W10 getting slower/lagging more (wondering if its somthing I've done)

OK, so here is my setup

Intel Celeron 3.06 GHZ with 2.5GB RAM

Windows 10 Home
Version 1511
Build 10586.318
32bit os, x64 based processor

C: = 128GB ADATA SSD (System drive obviously)
D: = 250GB Seagate Barracuda SATA HDD - Network shared (Data drive)
E: = Writemaster Speedplus SATA CD/DVD read/writer
T: = 80GB Seagate Barracuda SATA HDD - Network shared (Dropbox drive)
B = 1.5TB Seagate USB HDD (Network Shared, used for backing up all the drives on my network using Seagate Diskwizard)

When I first installed WIn 10 and installed all the regular sofware I use (Photoshop, ACDsee, Firefox, Nero and AVG), it was fast. But it has gotten slower and slower, and many operations have start to lag severely, for example

- a warning dialog will appear, or a notification tab will appear in the bottom right corner of the screen, but the notification sound associated with that dialog/tab can be delayed by anything from 30 seconds to three minutes.

- opening Photoshop or ACDsee or any program for that matter can take two minutes or more

- even opening an already running pogram by clicking on its icon in the taskbar can often take 30 seconds

- When opening "This PC" it can take 15 to 30 seconds "working on it" before the drives appear.

- If I right-click on any those drives, the "blue circle of impatience" can spin for 30 seconds to a minute before the context menu appears.

I am posting this on an XP computer attached to the same network as the Win 10 computer and accessing the Internet through the same access point (hardwired through a Linksys X3500 router). I am doing so because surfing the web on the Win 10 computer is near impossible. If it doesn't time out on any given website, I get a stream of "a script on this page has stopped responding" errors.

One thing I have noticed is that in the Task Manager, an entry called "System Interrupts" is using between 30% and 60% of the CPU and regularly tops out at 99%, remaining there for long periods of time, 15 seconds to 30 seconds

Here is what I have tried so far

1. Pause syncing on Dropbox (in case its a nework issue)

2. Disconnecting the network shares

3. Disconnecting the USB Drive

Could it be that having three phyical drives is impacting severerly on the system?


ETA: Another thing that happens is when I open a folder with , say, 100 photos in it, no matter how O have the folder setup, i.e. thumbnails, details or whatever, any attempt to scroll down is met with the "blue circle". It takes at least a minute before I can use the folder functions, scrolling, clicking on an item, selecting using ctrl click, shift click etc.

ETA2: And another thing I notice. When a window is open, there often appears a green progress bar running from left to right "behind" the address path of the folder. This progress bar runs continually about twice each minute. While the programme bar is moving, the blue circle is spinning, and I cannot do anything.

Hi,
1. Is all well in Safe Mode? Do you see any change in performance?
If this is a driver problem - which given your comment on System Interrupts it probably is, then Safe Mode may be fine.

See
Solved Help ! System Interrupts are running are crippling CPU - Windows 10 Forums

& this old thread How to get the cause of high CPU usage by DPC / Interrupt - Windows Tips Tweaks - MSFN
indicates how to diagnose it.

Bearing in mind your note on system interrupts, download and run LatencyMon by Resplendence, and post screenshots of what it finds.

If not a driver, some ideas:

2. Drives.
By all means try disconnecting drives you don't need and see what happens. Simplification is always best.
But first check the SMART params of all your HDDs. (E.g. Crystaldiskinfo -freeware).

3. Then do a basic check to see if anything you've installed is causing this.

You may like to set a restore point before proceeding to easily get back to your current state.

Try
Clean Boot - Perform in Windows 10 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts - Windows 10 Forums

If the problem is still present after a clean boot, then download and run (or install and run) shellexview (free).
Hide all MS extensions, disable the rest. (No need to log off etc).
Note under options there's a 32 bit option which reveals more if running x64 '10.

Hello, drivers include all the drivers associated with the hardware inside your PC, not just peripherals. (There are software only drivers too just to confuse things).

A search about SMART parameters offers:
SMART Parameters and Early Signs of a Failing Hard Disk | Hetman Software
Download CrystalDiskInfo - MajorGeeks
You are looking for no signs of failure. Hopefully.

Please work thru what I suggested in #2 for starters.

Hi, thanks.
I don't think I see a comment about Safe Mode performance- can you check that? - Helps to give a view of what's happening without a lot of the drivers.

Would suggest you try booting normally with any disk drives you don't need disconnected (process of elimination).

Although there's no significant warning given by Crystaldiskinfo, as a matter of routine, you may as well run chkdsk on the drives flagged as caution.

==========================
Sector reallocation is a poor indicator of drive health. Some large drives don't have enough data (user submitted records of "good" drive information), so they default to the danger readings of much smaller drives.

In short, you should worry if reallocated sectors is increasing consistently. If the number is constant after several boots, then it isn't a problem. If it increases consistently then you should be worried.

Attribute Name:	Reallocated Sectors Count
Attribute ID:	05
Description:	Count of reallocated sectors. When the hard drive finds a read/write/verification error, it marks this sector as "reallocated" and transfers data to a special reserved area (spare area). This process is also known as remapping and "reallocated" sectors are called remaps. This is why, on a modern hard disks, you can not see "bad blocks" while testing the surface - all bad blocks are hidden in reallocated sectors. However, the more sectors that are reallocated, the more a sudden decrease (up to 10% and more) can be noticed in the disk read/write speed.
Critical:	Yes
Hard drives that support this attribute:	Samsung, Seagate, IBM (Hitachi), Fujitsu, Maxtor, WD (Western Digital)

===========================

LatencyMon doesn't seem to indicate anything to me.

I would as a matter of routine run
chkdsk C: /F
and
sfc /scannow
- both from an elevated command prompt.


if ok, then move on (assuming all was ok in Safe Mode to the clean boot test (my first post).

Regrading your comment (1st post) about explorer not responding quickly with a folder of photos, you can try Shellexview (freeware); run it, hide all MS extensions, disable all others, and see if there's any effect. If you're using 64 but Windows, explore the 32 bit option in Options which will reveal more extensions.

No need to log off- if this has an effect, you can diagnose cause.