Laptop freezing or slowing down after a fresh Windows install?

Hey everyone, I just finished installing a fresh set of Windows today—specifically W7 64bit.
I didn't actually do the dirty work myself; I had a local repair shop handle it, but whatever.

Ever since the installation wrapped up, this laptop has been either freezing entirely or crawling at a snail's pace. It’s incredibly frustrating; almost every single application I try to launch just hangs there, giving me that dreaded "(not responding)" message.
The weird thing is, if I boot into Safe Mode, everything seems to run perfectly fine.

The whole reason I went through the trouble of a reinstall was because my previous setup had become completely unusable. I’d sit there waiting for twenty minutes just to get things moving, and even then, the OS was basically a paperweight. Even trying to use System Restore turned into a total headache.
This whole mess started after the computer locked up on me, and I ended up having to force a shutdown by holding down the power button.

About six months ago, I had a technician swap out my old drive for a new Hard Drive. While I'm hesitant to jump to conclusions, I can't entirely rule out the possibility that the Hard Drive is failing. This laptop is about two years old now, and honestly, the specs are quite solid.

Is there anything I can try to troubleshoot this before I end up dropping $110 on a brand-new drive?
Maybe some kind of diagnostic scan or something similar?

Go ahead and download CrystalDiskInfo. Once you get it installed, you’ll likely run into one of three scenarios:

A blue status means everything is looking good—your hard drive is healthy and running smoothly.
A yellow status suggests there are some issues popping up (the app will actually tell you exactly what they are).
A red status is the one you really don't want to see. It means things are getting serious, so please back up all your important files immediately and start thinking about picking up a new hard drive...

Once you have it open, just paste a screenshot here on the forum so we can take a look at what's going on.

Can I actually run that program while I'm stuck in Safe Mode? And if so, could you drop a link? Their website is throwing a bunch of different versions at me, and I'd rather not guess which one is the right one...

Thanks in advance

You might be able to get things running if you boot up in Safe Mode..

http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html

Go ahead and click that link to grab the standard edition Installer (exe)—it's only about 2.9MB. Once that's done, just go ahead and install it..

Just one single yellow warning:

C5 Current Pending sector count

The answer is actually pretty straightforward: if your computer runs perfectly fine while you're in Safe Mode, that tells me you've either got a missing driver somewhere or one of the drivers currently installed just isn't playing nice with your system. I'd suggest heading over to the Device Manager to see what's going on under the hood.

Yep, a brand new drive. I swear, those hacks at the repair shop really did a number on me five months ago when they swapped my hardware. 😠

shadowlynx102 said:The answer is actually pretty straightforward: if your computer runs perfectly fine while you're in Safe Mode, that tells me you've either got a missing driver somewhere or one of the drivers currently installed just isn't playing nice with your system. I'd suggest heading over to the Device Manager to see what's going on under the hood.

You really think it's just a driver? I've already installed everything required, and honestly, everything in the Device Manager looks perfectly normal to me.

I was reading online that seeing a C5 Current Pending sector count error is basically a flashing red light telling you it's time for a new Hard Drive. 🙂

Is there anything actually worth trying before I drop a hundred bucks on a new drive?

If you picked this thing up just five months ago, it should still be under warranty. Unless, of course, you made the mistake of agreeing to some shady deal involving a refurbished unit... then you're pretty much screwed.

Have you run chkdsk yet? And maybe it's just me being exhausted, but I don't see the info here—what kind of drive are we even talking about?

My buddy and I spent about an hour playing detective at his repair shop trying to diagnose the issue. Once we swapped in a fresh Hard Drive, the computer started flying again.
We ended up plugging that old drive into his laptop just to see what was going on.

The fix? A brand new Hard Drive.

Honestly, I suspect those jokers at the big-box retailer where I bought this laptop five months ago probably tried to offload some defective hardware on me.
Just a heads-up: that drive already had 7,000 hours of runtime on it.🙄

Hard Drives in laptops fail incredibly fast because people carry them everywhere. They set them down on desks and bang them around; you’d think they’d just put a coaster or something on the table first.
Hard Drives are extremely sensitive to impact. Even minor shocks can instantly ruin the internal platters.
You have to understand that those tiny, delicate read/write heads have almost zero clearance from the platters. If they touch—especially while powered on—the platters get scratched.
If I were in the computer business, I wouldn't sell laptops with a Hard Drive. I'd only deal in SSDs.
SSDs aren't sensitive to physical shock. You'll crack the laptop chassis or shatter the screen long before you kill an SSD.
I'd include a contract requiring a cleaning service every six months for a small fee, $17 or something similar.
Are laptop manufacturers insane? And who actually buys this fragile junk?
Even big-box retailers like Walmart sell them. There is nothing more delicate than a laptop.
The world is crazy. I don't know what people are thinking.
I have a laptop here at home that is about six years old. It runs twelve hours a day and works like new. It stays on its own little desk, it's treated well, nobody moves it around, and nobody bangs on the desk. You can't even accidentally bump a cable. You just have to take care of things.
Then there are people who can't even look after a desktop. I know one guy who would kick his computer every time a problem came up, as if that would help.