[SOLVED] Win10 is consistently slow and laggy

SkyLightDance

Prominent
Sep 9, 2020
14
1
525
Build:
i5-6600k
GTX 1070
ASUS Z170-A mobo
(2) 8GB G.Skill Ripjaws RAM sticks

Problem:
When booting up my PC, it will take forever in order for anything and everything to load in. Like for example, I'll have discord/steam boot up on start up and the icon prompt for discord saying its "checking for updates" won't even appear until a minute in booting up the PC. Then it'll take another minute for all the discord assets to appear on the black discord screen. Even booting up FireFox will take a solid minute, it will even have a noticeable delay for the typing to appear. I try to see task manager to see if anything is being a resource hog for whatever reason and all the cpu/memory/gpu/etc loads stay around or under 20%.

How I created this problem
So I had to move my pc from one apartment to another and noticed that at the time my PC would boot up with all the peripherals working, but I wasn't getting any signal from my monitor. At the time I didn't know that everything was (probably) okay but didn't realize that I just hooked the DVI into the mobo rather than the GPU. So here begins my process of unknowingly making things worse. I restarted the PC a couple times just to see if the old trick would work (including force restarts by holding the button), Then I would try reseating the parts because sometimes things get loose while moving things and sometimes that'll cause it to not boot. Broke the clasp that holds down the GPU in the PCI slot and just silently screamed at myself for a little bit. Noticed that the computer would boot up while the GPU wasn't plugged in (at the time still didn't realize the DVI thing) and now that I'm thinking about it, the computer was laggy as well. Small observation that can possibly be wrong, the lag experienced while I didn't have the GPU is similar to the lag I had now, but I wouldn't know for sure since I didn't go past the log in. After a while of repeating the last couple of steps, I proceeded to go with resetting the CMOS battery by taking it out for 10-15 minutes then putting it back in. Messed with the bios for a bit and tried to put everything back to default settings and it was around this time I started to realize that the DVI was in the wrong port and then just had a sigh of what a dumbass I've been. So a few fiddling later, my PC boots up with the GPU inside and recognizes every part such as the GPU, RAM, and CPU. Only problem now is that now it has this extreme lag associated with it and this point I'm almost willing to try anything even if it results in a clean slate just because of how tired I am of this mess.
Thank you for taking the time to read this long post

I also apologize in advance if this the wrong area to post this, wasn't quite sure due to the multileveled nature of this problem
 
Solution
run userbenchmark.com and post the http link of your result, e.g. https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/28977730

Reset the BIOS by jumper clrCMOS or JBAT or similar (eventually you will have to set the bios priority correctly after that)

check windows integrity
open the command prompt as administrator and type DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-open-an-elevated-command-prompt-2618088
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...em-files/bc609315-da1f-4775-812c-695b60477a93


clean boot
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows


check the memory by running...
run userbenchmark.com and post the http link of your result, e.g. https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/28977730

Reset the BIOS by jumper clrCMOS or JBAT or similar (eventually you will have to set the bios priority correctly after that)

check windows integrity
open the command prompt as administrator and type DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-open-an-elevated-command-prompt-2618088
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...em-files/bc609315-da1f-4775-812c-695b60477a93


clean boot
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows


check the memory by running memtest.org usb autoinstaller (bootable USB flash drive)


check the hard drive for errors with its manufacturer´s tool
 
Solution
Use hddsentinnel and check the SMART values of the hdd/ssd ... Breaking the locking mechanism won't totally make it useless, just be sure the GPU is plugged in properly... Also try doing a test on the ram modules... I mostly think it's the ssd/hdd...
 
IF you are on a spinning drive, ditch it, fork out the $65 500 GB SSD...(If your Z170 has an NVME slot, which is likely, there are decently priced M.2 NVME options in the 500 -1000 GB range)

Fresh install, install all required drivers, back in action...!

(I'd first confirm your CPU is hitting typical speeds ( 3.9 GHz single core bursts, and 3.5 GHz under all core loadings) and not potentially stuck at 800 MHz over botched/missing chipset drivers/ WIndows updates, etc...

Nothing slows down a desktop or laptop more than being stuck at 800 MHz..and on a spinning drive.