Help with computer problem (I hate to do this).

Factual Questions
1

I just can’t seem to figure it out. My eldest daughters computer is super slow when accessing the internet and I can’t see why.

Both of my daughters have identical laptops (Lenovo thinkpads running windows 8.1). My older daughter’s computer (ODC) started accessing the web really slowly. With youtube it times out, with Google and Wikipedia it takes 2 minutes before the page comes up. My younger daughters computer is fine and normal (as is my wife’s computer on the same network).

I have checked all the settings I can think of and they seem to be the same. I have used MS enpoint to scan the computer and double checked the firewall settings and they are identical. i have checked the networking settings and the network adapter (wireless) and everything seems identical. I used tracert and my older daughters computer takes an order of magnitude longer on each step than my younger daughters (100 ms vs 10), but the route is the same. There are no proxy servers set up.

I am stumped, what should I try?

2

if you’re asking this question, the answer is pave and reinstall.

3

You could try swapping the hard drives between the two computers. If the problem stays with the laptop and not with the hard drive, that would tell you it’s hardware. removing a hard drive usually isn’t too difficult, even on a laptop.

4

I had an issue with High Disk usage on my Lenovoo y510p running 8.1 and after some digging around (task manager) I found my disk usage was very high, 90%, even at 0 MB/s. It had a serious impact on my laptop performance.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2045646/windows-100-disk-usage.html

5

Didja try plugging in the laptop to the modem and eliminating the router and wireless cards as suspects?

6

How about clearing the cache and history?

J>

7

See if there are any extensions added to the browser on the slower computer. Disable them and see if there’s any difference.

8

Is it possible someone is sharing that connection?!?
Have everyone else disconnected from that WiFi?
Have you tried a different connection? Wired vs WiFi… or different WiFi source.

Yes, since you have two laptops the same, swap the harddrives and see which one then has the issue.

First practical solution; delete the appropriate NIC from device manager. Shut down, turn on & let windows re-find it and re-install the driver.
If needed; see if there’s a newer driver.

After that; call Lenovo support.

9

You can also see if it’s a software thing:

First try a different browser (like Chrome or Firefox).

Then try resetting them.

Then try installing AdBlock Plus:

Then set YouTube to use HTML5 instead of Flash:
https://www.youtube.com/html5

If that doesn’t work, push Ctrl-Shift-I in either Chrome or Firefox to bring up the inspector, and go to the network tab to see what the browser is doing. It should log everytime in a timeline and tell you what’s taking so long.

10

Download and run OldTimer TFC

reboot when prompted

Download and run ADW cleaner

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/dl/125/

this will clear tons of browser toolbars, alternate search providers, etc.

remove whatever it tags

If still slow after that download and run Malwarebytes Anti malware

make sure to uncheck the box for “free trial” of pro version

run a full scan and remove anything it tags

The report back to us

Some of these types of issues are hijacked DNS settings sometimes buried in the registry where they are not easy to find.