PC running slow like molasses from BIOS to OS

Solution 1:

In addition to what @Hennes and @moses suggested about checking your BIOS settings and CMOS battery, here is what I would suggest

1. Try swapping out your Graphics Card if you have another one available. The fact you can move your cursor around normally, but other things such as video are peforming slowly now lead me to believe it could be GPU related.
2. Try swapping out your Power Supply if you have another one available. This is an off chance, but you mentioned these issues started after you changed power sources. Maybe your PSU is going bad and not supplying enough power.
3. Disconnect everything you possibly can. The only things that should remain connected to the motherboard are the RAM, CPU, Graphics Card (if not built into the M.B.), the Power Supply, and a Keyboard. Boot the PC and see if you still have the issue.
   • This will rule out any hard drives, optical drives, and periphreals.
   • If the problem still occurs, and you can rule out your PSU, GPU, and RAM, then it's a good bet your motherboard is bad. In my experience, if your CPU is bad you wouldn't even be able to get to POST.
   • If the problem does not persist, connect each device one at time until the problem returns, then disconnect it and repeat to confirm it wasn't just random chance.
4. Download the Memtest 86+ Live CD image, or any other Live CD that contains it such as SystemRescueCD or Trinity Rescue Kit (both of which aren't bad to have around anyways). This is a pretty reliable test for determining if your RAM is bad, though I doubt bad RAM is your issue because usually bad RAM doesn't just result in slowness, it results in full on system crashes (i.e. BSOD's or unexpected reboots). There is a guide on SevenForums that explains how to use Memtest 86+.

Solution 2:

You should try http://www.hdsentinel.com/download.php . Sounds like a bad drive if it's not the cooling. Also make sure you don't have a disc in the optical drive or a usb drive plugged in.

Solution 3:

I just had a similar issue, later googling lead me here. Since I hate when people don't put up what solved their issue, I figured I should add how I solved my (nearly identical) issue.

I solved mine by resetting my BIOS. In my case, I have a gigabyte H81M-DS2V running an i7-4770 and 16gb crucial ballistix vlp with a 4gb 770.

Note that you should be very careful resetting bios! Most motherboards now want you to short the pins while the computer is off & unplugged, but some want other methods. Shorting the bios pins at the wrong time can fry your motherboard! Note that it's quite common for all the fans on the computer to briefly spin up when you do the reset (but it may not happen every time).

Solution 4:

I just had a similar issue and I know that the solution might sound funny or totally odd, but that solved it for me so I have to post it:

I removed the cd from my laptop's cdrom drive

Checking it with another laptop, it seems it was just a damaged cd, and for some reason I think the BIOS was taking many minutes trying to read it (although it was not even the first boot option!). You can downvote it if you want, but I hope it will help someone in the future.