I'm trying to help my elderly relative with her laptop, which has become painfully slow. It's a decent model with an Intel i5 processor (11th generation), iRISx graphics, and a 200GB hard drive. Booting up takes an excruciating 20 minutes, and launching Chrome takes about 18 minutes. There's hardly anything installed, so storage isn't an issue, and startup programs seem fine. I've done a disk cleanup, and all drivers are updated. The antivirus hasn't flagged anything either. Could this be advanced malware, or is it more likely a hardware problem? Any advice would be hugely appreciated!
2 Answers
It sounds like the hard drive could be the main issue here. Since you've got an HDD, they can be quite sluggish compared to SSDs, especially in today's tech landscape. Have you tried doing a clean install of Windows? It’s best to back up any important files first and then wipe the system drive completely. A fresh install can help rule out any software problems that might be slowing it down, unlike a simple reset.
You mentioned it's an i5, but keep in mind that its age matters too. Even newer i5s can struggle if they're paired with an old hard drive. Just for reference, did you manage to check which generation the i5 is? An 11th gen should be capable, but the HDD speed can definitely drag it down.
Yes! I just got it open, and it’s confirmed as an 11th gen with 8GB of RAM. Still struggling with that slowness, though.
If it's booting slowly and locking up a lot, it might be time to consider upgrading to an SSD. They can make a world of difference in performance! Just a thought.