Question Laptop Performance Issues: Done everything I could think for 2 years now, Could My HDD Be the Culprit?

[Encarta98]

I’ve been facing persistent performance issues with my laptop, And even though tools like CrystalDiskInfo report that the drive is in "Good" health, my laptop’s disk usage is constantly at 100% .

I can’t help but wonder if the cause lies in the hard drive’s lifespan.

Spoiler: More

This laptop has been with me for several years, and I’ve grown quite attached to it. It has served me well through work and personal use, and I’d prefer not to replace it unless it’s absolutely necessary. I’m hoping to figure out whether this is an early sign of HDD failure or if something else is causing these symptoms.

Am I in the right place to ask? My apologies if not and please lead me to the right place. Took my time crafting this message in order to be friendly and easy to follow and hopefully when it get resolved, It should be helpful for others too.

Freezing can last for up to 30 minutes. These issues make even the simplest tasks nearly impossible.

---

Steps Taken:

Disabled services via CMD:

• Disabled Sysmain, Connected Devices Platform Service (CDPSvc), and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS).
• Left Connected Devices Platform User Service_9e718 (CDPUserSvc_9e718) enabled.

Edited Registry:

• Modified ClearPageFileAtShutdown in hkey_local_machine\system\current control set\control\session manager\memory management (set to 1).

Ran Diagnostic Tests:

• RAM: Passed all four tests using mdsched.
• HDD: Checked with CrystalDiskInfo—health status shows "Good."
• HDD Speed Test: Results show average read/write speeds but still unsure if performance degrades under load.

Results:

• Disk usage remains at 100% since startup, even after these tasks.
• Memory usage hovers at 66%.
• A random error occasionally appears: “AcerRegistrationBackGround Task Has Stopped Working.”

LAPTOP SPECS

• Model: Acer Aspire A715-71G
• CPU: Intel Core i5-7300HQ (Kaby Lake-H, B0) @ 2500 MHz (Turbo up to 3093 MHz)
• Memory: 8GB RAM Single Channel Kingston (8192 MB PC21300 DDR4 SDRAM @ 1197 MHz, 17-17-17-39)
• Motherboard: KBL Charmeleon_KLS
• Chipset: Intel HM175 (Skylake PCH-H)
• BIOS: V1.13, 12/26/2017
• Graphics 1: Intel HD Graphics 630, 1024 MB (Kaby Lake-H GT2)
• Graphics 2: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050, 2048 MB GDDR5 SDRAM
• Drive:
  • HDD: WDC WD10SPZX-21Z10T0, 976.8 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s
  • Sound: Intel Skylake PCH-H - High Definition Audio Controller
  • Network:
    • Atheros/Qualcomm QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
    • RealTek Semiconductor RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home (x64) Build 19045.5131 (22H2)

---

Spoiler: My thoughts so far and it's driving me nuts

I’m starting to think that the hard drive could be at the root of the issue. Despite the fact that it shows "Good" health in diagnostics, I’ve read that subtle signs of failure can go undetected in basic tests. Could it be struggling under load or developing bad sectors over time?

It might also be related to the single-channel RAM configuration, dust buildup, or thermal throttling. I haven’t cleaned the laptop or tried upgrading to dual-channel RAM yet.

I’m hoping to avoid unnecessary replacements, so any advice on how to confirm or rule out the hard drive as the culprit would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Encarta98]

This laptop was a gift from my grandmother, and it holds a lot of sentimental value to me. I’m determined to keep it running smoothly without replacing parts until I can pinpoint the exact cause of the performance issues, even after a reformat. It’s more than just a device, it's a piece of family history I want to preserve.

Also excited to learn.

 

[Ralston18]

Take a look at your laptop's performance more as Windows sees it.

Use Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and Process Explorer (Microsoft, free) to observe system performance.

Use all three tools but only one tool at a time.

The objective simply to get some sense and understanding of what the laptop is doing or may be trying to do when performance falters.

You need to take your time, be methodical, and pay attention. For the most part you may need to keep the tool winow open and viewable.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Hard drive: how full?

= = = =

And be very sure that all important data is backed up at least 2 x to locations off of the laptop. Verify that the data is recoverable and readable.

Sentiment does not save data.

 

[Encarta98]

112 GB free
930 GB (1TB)

Based on my past experience, After reformatting and even deleted everything, it should very fast.
Now I did the same thing for This laptop and nothing happened.

 

[Bob.B]

I’ve been facing persistent performance issues with my laptop, And even though tools like CrystalDiskInfo report that the drive is in "Good" health, my laptop’s disk usage is constantly at 100% .

I can’t help but wonder if the cause lies in the hard drive’s lifespan.

Spoiler: More

This laptop has been with me for several years, and I’ve grown quite attached to it. It has served me well through work and personal use, and I’d prefer not to replace it unless it’s absolutely necessary. I’m hoping to figure out whether this is an early sign of HDD failure or if something else is causing these symptoms.

Am I in the right place to ask? My apologies if not and please lead me to the right place. Took my time crafting this message in order to be friendly and easy to follow and hopefully when it get resolved, It should be helpful for others too.

Freezing can last for up to 30 minutes. These issues make even the simplest tasks nearly impossible.

---

Steps Taken:

Disabled services via CMD:

• Disabled Sysmain, Connected Devices Platform Service (CDPSvc), and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS).
• Left Connected Devices Platform User Service_9e718 (CDPUserSvc_9e718) enabled.

Edited Registry:

• Modified ClearPageFileAtShutdown in hkey_local_machine\system\current control set\control\session manager\memory management (set to 1).

Ran Diagnostic Tests:

• RAM: Passed all four tests using mdsched.
• HDD: Checked with CrystalDiskInfo—health status shows "Good."
• HDD Speed Test: Results show average read/write speeds but still unsure if performance degrades under load.

Results:

• Disk usage remains at 100% since startup, even after these tasks.
• Memory usage hovers at 66%.
• A random error occasionally appears: “AcerRegistrationBackGround Task Has Stopped Working.”

LAPTOP SPECS

• Model: Acer Aspire A715-71G
• CPU: Intel Core i5-7300HQ (Kaby Lake-H, B0) @ 2500 MHz (Turbo up to 3093 MHz)
• Memory: 8GB RAM Single Channel Kingston (8192 MB PC21300 DDR4 SDRAM @ 1197 MHz, 17-17-17-39)
• Motherboard: KBL Charmeleon_KLS
• Chipset: Intel HM175 (Skylake PCH-H)
• BIOS: V1.13, 12/26/2017
• Graphics 1: Intel HD Graphics 630, 1024 MB (Kaby Lake-H GT2)
• Graphics 2: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050, 2048 MB GDDR5 SDRAM
• Drive:
  • HDD: WDC WD10SPZX-21Z10T0, 976.8 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s
  • Sound: Intel Skylake PCH-H - High Definition Audio Controller
  • Network:
    • Atheros/Qualcomm QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
    • RealTek Semiconductor RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home (x64) Build 19045.5131 (22H2)

---

Spoiler: My thoughts so far and it's driving me nuts

I’m starting to think that the hard drive could be at the root of the issue. Despite the fact that it shows "Good" health in diagnostics, I’ve read that subtle signs of failure can go undetected in basic tests. Could it be struggling under load or developing bad sectors over time?

It might also be related to the single-channel RAM configuration, dust buildup, or thermal throttling. I haven’t cleaned the laptop or tried upgrading to dual-channel RAM yet.

I’m hoping to avoid unnecessary replacements, so any advice on how to confirm or rule out the hard drive as the culprit would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance for any help!

Task manager/perf/startup.....note the items that are enabled.
Disable everything.
Reboot see if it makes a diff.

 

[Unolocogringo]

You have a spinning disk.
When was the last time it had a drive clean up and de-fragmented?

 

[Misgar]

Based on my past experience, After reformatting and even deleted everything, it should very fast.
Now I did the same thing for This laptop and nothing happened.

Unfortunately, you're probably hearkening back to the good old days of Windows 7 or even XP, when 2nd Tuesday of the month updates didn't involve 3.5GB downloads and constant disk thrashing.

I've been replacing hard drives in laptops since 2015. It makes a HUGE difference, especially if you get a decent 2.5in SATA SSD with DRAM (as opposed to certain cheap cache-less SATA designs).

I can recommend Sandisk 860 and 870 EVO 2.5in SATA amongst others. They can be double or triple the price of a DRAM-less SSD with the same capacity. Most SSDs will make Windows faster. A good SSD will make it fly in comparison with a hard disk. Invest in quality.

Ideally, given your 1TB WD Blue is nearly full, you'd be well advised to get a 2TB SATA SSD.
https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-Inch-Internal-MZ-77E2T0B-AM/dp/B08QB93S6R?crid=M3UGEDAGHKIH&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.VF-EK5bjtfcfe2Uajov6oLs8H09VRQoI_F9xR7fEPp_GzxXcKAXxatqsm31qqFyBxqoIUnuq3tBt8CeAYDIRSr3x16EUJL7A7SBddzAtPmm0NrQkF12X65NK9oflFV2BOIinxCV-Tkww6h-1pOzkWAgH3NhwJYM1t9FYk4eX4KrEdHIVTZfNo09IV_Fb2mr_mERAywSoPzmeaSpjemjV1qlM6cbxdfl04aC4XXSciCc.hKuGy5bJ5OlTGExceWN-An4oj0_Wo32MS_BW2al2hjw&dib_tag=se&keywords=sandisk+2TB+sata+ssd+870+evo&qid=1733841682&sprefix=sandisk+2tb+sata+ssd+870+evo,aps,152&sr=8-1&th=1

It's not a good idea to use more than 80% of an SSD's capacity, otherwise they start to slow down with disk housekeeping. In other words, don't fill a 1TB SSD with more than 800GB of data.

You can clone the laptop's WD Blue HDD to the new SSD (placed temporarily in a USB cradle) then swap drives and off you go. Do your grandmother's laptop a big favour and replace the spinning disk.

I'm not against hard disks (I have dozens in various PCs and servers) but they're best used as bulk storage - not for operating systems.

 

[Encarta98]

Take a look at your laptop's performance more as Windows sees it.

Use Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and Process Explorer (Microsoft, free) to observe system performance.

Use all three tools but only one tool at a time.

The objective simply to get some sense and understanding of what the laptop is doing or may be trying to do when performance falters.

You need to take your time, be methodical, and pay attention. For the most part you may need to keep the tool winow open and viewable.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Hard drive: how full?

= = = =

And be very sure that all important data is backed up at least 2 x to locations off of the laptop. Verify that the data is recoverable and readable.

Sentiment does not save data.

I don't mind sacrificing the data, only wanted to make sure that HDD is the real culprit.

Unfortunately, you're probably hearkening back to the good old days of Windows 7 or even XP, when 2nd Tuesday of the month updates didn't involve 3.5GB downloads and constant disk thrashing.

I've been replacing hard drives in laptops since 2015. It makes a HUGE difference, especially if you get a decent 2.5in SATA SSD with DRAM (as opposed to certain cheap cache-less SATA designs).

I can recommend Sandisk 860 and 870 EVO 2.5in SATA amongst others. They can be double or triple the price of a DRAM-less SSD with the same capacity. Most SSDs will make Windows faster. A good SSD will make it fly in comparison with a hard disk. Invest in quality.

Ideally, given your 1TB WD Blue is nearly full, you'd be well advised to get a 2TB SATA SSD.
https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-Inch-Internal-MZ-77E2T0B-AM/dp/B08QB93S6R?crid=M3UGEDAGHKIH&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.VF-EK5bjtfcfe2Uajov6oLs8H09VRQoI_F9xR7fEPp_GzxXcKAXxatqsm31qqFyBxqoIUnuq3tBt8CeAYDIRSr3x16EUJL7A7SBddzAtPmm0NrQkF12X65NK9oflFV2BOIinxCV-Tkww6h-1pOzkWAgH3NhwJYM1t9FYk4eX4KrEdHIVTZfNo09IV_Fb2mr_mERAywSoPzmeaSpjemjV1qlM6cbxdfl04aC4XXSciCc.hKuGy5bJ5OlTGExceWN-An4oj0_Wo32MS_BW2al2hjw&dib_tag=se&keywords=sandisk+2TB+sata+ssd+870+evo&qid=1733841682&sprefix=sandisk+2tb+sata+ssd+870+evo,aps,152&sr=8-1&th=1

It's not a good idea to use more than 80% of an SSD's capacity, otherwise they start to slow down with disk housekeeping. In other words, don't fill a 1TB SSD with more than 800GB of data.

You can clone the laptop's WD Blue HDD to the new SSD (placed temporarily in a USB cradle) then swap drives and off you go. Do your grandmother's laptop a big favour and replace the spinning disk.

I'm not against hard disks (I have dozens in various PCs and servers) but they're best used as bulk storage - not for operating systems.

Finally made run in safe mode and took a long while.
Change boot mode to normal (Activate all drivers and services) from Selective startup (Load system services, Load startup items)

Memory usage stays mostly at 20% while cpu 0-1% at most.
HDD is still having spike 100% and rarely lags.


As of now in normal mode, the Memory constant at 60%+ and HDD at 0%-20% constantly changing. When I used Wise memory optimizer, it goes down to 44% at most.

Somehow kind of disappointed because I couldn't determine the problem.

Guess I'll have to change HDD.

Also forgot to mention, I wasn't able to clean inside the laptop since I'm scared I might damaged it.

Are there any precautions I should take when selecting compatible RAM and SSD for my laptop? Additionally, is it possible to install both an SSD and an HDD in the same laptop, and what factors should I consider to make this work?

Spoiler: DIAGNOS UPDATE

Steps Taken:

• Disabled services via CMD:
  • Disabled Sysmain, Connected Devices Platform Service (CDPSvc), and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS).
  • Left Connected Devices Platform User Service_9e718 (CDPUserSvc_9e718) enabled.
• Edited Registry:
  • Modified ClearPageFileAtShutdown in hkey_local_machine\system\current control set\control\session manager\memory management (set to 1).
• Ran Diagnostic Tests:
  • RAM: Passed all four tests using mdsched.
  • HDD: Checked with CrystalDiskInfo—health status shows "Good."
  • HDD Speed Test: Results show average read/write speeds but still unsure if performance degrades under load.
• Safe Mode Testing:
  • Booted into Safe Mode (took a long time to load).
  • Changed boot mode to Normal (activated all drivers and services) from Selective Startup (Load system services, Load startup items).

---

Results:​

• In Safe Mode:
  • Memory usage: Mostly at 20%.
  • CPU usage: 0-1% at most.
  • HDD: Occasionally spikes to 100%, though this happens rarely and only for brief moments, with minimal lags to no lags.
• In Normal Mode:
  • Memory usage: Constantly at 60%+ (drops to 44% with Wise Memory Optimizer).
  • HDD: Fluctuates between 0% and 20%, occasionally spiking to 100% but far less frequently than before.
• Miscellaneous:
  • A random error occasionally appears: “AcerRegistrationBackGround Task Has Stopped Working.”