My dad’s been having issues with his laptop becoming progressively slower as he uses it throughout the day. He’s updated all his drivers and got the latest Windows updates. I haven’t seen it but he complains that the mouse becomes slow to respond and when he hovers over the browser icon in the taskbar, the row of tabs you have open that usually pop up take a while to appear.
I’ve suggested it might be the SSD. I think it’s a Crucial MX300 750GB. He’s run CrystalDiskMark.
There’s a slight improvement from what I can see in the 8pm after a restart. I’ve told him to update the firmware if he hasn’t already, but if that doesn’t solve it I don’t know what else it could be.
His laptop’s a Dell with a 7200U with 8GB RAM with integrated graphics.
Any suggestions appreciated, thanks.
That really is a marginal amount of RAM. It would be very simple and not very expensive to upgrade to 16GB kit. I’m assuming Windows 10 because on Windows 11 8GB would be unusable.
You might want to see if the machine will take an NVMe drive.
Yep, the hypothesis is that 8GB RAM are fine at boot time and over time more and more swapping sets in leading to poor performance.
My educated guess would be that daily activities include lots of browsing potentially with lots of browser windows/tabs being left open.
Yeah, it’s Windows 10 so I guess the latest version of that. I use other PCs with 8GB or less and have no issues with browsing, image editing and watching videos. I don’t think it’s recent enough for NVMe.
I’ll get him to check his RAM usage, I know he uses Chrome but I’m sure he said he’s tried other browsers and still had the same issue. Wouldn’t you get a warning though if the PC was low on memory?
If it’s 3 years old it probably has an NVMe slot. It would do no harm to increase the RAM.
People use computers in different ways. I had one user complain the Internet was slow. I said, “Do you mean the web?” She’d never heard of that and was sure she never used the web.
It turned out every day she’d been opening a particular web page from a link in an email. Every time the browser opened a new tab but remembered all the other tabs opened on that website. There were over 100 tabs open!
Your dad’s probably doing something weird. RAM would solve it.
I know he has many tabs open when he browses, but then this slow down has only been occuring in the last few weeks. As far as I know he hasn’t been doing anything differently. I won’t really know until I use the thing myself.
It’s an Inspiron 17 5000 but I don’t know the specific model number so can’t be sure if it supports NVMe. I installed the SSD for him but can’t remember seeing an M.2 slot.
So do those CrystalDiskMark numbers looks okay? I’d just like to rule out the SSD as the issue so he doesn’t have to struggle with updating the firmware.
You need to get your hands on it.
The Crystal numbers look OK. I’ve never used an MX300 though, I always buy the MX500. I assume they have better caching or something.
It could also be heat soaked. The cooler maybe full of dust and the thermal paste baked. If it’s used on a bed or other cushioned surface the paste may have baked. If that’s the case you will notice the fan working hard.
When it slows down open up task manager and see if anything is using lots of CPU, that is a dual core low power i5 after all.
Check CPU utilization and there should be CPU clock somewhere in there as well, maybe it’s just in some low performance state because of something (like overheating) or someone/something changed it in the power plan. Maybe it’s mining in the background…
I’d start with simple stuff before pulling SSDs and buying more RAM.
This for sure.
That said, a 2x4 GB kit is $30 and a 2x8 GB kit is $45 these days, so…
most likely its crapware in his taskbar.
or he’s over taxing the ram with multiple open tabs.
tell him to open task manager and then his browser. see how much ram he has left after a few tabs are open
after that its cleaning out unused software from his taskbar.
things like onedrive (if he doesnt use it) and any other bloat he’s installed over the last little while…
then clean the cache’s
i know opera slows down dramatically if you dont clean the cache every month or so.
use disk cleanup from windows administation tools
once done reboot and see if he’s quicker…
if so then he’s just adopted a new routine to keep his kit tip top 
Thanks for all the useful advice. I’ve linked him to this thread so he can try all that’s been suggested. He did send me a list of memory usage and it was at about 70%, CPU was around 50%, but unknown wether it was slowing down at this point.
70% memory usage when you only have 8GB means that more RAM would be appreciated even if it’s not the root of the problem. Windows will be doing extra work to keep some RAM free where as with more RAM it will be using it to make the computer run faster. Caching for example, keeping programs in RAM longer and not using any disk swap. These are optional for the OS but it will take advantage of RAM if available.
If your dad cannot solve his slowness issues, it might be time to put the old crook to pasture. I can recommend the following replacement build, something to think about but I understand $500 is not exactly the cheapest computer. To be clear, this is plan C, only do it after RAM and SSD upgrades fail. Put the upgrades in the new machine. 
Small and power efficient Office/Retro PC
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5600G (6 cores, 12 threads) | $150.86 |
| Motherboard | ASRock A520M-ITX/ac | $101.85 |
| Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x8 GB 3200 MHz CL16 | $49.99 |
| Storage | ADATA Swordfish 500 GB NVMe | $39.99 |
| Case | In Win Chopin | $99.00 |
| Power Supply | 150W Included in case | $00.00 |
| Total | $441.69 |
Not sure if this DIY desktop can replace a laptop.
Reusing RAM from a laptop upgrade will not work because laptops require different form of DIMMs.
Oh right, laptop… Hmmmm…
I would take a look at a Ryzen 4600U or 4800U laptop with 16 GB to really blow his socks off, but those go for $600-$800 these days. Lenovo, Dell and HP tend to make good and cheap models.
Aim for a six core Ryzen or Alder lake, preferably last gen. 8 cores if you can afford the extra $50.
No shame in buying new hardware if that is what you need to do, just make sure you need to, first.
if he’s on windows 10 or earlier ccleaner will also be a benefit.
but i would suggest you use it for him.
its reg clean function will do a lot to keep his system snappy. but using it the wrong way can cause headaches.
to run the reg clean, select clean. not clean and optomize.
after the first clean run it again… and again till you see no more entries. (you can save at each step but i found it pointless)
then reboot…
he can then run ccleaner again and disable any startup items that aint his antivirus/keyboard/mouse/audio drivers.
and use its uninstaller to remove anything he doesnt need.
again reboot.
run the reg cleaner again.
reason im going down the cleaning route.
8 gigs is enough for browsing the web. even with a dozen tabs open he shouldnt be taxing his pc/lappy unless its a complete potato.
he may also want to check device manager when his mouse starts chugging… the display driver may have quit and it will show up there with a yellow caution.
if so download a new driver from the lappy manufacturer.
(in fact check to see if there are updates for his drivers from there website)
Download CCleaner | Clean, optimize & tune up your PC, free! (free version only and uninstall it after use)
Thanks for the hardware recommendations but he’s not in the market for a new laptop just yet, unless something is very wrong with the one he’s got.
He’s been using CCleaner since Windows 7 so should be pretty familiar with it. Don’t think he’s ever done such a rigorous clean with it though, I know I haven’t.
8 gigs is enough for browsing the web.
This is why i don’t think it’s a memory issue. The slowdown has only started happening quite recently.
Maybe it’s time to run a good anti-virus scan. Ideally one that identifies vampire tools as well.