Windows 10 1803 Pro is Very Slow after using Windows Repair 4.30

[AJHere]

Here's some history:

I used the free version recently & liked what it did & how it did it. Then saw discount via MajorGeeks.com & purchased the Pro version... entered the code & all good.

Started the program & was doing all the "pre" tests. I then noticed the "do this in Safe Mode" banner, allowed sfc.exe /SCANNOW to finish, activated the "boot into safe mode" from within the application, and rebooted into Safe Mode. While going into safe mode I noticed the "scanning and repairing drive G:" message which is unusual... none of the other HDDs (C:, D:, E:, F:, H:, & J: (USB)) had this message.

When I arrived in Safe Mode, everything was very slow. I know "slow" is one of the most difficult issues to diagnose & correct... but there is no other way to describe it. Programs that took less than a second to start now take more than a minute. But they do start.

I ran Windows Repair which finally loaded & seemed to get going ok. It stopped on about repair number 4 (I think) after several retries of that repair & gave up. There are logs available I'm sure.
So I've booted back to normal Windows, still get scanning drive G: message, still painfully slow.

I thought that since I did all the pre-work before the fix-work, then restore to previous restore point should do the trick. My first attempt failed using the most recent point with the name "T"... it runs for hours & when I woke this morning the system had rebooted but nothing had changed. I now have the opportunity to reverse that failed attempt. I have picked the next most recent... it's still running... has been running for hours and I'm about to go to bed again & leave it on it's own. This message is on the screen:

Please wait while your Windows files and settings are
being restored
System Restore is restoring the registry...

Is there something else I should attempt rather than restore from a previous point? I hope to hear from someone soon...

[Boggin]

I don't know what is scanning G: as Windows Repair just repairs the OS - usually on C:

What do you have on G: ?

It's possible that whatever is scanning G: is using up resources to cause the slow.

I think at that point I would have done a power shutdown, removed all power sources and held the power button in for ~30secs to perform a cold boot which would have cleared the memory.

As you are in the middle of a restore point, you will need to wait until it completes.

I've power shut down twice when a restore point operation seemed to be stuck and on the reboot all I had was a black screen with a big white arrow.

The only thing that would boot the machine was a Kaspersky Rescue Disk which got me back up and running after its scan - the first time it invoked a chkdsk.

When the restore operation finally completes, if you still have slow, then try the cold boot to see if it resolves.

I don't think the machines Shane tests the program on have multiple drives, but I'll email him with a link to your thread, but with it being a Sunday, may have to wait for a reply.

[AJHere]

Hi Boggin, Thanks for reply and alerting Shane to my problem.

G: drive is one of several that are installed... I have C: to J: drives active (C: is an NVMe M.2 SSD & J: is a USB3 drive... the remainder are conventional). I've pointed Windows 10 there for My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, & My Videos. I've mentioned the scanning of it at startup only because that is something that has happened during the "boot to safe mode" & it's unusual & is now persistent. I use SysInternals' Process Explorer to have a look at what is running... particularly anything that is CPU hungry and there is nothing out of the ordinary. Is there a reg address that stores those commands that run before Windows starts?... or is it in a file?

The restore is still running! so I will wait until it completes. There are some intermittent HDD activity flashes so it's just doing it at snail's pace.

[Boggin]

As there's some HDD activity then at least it is still running.

There is one thing that scans files on boot and that is an antivirus program.

Sometimes they hang onto files instead of releasing them which will impact on performance.

I have an old Win 7 laptop that when I do a manual check for updates on Norton Security, it maxes out the single core 2.1GHz CPU so that I can't do anything else until it has processed those.

On one of my cheap Toshiba upgraded Win 10 laptops, after it has booted up, the CPU is up around the 100% mark and I wait until it drops before it start using the machine.

To check if anything is hogging resources is to right click on the taskbar and select Task Manager.

If this is the first time you have gone into Task Manager in Win 10 you will be presented with a blank window where you then click on More details bottom left.

Under the Processes tab clicking on CPU or Memory will sort to the highest user first.

[AJHere]

I use a Task Manager replacement called "Process Explorer" by Sysinternals... have a look here

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/sysinternals/

Then using their PSKill command in a batch file I can kill any unwanted processes and strip junk away to a system that performs better.

BTW Restore is still running. This is a good sign since the first attempt using restore point called "T" failed... I woke to a new login & failed attempt.

[Boggin]

Yes, I've used Process Explorer before but just to use Virus Total to check if there was any malware.

Task Manager gives you the details at a glance which is what I prefer to check to see if anything is hogging resources.

On one of my Win 10 laptops the Welcome screen changes on that occasionally as well.

I'm not sure how I did it but I don't get the picturesque screen on another Win 10 laptop.

When "T" failed, did you get an error code or did it just say that it was unsuccessful ?

[AJHere]

The restore point called "T" ran for ages... I had to go to bed. Next morning the system was sitting at the login screen... Yay! I thought. When I logged, it notified me it had been unsuccessful... no error codes or anything to go by.

[Boggin]

Are these restore operations being done in Safe Mode ?

When the restore operation completes can you perform a cold boot as I've previously described and see if you still get that scanning G: message.

If not, can you boot into Safe Mode by pressing and holding SHIFT throughout a Restart and then see if things are still slow.

[tabqwerty]

I have 1803 Pro, but it's installed on drive C:. The free features allowed me to run Pro Tools for the first time. The only problem I'm having is having my keycode register.

[Boggin]

I have 1803 Pro, but it's installed on drive C:. The free features allowed me to run Pro Tools for the first time. The only problem I'm having is having my keycode register.

Please don't hijack another thread which has a different problem to yours and to which I've responded to.

[jpm]

Have you tried unplugging the drive extra drives? Is the machine fast then? This one smells like a bad drive from here>

The logs are here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Tweaking.com\Windows Repair (All in One)\Logs

It would be good to look at them.


The backups are at c:\regbackup. Anything there?

[AJHere]

Bloody nice call jpm... you've got a good nose.

This is a gaming rig with multiples of HDDs, GPUs, PSUs (to run GPUs). All HDDs are connected to 2nd PSU except M.2 boot drive so I simply turned off the 2nd PSU, powered system back back on, & I'm OK. Unfortunately the 2TB dead/dying drive is where Win10 points to for all of My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, & My Videos. I'm back up with all but G: drive which has lots of data with no backup. Games have not suffered at all.

I guess it was merely a coincidence that drive died on reboot by Windows Repair to safe mode. (I tend not to believe in coincidences).

Thanks again jpm for your insight (or should I say insmell).