Acer Aspire ES 15 Series super slow

24

Answers

  • topcat7736
    topcat7736 Member Posts: 98 Fixer WiFi Icon
    edited May 2019
    Hi moonweez,

    Hold the Windows key down and press X. When a box opens find Command Prompt (Admin) and left click on it. (If asked, answer yes to allow the program to make changes to your machine).

    When the prompt appears inside the black box, type or copy the following lines, one at a time,  and then enter or return after each one.

    net stop superfetch
    net stop sysmain

    (One of the net stop commands will have an error. Only one is needed but because I don't know the exact version of your windows I'm having you enter both. The error on one is OK and the other will have a completed OK message so don't worry).
    Once you've entered them both, type exit and hit return or enter. You'll be back into Windows. Give the machine a couple minutes and go into the Task Manager again. The disk of 100% should have gone to a low level or zero. It should never be 100% and in the red (which is why the machine is performing poorly). If it hasn't come down, reboot the machine and give it about 5 minutes once it's back up. Then check the Task Manager and insure the disk activity has subsided. Your machine will run OK from now on.

  • topcat7736
    topcat7736 Member Posts: 98 Fixer WiFi Icon
    edited May 2019
    Once the disk usage is at a normal level, hold the Windows key down and press X. When the window opens, find Power Options and left click it.  When the box opens, find "Additional power settings"  and left click it. On the left side, left click "Choose what the power button does". Under power button settings, drop down the menu and select When I press the power button "shut down". Left click "Change settings that are currently unavailable". Uncheck the box which says "Turn on fast startup (recommended). Left click "Save Changes" at the bottom and you can close everything which is open.

    Google and Apple have quick startups on their phones and tablets. Microsoft wanted their operating systems to boot as fast as theirs. So, they came up with a fast start which saves the current state of the system and reloads it on a power up. Unfortunately, it doesn't function properly. You always want your machine to completely power off and reload a NEW copy of the operating system when it starts up again..not a contaminated old copy. Windows 10 loads plenty fast enough when configured correctly. A few added seconds isn't going to make any difference.

    Al
  • moonweez
    moonweez Member Posts: 30 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    Hi Al. Thanks. I've started in on your directions. I didn't seen an error message though.

  • topcat7736
    topcat7736 Member Posts: 98 Fixer WiFi Icon
    When you tried to stop SYSMAIN, which is Superfectch in Windows 10 1803, it said it was already stopped (and it was because you stopped it in the first command). That was what I consider to be an error. It just tells me your version OS is from before 1803. Everything is proceeding normally.
  • moonweez
    moonweez Member Posts: 30 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    I did a restart and disk still shoots up to 100%.
  • moonweez
    moonweez Member Posts: 30 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    And just this minute everything started freezing again. It was working ok for the past day or 2.
  • topcat7736
    topcat7736 Member Posts: 98 Fixer WiFi Icon
    The disk will be at 100% while the machine is booting and loading programs and building tables. But, it should go down near 0 after a while. Don't load Google Chrome after starting the machine and then check the task manager. Chrome uses a huge amount of resources when it starts and we want the machine running properly before introducing other activities.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    We seem to be covering some ground previously covered. I'd still like to see CPU and Disk usage in TaskManager when Chrome is having trouble and loading pages slowly? Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • moonweez
    moonweez Member Posts: 30 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    Jack, I missed capturing those settings. I left the machine for a while and just came back and things are running smoothly again. I will do that when it acts up again.
  • topcat7736
    topcat7736 Member Posts: 98 Fixer WiFi Icon
    Moonweez,
    Did the disk activity ever go below 10% or is it still up in the red zone? 
  • moonweez
    moonweez Member Posts: 30 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    It's below 10% now.
  • topcat7736
    topcat7736 Member Posts: 98 Fixer WiFi Icon
    Excellent. Can you load edge or internet explorer and see if you can go to a website like msn.com? And we can see how it responds.
  • moonweez
    moonweez Member Posts: 30 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    No problem loading Edge. msn.com responding quickly.
  • topcat7736
    topcat7736 Member Posts: 98 Fixer WiFi Icon
    Great. Now we can try Chrome if that's your usual browser. It will take a bit to load so be patient. Once it's going, try msn.com and see if the speed is the same as with Edge. If it slows, we can correct it.
  • moonweez
    moonweez Member Posts: 30 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    Oops, I think I did something wrong. I have been using Chrome to be on the site here.
  • topcat7736
    topcat7736 Member Posts: 98 Fixer WiFi Icon
    You did nothing wrong moonweez, as long as you're functional everything is fine. I tried to edit a post and lost everything. I'll do it again so you can repair the Chrome.
  • topcat7736
    topcat7736 Member Posts: 98 Fixer WiFi Icon
    1) Start the Google Chrome browser.
    2) In Google Chrome, click the three-dot icon at the top right corner and choose Settings. 
    3) Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Advanced. 
    4) In the Privacy and Security category, make sure  "Use a prediction service to load pages more quickly" is turned off. 
    That completes the Chrome modifications.

    If you use Skype, we'll need to turn things off in it too as they can have an adverse affect on Chrome.

    If you don't use Skype we should be done, the disk in Task Manager shouldn't be red anymore and your machine should be running properly.

    Someday when you're feeling adventurous, try using Vivaldi instead of Chrome. Vivaldi is faster than any of the other browsers, uses all the add-ons from the Chrome store, has features found only in Internet Explorer and doesn't have any of these screwball problems.

    Tell me how the machine responds once you've modified Chrome.

  • moonweez
    moonweez Member Posts: 30 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    I didn't see "Use a prediction service ..."  But I turned off "Preload pages for faster browsing and searching".  Seems like the same thing. I'm so happy you pointed out the "Turn off fast start up."  It drove me crazy that Shut Down wasn't acting like a real shut down and I felt it had something to do with my problems. I wanted to see that I had a clean slate. I didn't want all of my problem tabs back every time I started back up. I will most definitely try Vivaldi. Thank you for all of this information.
  • topcat7736
    topcat7736 Member Posts: 98 Fixer WiFi Icon
    I checked and you have three badges just like me! Maybe I'll someday be an Acer Eagle Scout and you'll get an Acer Girl Scout Gold Award. Good luck with your machine.
  • topcat7736
    topcat7736 Member Posts: 98 Fixer WiFi Icon
    I looked back at the screenshots you posted and realized that you have CCleaner running. This is a registry cleaner, now owned by Avast, which is not needed on your Windows 10 computer. Like other Avast programs, it is running silently in the background doing who knows what. 
    To get rid of it,
    1) press & hold the Windows key and then X
    2) Left click Apps and Features
    3) Scroll down to CCleaner and left click on it
    4) Select Uninstall