Windows hangs and slows down at random intervals

[Fiynn]

This is a problem I've started having recently. About a month ago maybe.

When I start up my computer, it's fine. No hang, good response time. Then, maybe 30-45 minutes later, it begins to hang. By hang I mean, taking 30 seconds to launch an application after hitting "run as admin". Then I get stuck at the grayed-screen right for another 30 seconds before the admin access pops up. Also, any program I try to open (paint, for example) will take up to a minute to open. Sometimes longer, depending on the exe.

Firefox (thought originally the problem was chrome so I switched) will also freeze. I get non-responsive errors often, but they go away in about 30 seconds.

Browsing similar threads here, I've noticed a few ideas as to what it could be.

It is not my CPU being overloaded. This occurs while doing simple web browsing. Rainmeter tells me my CPU is never going over 50% while browsing. Or even close.

It is not my RAM. I have 8gigs, and it's also telling me I'm not using over 3. Even when gaming.

It is not my fans. I don't hear them get louder before a freeze.

I've updated my video drivers, windows, flash player, adobe, and even my sound drivers. They're not hanging, best that I can tell.

I'm on a ASUS G74Sx laptop. Bought it just about 1.5 years ago.
8gigs of RAM.
GPU: GTX 560m.
CPU: Intel i7-2630, 200G.hz

As a warning, I am not THAT tech savvy. Dumbing everything down to layman's would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Dawn1113]

I know you said you don't hear the fans getting louder, still, I have to ask, have you actually checked your temps? What applications are on your startup configuration, and what anti-virus software is installed on your machine?

You could try defragmenting your hard drive, if you don't have an SSD in there. You may also want to check for malware.

That's just off the top of my head. I suggest you stick around and wait for the advice of more knowledgeable members.

Hope you sort everything out. That's a nice laptop you got there.

 

[DelJo63]

Hmm; I would suspect you have several auto-updates calling home and downloading baskets of stuff.

Especially for a laptop (using mine as the primary PC), I disable ALL auto-updaters and take responsibility to check for updates when I am home and defer even then until I go to dinner. The battery and time is precious when traveling & imo, that's not the time to be updating.

You can monitor this using <ctl><alt><del> to get the Taskmgr: click the Process Tab, double click the CPU column and the heavy CPU will always be line-1. If you see xxxUpdate or msiexec, then updates are running.

To control updaters RUNAS /User:Administrator Services.msc and give the admin password.
Scroll the names for xxUPDATExx (I found THREE for google alone ); double click each->Properties->General Tab
and set Startup type MANUAL. If the process shows as STARTED, Click Stop.

There are also updaters from autorun in the registry as well as applications which play this game
(your A/V, Flash Player, blah blah blah). Most of these can be controlled using Spybot S&D under tools->System Startups. Just remove the [x] in front of the name(s).

DISABLE your browser add-on for JAVA and also the setting for check for updates.