Need help troubleshooting poor laptop performance

Hey folks,

I have a laptop that's about 4 years old, so I realize it's not new, but it struggles to do much of anything, with actions as simple as opening Word docs or doing Windows index searches for files taking forever. Gaming is out of the question, as is photo editing. Even watching hi-def video is choppy.

Given it's specs, I am thinking it should be performing better than this.

It's had this problem for a few years now, even when I periodically reformat Windows.

I'm not sure how to troubleshoot this issue. I wonder if opening up the laptop, removing the video cards and/or blowing out any dust might help. It's not had that done in the four years I've owned it, and I don't know much about laptops in that regard.

At any rate, I really need to do something, because using it is torture.

Here are some DXDiag results:



Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.140303-2144)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: SAGER
System Model: X8100
BIOS: BIOS Revision: 1.00.11OC.LS2
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 740 @ 1.73GHz (8 CPUs), ~1.7GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 4084MB RAM
Page File: 3889MB used, 4276MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode



Display Devices
---------------
Card name: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series
Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Chip type: ATI display adapter (0x68A0)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A0&SUBSYS_81001558&REV_00
Display Memory: 3812 MB
Dedicated Memory: 2026 MB
Shared Memory: 1786 MB

I'm thinking HDD is going bad... usually when a perfectly good machine starts to crap out, its usually a HDD...

are you currently using the hard drive that came with the laptop? That would be the first thing I would look into

Yes, the original SSD that came with it.

Has it always been like this or is this problem something that has started recently?

I am far from an expert on SSD, but I would check to make sure the drive and OS have the TRIM command enabled as I know that can significantly slow down the drive if it is not enabled.

What brand is the SSD?
How full is the drive and what is the capacity?
Also SSD around 4 years ago were relatively new ( If I remember correctly. I may be wrong). I guess it is possible the drive may be failing on you. I know the controllers on some of them were troublesome in the beginning.

i would try a new install of windows ans see how it reacts, if it is faster with opening maps ,word ,explorer or whatever and does it normal ,than de SSD is still oke and means that windows it self was the problem
maby an old install of windows can get bad over time and a new install goos faster than to search where the problem is.
if the problem perssist ,than your SSD is ready for replacement