or Start Screen icons.
In all cases, whenever I sense Windows is struggling, I'll open Task Manager (which itself can take up to a minute to appear), and inevitably I will see that the disk use is "100%" (whatever that means) due to some combination of processes. Depending on the cause, it can last anywhere from a few seconds to 10-20 minutes. Once the disk usage falls below 100%, things start to clear up.
The machine is still usable enough that I've put up with it this long, but I've tried a number of things to try and alleviate stress on the disk:
- I defrag and clear temp files every 2 weeks or so.
- I uninstall programs that I no longer need, especially big games and the like.
- I've run chkdsk several times. It's never found more than a few minor errors.
- I've disabled every shell extension that I don't regularly use.
- I've disabled nearly all startup tasks.
- I've updated all the HP drivers and software that came with the machine.
- I disabled Windows Search for a few months straight. That turned out to be a mixed bag; I didn't have to deal with the indexer process, which helped, but it (naturally) slowed file browsing to a crawl.
I can't reinstall Windows, because HP doesn't give you the product key to your own freaking OS anymore, so all I can do is use the pre-installed recovery partition, which hasn't helped. I'm about ready to drop my savings on an SSD and a copy of Acronis, but I thought I'd see if the Internet wisdom could supply a less drastic alternative that I haven't thought of.
Full hardware specs for reference:
- HP Envy 15z-j000, purchased new from HP.com in March 2013.
- Processor: AMD A10-5750M APU
- GPU: Radeon HD 8650G
- RAM: 6GB (2GB reserved for the integrated GPU)
- Disk: 750GB 5400rpm HDD
- Display: 1920x1080, 15.6"
Many thanks to anyone who replies. I'll be more than happy to provide more information or perform specific diagnostics.
Basically, whenever anything on my laptop puts the disk in heavy use, the whole OS becomes unresponsive until it's done.
The drive is a 750GB 5400rpm HDD, so I'm not expecting lightning speed. However, I don't think it's a hardware issue, and the reason is because the performance worsened significantly after I upgraded to Windows 8.1 last October. It's not triggered by any particular software; by watching the task manager when it happens, I can see the kinds of processes that cause it, such as:
- Windows Search Indexer
- Windows Modules Installer Worker
- Google Drive client (while scanning files)
- Antimalware Service Executable (Windows Defender, literally anytime something interacts with an EXE or creates a file)
- Google Chrome (while installing updates, downloading large files, or restoring cached data, e.g. an unused tab)
Even Explorer is frequently sluggish when trying to retrieve simple assets, such as my tray icons' context menus or Start Screen icons.
In all cases, whenever I sense Windows is struggling, I'll open Task Manager (which itself can take up to a minute to appear), and inevitably I will see that the disk use is "100%" (whatever that means) due to some combination of processes. Depending on the cause, it can last anywhere from a few seconds to 10-20 minutes. Once the disk usage falls below 100%, things start to clear up.
The machine is still usable enough that I've put up with it this long, but I've tried a number of things to try and alleviate stress on the disk:
- I defrag and clear temp files every 2 weeks or so.
- I uninstall programs that I no longer need, especially big games and the like.
- I've run chkdsk several times. It's never found more than a few minor errors.
- I've disabled every shell extension that I don't regularly use.
- I've disabled nearly all startup tasks.
- I've updated all the HP drivers and software that came with the machine.
- I disabled Windows Search for a few months straight. That turned out to be a mixed bag; I didn't have to deal with the indexer process, which helped, but it (naturally) slowed file browsing to a crawl.
I can't reinstall Windows, because HP doesn't give you the product key to your own freaking OS anymore, so all I can do is use the pre-installed recovery partition, which hasn't helped. I'm about ready to drop my savings on an SSD and a copy of Acronis, but I thought I'd see if the Internet wisdom could supply a less drastic alternative that I haven't thought of.
Full hardware specs for reference:
- HP Envy 15z-j000, purchased new from HP.com in March 2013.
- Processor: AMD A10-5750M APU
- GPU: Radeon HD 8650G
- RAM: 6GB (2GB reserved for the integrated GPU)
- Disk: 750GB 5400rpm HDD
- Display: 1920x1080, 15.6"
Many thanks to anyone who replies. I'll be more than happy to provide more information or perform specific diagnostics.