Basic Hardware checks

[marpro25]

I am not an IT / computer hardware specialist by any stretch. I installed this software because it was recommended by a few articles I saw online. The software looks very comprehensive, technical, and unfortunately full of jargon that people like me don't understand.

I've had my laptop (Dell Precision 7510) for almost 10 years now. Granted, it's old, but it has worked quite well for most of this time. Only recently it started slowing drastically in performance. I re-installed the operating system last week, which improved it considerably, but also not to the extent I was expecting. The main symptom is spontaneous freezing during execution of simple tasks, such as clicking on the windows start menu, or opening a new tab in microsoft edge. This is particularly worse during the first 10-15 minutes after starting the laptop. Sometimes it can even freeze for up to 30 seconds at a time. I never hear the laptop 'over-exerting' itself - the fans are almost always quiet, even when downloading and running installers for large pieces of software - which to my inexperienced mind suggests that there is some hardware component not working at its full capacity that is slowing the overall performance.

I wanted to find out if there are hardware issues that could be causing this, that I could fix myself (such as changing the RAM or hard drive if necessary). Is there a simple enough way I can use HWiNFO to do this? Or can someone recommend some other software? It's not something I'm prepared to spend my whole weekend tinkering with. So failing that, I might just take it to a repair shop if I can't find something reasonably simple that works, and pay whatever I have to.

I've looked around a few websites and have been getting a little impatient. I tried some other software for checking the memory - didn't work. I tried downloading some other software that was recommended - but the site looked suspicious and for some reason had anime wallpapers built into the software (nothing wrong with it, just odd), and it also said it's compatible with Windows Vista and XP for some reason.

Edit: I have an SSD installed already. This is often the first thing people ask me. And it apparently has 96% remaining life according to HWiNFO, which I assume is a good thing.

 

[Limy]

HWINFO monitors many things including memory usage and speed, timings etc. But it is not designed to find hardware problems. It will just show how fast (or how slow), how hot, how much voltage, wattage, power, fan speed and more. So if there is a hardware problem it will show you all those readings as the PC hardware, and software reports them at that time.
I guess if you had a snip of it running a year ago or so, and compared it with now you could see if anything is running slower - shouldn't be unless you changed settings, but in such a case it would be useful to see if temps have increased. That could mean many things. Actually it usually means "dust," build up inside the lappy, or especially on the fans.

But still, it wont diagnose any errors. Simply not made for that.
If you suspect memory problems, I strongly recommend you run the default built in Windows memory diagnostic. People don't speak well of it, but it is fine at finding any errors in memory. (It runs through a bunch of tests on restart, before the OS boots. Twice. It is not enough for overclockers, but to get a decent checkup of your memory health it's free and built into windows. That's one suggestion.

Your lappy is old, but not ancient. Often slow downs are simply because of degrading cooling performance. A good cleaning of the fan under your laptop, or anywhere else including vents may have surprising results. Apologies if you have already done that, but man people (my wife for example!) Never think to do that. Also clean out temp files, optimize, limit startup progs to just a very few. There are many more ways to breath life into an older PC. You have already done a good one - reinstalling, so if you haven't windows has all the basic tools for disk clean up built in which if run regularly are fine for regular users.

There are a lot of other things but usually the basics are enough. If it still runs much slower, well, the PC is probably just a bit old.

I am no fan of Windows, but it does have plenty of, "troubleshooters," which are safe and worth running too.

Sorry couldn't help more. In summary, run a memory diagnostic. (Just type Memory into search and it will show after the first three letters you type probably.) Clean it if you haven't, run windows diagnostic and trouble shooting mini programs, and, you may find your PC is back as it was. Or not. Worth doing it though. Good luck.

P.S. Quiet fans don't always mean the PC is running cool unless it's new and/or has been regualy de dusted. The dust can get into the central part of the fan motor which slows it down. Doesn't make noise but it's fighting spin to faster against friction from dust build up. Usually that's silent. I experienced that years ago on an old Pentium 4 toshiba laptop! It was quiet but hot. When I cleaned out the fans properly I could hear them again easily depending on work load. But the reduction in temps, and increase in performance was pretty staggering. Yeah I know, Pentium 4 is ancient, but even the best new laptops should be cleaned (vent's fans), I would say at least once a month. Never had such problems on desktops or laptops since my Pentium 4 silently slowed down, then I checked temps, cleaned with a mini vacum or aircan blaster (I forget). But it was a lesson well leanerned. I am not saying that's your issue though, but it happens!!