System running super slow with Windows 10

My Dell Inspiron laptop came with Windows 7 installed in 2011. I had Windows 10 installed via download in August 2015. At first the speed was fine. Now my laptop is so slow that it has become almost unusable. I often click on something and have to wait 10 to 20 seconds for a reaction. Just shutting down can take 5 minutes. Looking in the task manager I see under Processes that my memory is 92% full, and the System process is using more than 180 Mb of memory. I have tried many things to speed up my laptop. I tried modifying the paging file size for virtual memory to a lower size, but then I kept getting low memory warnings every few minutes and my apps would close if I ignored the warnings. I end up needing a large paging file size (8000 to 16000 Mb), way more than the recommended size of 1396 Mb, to avoid low memory warnings. So of course Windows 10 is shuffling a lot of data back and forth to the disk, slowing everything down. I eliminated every app from opening on Startup that I don't need, although of course I don't know what many of the apps listed in the Startup menu do so I leave them alone. My anti-virus eats a lot of memory but I need that. Since I'm in Europe we don't have Cortana so that's not a problem. Can anyone recommend ways to reduce the high demand on memory by the System process? If so, please help, and using layperson's terms. I have a Ph.D. but not in computer engineering.

Hi, certainly you're quite right that if your PC thinks it's starved of memory it will be very busy swapping disk to RAM & v. versa. (page file).

Can you please
a. say how much RAM is equipped on your PC
b. post a screen shot (picture) of your task manager full screen height - click on the 'Memory' tab to organise by highest at top

Have a look at any programs you recognise that are taking up a lot of RAM. Do you need these running?
Thanks

Hi,

My anti-virus eats a lot of memory but I need that.

Could you pls tel us the brand name of that programme ? I suspect that's the culprit.

Cheers,

The anti-virus software is McAfee.

I have 4.0 GB DDR3 RAM. However, yesterday while I was listening to music on Spotify for a few hours my laptop crashed, for the first time ever. I even had a blue screen of death. Then my laptop restarted and downloaded/installed some fixes from Microsoft. This seems to have resolved whatever problems I was having. Now even with Firefox open and my McAfee scanner service running I am only at about 56% of RAM. I'm inserting a screen shot of my task manager, at least the top part of the list of what's running. I don't know what a lot of these processes are, much less if I need them running. But as you can see, the problem I complained about above seems to have been fixed, at least for now.

dalchina said:

Hi, certainly you're quite right that if your PC thinks it's starved of memory it will be very busy swapping disk to RAM & v. versa. (page file).

Can you please
a. say how much RAM is equipped on your PC
b. post a screen shot (picture) of your task manager full screen height - click on the 'Memory' tab to organise by highest at top

Have a look at any programs you recognise that are taking up a lot of RAM. Do you need these running?
Thanks

Hi, looks perfectly reasonable now. If the same thing happens again, grab a screenshot of taskmanager.

Did you upgrade with McAfee still installed? If so, I'd uninstall it and do an in-place upgrade to repair the install (might be a good idea even if McAfee wasn't installed). Only after the installation of Win 10 do you want to install a third party anti virus, although I'd recommend staying clear of McAfee regardless.

My problem that I posted a week ago persists. In my last update, things seemed resolved. But then the System file gradually began to consume more and more memory until again I was at 92% memory and everything was running super slow. My McAfee software was malfunctioning also (specifically, it was trying to download updates forever but stuck at 0% progress, and trying to get scanning started but unable to get going). So I uninstalled McAfee completely and reinstalled it. Once again everything was working properly for a few days. But then the System file again began to consume more and more memory until again it was at 92% and everything was running super slow. That's where I stand now. Here is a screen shot of the task manager:

I took the screen shot without the browser open. The System file is using 193.0 MB of memory and memory is 88% full, with a lot of swapping data to and from disk. With my browser open at this moment the System file is using 263.6 MB of memory and the memory is at 92%.

Can anyone give a reasonable theory as to what the problem is? If you think it is my McAfee anti-virus, then what should I use in its place? What could the System file be doing that requires so much memory anyway?

McAfee in years passed had been known for issues similar, but I can't speak of recent times. I'd suggest trying without McAfee and looking over the threads in the AntiVirus, Firewalls and System Security section to find a better alternative. Some of the free anti-viruses out now are at least as good as McAfee; I use Avira.

Hi,

What's wrong with Windows Defender anyway ?

Cheers,