Very slow win 10 system

Recently I somehow lost drivers and function of my microphone. Microsoft could not figure out whyor what was missing so they had me download the Media Creation Tool and start over keeping my old apps and files. But now my system is much slower than before. Is there anything I can do on my end to speed it up? Thanks

 

Hello Tony,
not exactly what happened. I downloaded the Media Creation Tool setup but I did not create an exteernal drive for it. When it came to that option I chose to setup a new win 10 "to this pc" which started the process. I did save the set up to my ext hard drive just in cace I needed to reinstall later. Of course I cannot boot from that but that was never my intention. Before I reinstalled win 10 my pc was very fast, now it takes an inordinate time to pull up a simple file. The cursor just keeps spinning and spinning. For example, it took over 10 mins to pull up my Brave browser.
I checked the hard drive as you suggested and no errors were found. I know I have a memory issue with Ram and only 4 Gigs of memory, still that was the case also before and the pc ran fast so I don't know what changed.

 

I see what you mean Tony. No it does not create a windows.old file it starts a new win file. So that may be what is slowing down the PC? If so, I guess it will have to remain slow as it took me nearly the whole day yesterday to install the new win 10 what with slow wifi speeds etc. I just don't have the time right now. Perhaps future updates will speed it up? Unsure about that.
Correct me if I am wrong but runnimg the media tool at this point to me would be useless. The win.old file on my original application was wiped out and gone when the new win 10 was put on so the only thing I would get would be a win.old of my current slow system. I guess all I can do is wait and see if future updates correct the problem?

 

To also add to Tony's excellent advice:

Go into Task Manager and post back with the CPU, Memory, and Disk Usage. If any of those are too high, then you most likely have a software issue. If they are in normal range, you most likely have a hardware issue (probably the hard drive).

EDIT: It looks as though the laptop has a SSD. The chances of your SSD failing are quite slim. As such, my guess now is that you have a corrupt software process which is consuming too much of the laptop's resources. Also, check what happens in Safe Mode as Tony requested.

 

OK, I ran in safe mode, too soon to know if that helped. I also did the Task Mgr thing (see attachment), but I don't know what is within normal limits.
And yes IJAC I have run into the update thing many times, that is usually the first thing I check when the pc bogs down,
A new wrinkle though, this is the second day that whenever I start for the first time in the AM, after windows comes up, I do not have sound, no speakers. I do a restart and then I have speakers. Its like the first time the drivers didn't load! I have also noticed that my Edge browser goes non-responsive several times during use. I just wait until it responds.

 

I have the Media Creation Tool set up on my external hard drive, can I just use it from there? Sorry to be so dense about this stuff but its not really my thing. But really, I don't understand how booting up from the tool with a fresh copy of win 10 would do anything about my hard drive other than resseting my drivers, etc? If my hard drive is the problem then I am just stuck with it until I get a new one, right?

 

The usage numbers are fine.

I agree with Tony that the next step is a fresh install.

 

Ok guys, I will give it a try. I have a 16 mg usb drive I can put the Media Creation Tool on and go from there but I will be using the option to keep all my files, hope that doesn't make a difference, especially because this am when I turned the pc on the sound would not work again so I had to do a restart and then everything worked.

 

Note that by re-installing Windows 10, you will have to re-install programs that you installed. Also, disconnect any external drives or USB sticks from the laptop other than the USB stick that will be erased, and then W10 installed on.

 

O wait you are telling me NOT to chose the option to keep my files but the other option? I will have to send my music files to my ext hard drive in order to keep them.

 

Gotcha, but here's the thing. The reason I am so frustrated is I tried three times to reinstall win10 and each time I had to just give up. Here is what I did:
1. Put the Media Creation Tool (link) on my usb drive.
2. Went through the process to download the setup file to the usb. Done
3. Went into the usb and ran the setup. Done
4. First the setup checked for updates. Done
5. The set up "got a few things ready". Done
6. The set up "checked to see if download complete." Done
7. The setup checked to see if I had enough space on my pc. Not done.

This is where the hang up for whatever reason started. Setup checked for over 30 mins each time but went no further. Thinking it was just hung up I aborted and started over each time.
So, my question is this: when setup is checking my device to see if it has enough space, does that process depend upon my wifi internet speed? I didn't think it did as I thought it came from the usb files. But if it does depend on wifi speed then that is the problem as we have slow internet here in asia at the best of times. It isn't like when I lived in the States, zip zip and you are done.
So that is where I am at now. Nothing has changed but I do have my files backed up but I prefer the "save my files" option for next time.
Any thoughts? Thanks

 

I found out that using the flash drive to set up win 10 from does not work. So I gave up on that and went into bios, changed the boot order to my flash drive and got the install process started. I could not use the "save your files option" because the pc told me there was a compatibility issue so I chose the save nothing option. So I have a new win10 on my pc but I must say something is still not right as my pc is acting a bit weird. I have three win.old files now. I am considering tryin to go back to my original version at least I could navigate and function. But I will give this one a few days to see if it works better for me. Is it possible that this version of win 10 is not compatible formy machine. Will let you know what happens in the AM when I turn it back on.