Question Old laptop extremely slow, what hardware related problem could it be ?

[proropke]

It's an old laptop, so yes it has to be slow, but we can all agree that no laptop should take 30 seconds to 2 minutes to open my computer, and 3 minute to 6 minutes to open chrome.

The laptop was abandoned after a virus which made all image, video formats corrupt (you can't open them). I tried saving important files by transferring files to usb, the transfer speed was always 1mb's but nothing seemed to happen (mby this indicates problem) I did clean windows reinstall and it's still just as slow, so it must be some sort of hardware related problem,, but which one, the only thing I imagine is hdd or rams being super slow.

 

[RememberThe5th]

Replace the hdd with ssd.
Brand and model of the laptop?

 

[tylerd120]

Replace the hdd with ssd.
Brand and model of the laptop?

I agree. You could also check the temperatures, and clean the laptop if it is throttling horribly.

 

[proropke]

I agree. You could also check the temperatures, and clean the laptop if it is throttling horribly.

Ok I spoke too soon, I created this thread whilist reinstalling, the reinstall took about 10 hours and in the end, it gives but gives error in setting up process (where you have to disable cortana, personalised ads etc) "something went wrong, try again"

Laptop meets windows 10 min requirements

 

[proropke]

Ok, I think i found problem DDD, opened laptop up, cpu fan not working at all

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Likely throttling is causing some issues. What exact laptop model is this?
Make sure the fan isn't blocked by dust, causing it not to spin. Remove the fan and blow compressed air into fan to clear out dust in the fan. I would buy a new fan if cleaning dust doesn't fix it. Whether you need a new fan or not, I would buy some new thermal paste to help the laptop keep cool and install an SSD.
This should make the laptop much faster and responsive.
An old hard drive will be slow even if the rest of the laptop is running properly. Old hard drives become less reliable with age, especially since they get jostled about in laptops. Because of this, I would consider upgrading to an SSD for better speed and reliability.

 

[proropke]

Likely throttling is causing some issues. What exact laptop model is this?
Make sure the fan isn't blocked by dust, causing it not to spin. Remove the fan and blow compressed air into fan to clear out dust in the fan. I would buy a new fan if cleaning dust doesn't fix it. Whether you need a new fan or not, I would buy some new thermal paste to help the laptop keep cool and install an SSD.
This should make the laptop much faster and responsive.
An old hard drive will be slow even if the rest of the laptop is running properly. Old hard drives become less reliable with age, especially since they get jostled about in laptops. Because of this, I would consider upgrading to an SSD for better speed and reliability.

It's Latitude E6400, the fan is dirt free, I also removed it for closer inspection and found out that the thermal paste was rock solid, at this point like soldering metal. Tried re plugging fan, but did not help, so I would assume I need new fan, and somehow scrape of metal like thermal paste to apply new one

 

[NightHawkRMX]

An Isypropl soaked towel will help to get the clear the old paste off. I would buy a new fan and some past at minimum.