In message , Ron
writes
On 3/9/2015 5:12 PM, Johnny wrote:
On Mon, 9 Mar 2015 20:55:02 +0000
Bill wrote:

In message 20150309153755.442fe007@jspc, Johnny
writes
On Mon, 9 Mar 2015 20:24:54 +0000
Bill wrote:

In message 20150309112330.2f038634@jspc, Johnny
writes
The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 15-3531.

I see that that model comes with Windows 8.1 with Bing. Does this
mean it is a WimBoot machine having to decompress Windows on the
fly?

If it is, that would explain slowness with a 5400rpm drive. If it
isn't I'd check whether it is really just the drive that is making
it slow, or whether it is what is running on the machine.

That's the first I've heard of WimBoot. After looking it up, it is
supposed to be used for small drives like 32 GB or smaller, and this
computer has a 500 GB hard drive.

How could I tell if it was set up for WimBoot?

Https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...=255&MSPPError
=-2147217396

http://tinyurl.com/nmzsy8z

I think WimBoot is free up to 32GB drives, paid for over that. But
it's all a bit of a mystery to me.

I checked. It's not set up for WimBoot.

I can't believe Dell would install Windows 8.1 on a computer that's not
capable of running it properly.

The computer has 4 GB of Ram and a dual core 2.16 GHz processor.

The only thing I can think of that is slowing it down is the 5400 RPM
hard drive.


It should run fine on there. I'm running it on a Toshiba with an Intel
B-940 processor (less powerful than yours) and 4GBs of RAM.

Have you checked out how many start-up items that you have?

Have you run your AV program to see if there is anything there?

What about running a malwareware scan with Malwarebytes?

https://www.malwarebytes.org/antimalware/


Of course, it depends on what you are trying to run on the machine, but
I'd have expected that processor and ram combination to be fast enough
with a 5400 drive. I have machines here running 8.1 with 5400rpm drives
and with processors between 1.6GHz and 2.53GHz. Only the 1.6GHz one
seems a bit slow.
In general use, it is the cache size of the drive and the seek time that
matters most. Rotation speed matters for things like video and audio
recording and editing, where data is being streamed relentlessly from
the drive.
MalwareBytes is a good start. Does the drive need defragmenting? Do you
have multiple Antivirus softwares?
One of the best, if a bit daunting at first, programs to see what is
running on the machine is "AutoRuns" from Microsoft's free Sysinternals
set of programs.
--
Bill