Whyyyyy is my laptop so laggy?!!!

[xCarRadio]

I'm hoping a tech wiz here can help me figure out why the fuck my laptop is so laggy. I'm talking worse-than-the-worst-Neopets-lag laggy.

*I have googled and read numerous articles. Nothing (so far) has helped. I'm too broke right now to take my laptop to my usual computer guy.*

It's kind of a unique situation so I fee like I should give some backstory.

2 years ago I was super desperate for money so I tried to wipe my laptop off completely (like a factory reset)... in doing so, I accidentally uninstalled windows and the laptop became useless. It has been sitting in my office untouched since then. Today, I decided to attempt to get it working again. I created a Windows 10 installation media (straight from Microsoft) and started the process.

It took nearly all afternoon, but everything installed and seems to be working properly except the horrendous lag. There is absolutely NOTHING on this couple except my Neopets files in a folder. I haven't installed anything except Firefox and Chrome. That alone was incredibly painful as it took 20 minutes to do.

I don't believe it has anything to do with my internet connection because even opening settings or the start button or ANYTHING causes lag.

The error code I originally had was 0xc0000185 and then there was another error about inaccessible boot device. I was able to solve the latter by following a Youtube video. It also walked me through installing Windows 10 from the USB drive. Fairly easy! There was one part about deleting all of the disks, but I didn't really understand wtf it meant so I didn't delete anything. They were named something like "disk 0 partisan 4" and there were 4 in total. I did find them again looking at the Disk Management. I don't entirely understand their purpose and if I maybe should have deleted them before installing Windows? I don't know.

Is there something I can do? Did I potentially fuck up the install and that's why? Help me please! Any help or insight would be truly appreciated!

[Bat]

Windows operating systems have gotten progressively more resource-heavy over the years, and unless your laptop has ideal hardware specs for Windows 10, it's likely that the operating system itself is the cause of the usability issues. There are a few things that can be done to squeeze performance out of the operating system, like disabling visual effects and stopping any unnecessary programs and services from running, but it may prove to be more trouble than it's worth, unfortunately.

[xCarRadio]

Windows operating systems have gotten progressively more resource-heavy over the years, and unless your laptop has ideal hardware specs for Windows 10, it's likely that the operating system itself is the cause of the usability issues. There are a few things that can be done to squeeze performance out of the operating system, like disabling visual effects and stopping any unnecessary programs and services from running, but it may prove to be more trouble than it's worth, unfortunately.

Ah! Thanks for such a quick response Bat!

That's super frustrating It is a pretty decent laptop, only 3 or 4 years old. It did have Windows 10 originally and then I think it had the Windows 11 update prior to my desperate attempt to factory reset. I really don't know much about specs or any of that fancy computer stuff. I try my best to understand it!

[Bat]

Ah! Thanks for such a quick response Bat!

That's super frustrating It is a pretty decent laptop, only 3 or 4 years old. It did have Windows 10 originally and then I think it had the Windows 11 update prior to my desperate attempt to factory reset. I really don't know much about specs or any of that fancy computer stuff. I try my best to understand it!

That is suspicious. If this is a factory reset, and if you're certain that the laptop is still performing poorly while it's not connected to the internet, then you could definitely try the route of removing the superfluous add-ons Microsoft tries to sneak onto your account after installation. You might've noticed various games, social media apps and so on cluttering your computer after you finished setting things up. Those kinds of things tend to sneak resources out from under you as they phone home and shovel content onto your screen. Remove everything that you don't want installed, and hopefully that can help a bit.

[xCarRadio]

That is suspicious. If this is a factory reset, and if you're certain that the laptop is still performing poorly while it's not connected to the internet, then you could definitely try the route of removing the superfluous add-ons Microsoft tries to sneak onto your account after installation. You might've noticed various games, social media apps and so on cluttering your computer after you finished setting things up. Those kinds of things tend to sneak resources out from under you as they phone home and shovel content onto your screen. Remove everything that you don't want installed, and hopefully that can help a bit.

Thank you!! I will give that a go. Fingers crossed.

It seeeeems to be alright right now. It's still slower than I think it should be, but pages are definitely loading faster than they were initially.

[Shawn]

My default to-go when touching a Windows system (I'm primarily a Mac user though) is to install all the random junkware that comes with the machine.
A brand new system shouldn't be so slow, especially if it's a "pretty decent laptop, only 3 or 4 years old."

Also, please be wary of any sites asking you to install programs that will fix/install drivers for you, or speed up your system. More often than not, these are junk too.

[KJiU]

@(you need an account to see links) , did you do an windows update ? i think fresh start/ install / format will cause lag to the laptop and it somehows fixed it after the windows update it with the drivers it needs? (someone can confirm it again)

Also note that Windows 10 eats up 1.5 GB – 2.5 GB of your laptop's ram by default so if you have lower ram then i guess it do cause lag

[Alcremie]

Yes, definitely remove all bloat programs windows has installed. Make sure to go through the settings and disable stuff you don't use on your device. Especially in systems, devices, apps, and privacy. So many unneeded settings are turned on by default.

Press cntrol+alt+del go in the task manager, see what is running at a high percentage, which I'm guessing is memory and/or disk space. You might find some programs missed and can disable/delete them, go from there. I do this on my work laptop, it's trash but I don't delete any program (god forbid..I want to so bad), but I do disable some things to get the ancient RAM usable so I can do my basic tasks lol.

[Synth Salazzle]

The weird thing is I have an asus with this exact problem. It came default with win 10 no matter how much bloatware I remove, no matter how much tweaking I do. Ever since a factory reset it's behaving like yours.
to the point the boot can take up to 20 freaking minutes. The windows store won't launch without crashing the whole thing and I used to play GTA 5 and fallout 4 on medium on this thing!
It's absolutely able to handle win 10 but it just decided "nope, the factory reset just made me decide you suck now"

I genuinely gave up and just bought a new laptop, ever since I switched to MSI I don't have any issues anymore. I still have the Asus cus I have files on it I still want but trying to get it to boot is like asking to give myself a conniption fit to work with it long enough to try to grab a few files.

[xCarRadio]

@(you need an account to see links) , did you do an windows update ? i think fresh start/ install / format will cause lag to the laptop and it somehows fixed it after the windows update it with the drivers it needs? (someone can confirm it again)

Also note that Windows 10 eats up 1.5 GB – 2.5 GB of your laptop's ram by default so if you have lower ram then i guess it do cause lag

Alright. Sooooo I did see that there was a windows update waiting so I went for it. I don't know exactly what happened with the update, but it took me to a black screen with a boot error, I had to press F9 and reinstall windows all over again.

Now I'm even more confused. Howwww the fuck?!!