Laptop running slow

Maybe you guys can help me here. A month or so ago my laptop started running very slow, and it gets quite warm. Its not new, but it never run like this.

This laptop is mainly used for internet/Office, nothing fancy.

I run AVG antivirus and nothings shows up as a problem. I also installed and run Malwarebites, it found nothing.

Here are the specs in case it matters:

• Dell XPS M1330
• Processor Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 @2.4GHZ
• RAM 4GB
• 32 Bit
• Windows Vista SP2

Some screen shots of the task manager:

I was going to reinstall all the software, moved all my files from it, but my wife has some software that she does not have the cd for anymore. So, unless she can find the stupid cd I really cant reinstall windows.

Is there anything out of the ordinary on those pictures? I know nothing about computers. Thanks !

First off, HOLY E36 M3. I haven't been able to ping a CPU that hard in a long time.

Now, onto business. Looking at your task manager AVG is hogging up 50% of your CPU all by itself. It's a resource whore. I don't run it unless I want it to scan, and my laptop is more spec'd out than yours (i7 720, 8gb DDR..something) That's a BIG problem. First thing I would do is kill all the AVG processes that are active. After a while a long standing process can cache a E36 M3load of info, and it uses it to continually run, and it will drag you down. I periodically have to crash my Flash player for the same reason.... it starts dragging me down.

Your other major problem unfortunately, is Vista. Vista is a WHORE when it comes to resources. Sucks CPU space like nobodies business. That unfortunately is significantly more expensive to fix- as you need to dump it for a different OS. And your best option at this point is Win7. I know where you can get a legitimate ISO of it and install it from a USB- BUT you need a key to make it work and i'm not sure where you can get one of those.

Bottom line- your PC is overheating because the CPU is being taxed to within an inch of its life. If you can get the processor working less hard, it won't get nearly as hot, and you won't see it running like a pig.

One thing I would suggest- Go back into your task manager, and click where it says CPU. What it will do then is reorder all the crap that's in there by CPU usage, and that will give us a better idea of what's going on.

[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/mndsm/media/SS_zps7a34ed88.jpg.html][/URL]

You want to click there.

Thanks!

I clicked on CPU and this guy is pegged at 90/91:

System idle process (percentage of time process is idle)

Everytime I turn it on there is this guy that slows it down a lot, I remove it .. it comes back and I remove it again and then it speeds up to where I can use it. I think its "dwm.exe"

I'll purchase Windows 7 if it helps, but this was never a problem before.

When you say stop the AVG processes, am I going to end up without the virus protection?

You will end up with less virus protection, yes. But windows firewall will catch most of it, and as long as you're not stupid, you won't have a huge problem. Truth be told, I don't have a significant amount of virus protection on my PC, but I tend to be careful about what I check out.

I did a quick search of DWM- and theoretically it should not be a resource whore. If it is- chances are you've already got a virus. Find Spybot S&D and do a scan. It's masking itself as a windows process and that's why it's coming up clean.

http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/dwm.exe.html

Here is more info on it.

mndsm wrote: You will end up with less virus protection, yes. But windows firewall will catch most of it, and as long as you're not stupid, you won't have a huge problem.

Sounds good. I am mostly concerned because there is a 6 year old that uses the laptop. But its looking like I might have to reload windows anyways.

mndsm wrote: \Find Spybot S&D and do a scan.

Just downloaded it, scanning now. Thanks much for the suggestions, I am really lost when it comes to computers.

No worries man, I've done this all a million times, learned it all as I go.

Try changing to the basic theme and see if dwm stops hogging the CPU:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/what-is-dwmexe-and-why-is-it-running/

Combofix from bleepingcomputer.com is my goto lately. There's been a run of rootkits lately.

give it a shot.