Laptop grinds to a halt!

jpgreenwood

jpgreenwood

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jason
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Its quite a high spec Lenovo i5 and running LR and PS. Recently its really struggling to boot up all programs and especially LR. Sometimes I have to click it 3 times to get it to launch. Its taking an age to import and whilst processing, can stop responding several times.
Is there something I can run on the laptop to clean it up and get rid of anything thats slowing it down?
I regularly delete temporary files, but maybe the LR libraries are clogging things up? Most of my edited images are removed straight away and stored on an external drive.
Im really not that savvy with computers so don't understand a lot of the goings on. When i open up task manager, theres a massive list of processes going on.
I'll look at drive space and storage when i get home and post the stats.
Thanks for any help.
Telling me to buy Apple products will not help!! lol
 
Sounds as if there is something (or a lot of somethings) running in the background or at start up.
Open task manager and have a look at what runs at start up and what is running you might find there are a lot of things that you don't need.
Anti virus progs can be a bit of a b*****r for doing that
 
On my windows machine I download and use a program called CCCleaner which can help free up space that should have been deleted but hasn't - temporary files / caches - but use at your own caution.
 
The devil is always in the missing details:-

Re: laptop specs
What version of Windows OS is it? (NB as well as the OS version include in the case of W10 which updated build e.g. 1809 or 1903)
How much RAM?
How much free space on the hard drive?
Which programs are in the "start up list"?
Do you have Norton Anti Virus (IMO a notorious resource hog a s*d to completely uninstall if needed to be done)?
Apart form the 'start up programs' ~ are you saying that you have both LR & PS running simultaneously? What else are you opening (NB this is why we need to know the specs as you may be exceeding the capacity of the PC to run smoothly ;) )

PS re CCCleaner ~ yes, if needed but as noted it needs IMO to be used with care......................as all too easy to scr*w a PC up if misused!
 
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I'm windows 10. No other programs running. Just LR. I don't understand all the things in the task manager list. It has an expired mcafee installed which I can't seem to delete. Keeps reminding me to purchase or accept risk. I can get full spec later when I get home.
 
jpgreenwood said:
I'm windows 10. No other programs running. Just LR. I don't understand all the things in the task manager list. It has an expired mcafee installed which I can't seem to delete. Keeps reminding me to purchase or accept risk. I can get full spec later when I get home.
Click to expand...

Do you have any other AV program installed as MacAfee has expired???

PS for reference I found this page at MacAfee about how they advise uninstalling it, hopefully one or more methods are appropriate for you ?

https://service.mcafee.com/webcente...nterWidth=100%25&_adf.ctrl-state=138yemtf8j_9
 
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McAfee is generally known as resource-stealing malware. IIRC you need an additional application to remove it all. https://www.thewindowsclub.com/uninstall-mcafee-internet-security-windows

When you turn it off, do you do a restart or just shut down/turn on? With W10 you need to restart to clear memory, otherwise the OS uses resources from the previous time to make startup faster, and if that's Firefox then it can completely destroy performance if the last thing I did before shutting down was to watch a movie.

Also get task manager up & see what software is running in the background.

Additional thoughts: has there been a recent update that could be linked to the poor performance? Are all the drivers current?
 
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spec;
Lenovo ideapad 510
c'drive; 379gb used-508gb free
d'drive; 1.96gb used-23gb free
RAM 8gb

There are 19 different apps/Features for Microsoft visual c++ from 2012 to 2017 (do I need all these?)
Ive removed Mcafee.
There are 93 background processes
92 window processes (service host etc)
 
Have a look in task manager> performance and startup, see if anything is 'stealing' CPU utilisation and whether you have loads of stuff running at startup. You can aslso run resource monitor from the performance tab that will show you how much free memory you have etc. Keep the performance monitor & task manager open & see what resource is being consumed to cause the apparent failure* to start & lockups.

*FWIW I have a relatively new Dell 'micro' PC for work, and after first startup it can take a full minute to open Outlook - first time it happened I thought the app simply wasn't opening because on this computer it takes just a couple of seconds. Also if I have half a dozen or more excel files open it runs out of resources really badly, and starts misbehaving.

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Cheers. Ive deleted a load of stuff for "optimization" and got rid of some lrcat.lock files that apparently cause issues. LR is now opening quicker but ive lost every photo that was ever imported since 2018. I think Ive deleted thumbnails. Does this mean LR has forgotten everything that was ever imported since that date? I still have the folders in pictures/lightroom/folders.
 
jpgreenwood said:
Cheers. Ive deleted a load of stuff for "optimization" and got rid of some lrcat.lock files that apparently cause issues. LR is now opening quicker but ive lost every photo that was ever imported since 2018. I think Ive deleted thumbnails. Does this mean LR has forgotten everything that was ever imported since that date? I still have the folders in pictures/lightroom/folders.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you deleted your most recent LR catalogue rather than the older ones.

If you were regularly closing LR and clicking "backup" you afaik you should be able to recover your last(?) catalogue. NB no nowt about LR CC but that is how v6.12 works ;)

PS how many image files do you have? My LR 6.12 opens in approx 45 seconds and my catalogue has something like 65000 images.
 
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jpgreenwood said:
Cheers. Ive deleted a load of stuff for "optimization" and got rid of some lrcat.lock files that apparently cause issues. LR is now opening quicker but ive lost every photo that was ever imported since 2018. I think Ive deleted thumbnails. Does this mean LR has forgotten everything that was ever imported since that date? I still have the folders in pictures/lightroom/folders.
Click to expand...

If you have un-recovereably deleted the files then the basic images should still be there, but all lightroom adjustments will have gone. If you have LR set to backup regularly then you might be able to restore your image edits that way, likewise if you backup your drive with LR on.
 
I subscribe to LR and PS package and have LR5 and LR folders in PICTURES/LIGHTROOM. Ive just clicked on the LR catalog and it opened LR with all photos from 2018 up to present. If I click on the LR5 folder it opens up the older photos. Im happy with the way things are working and I think it all stems from a corrupt SD card as every time I insert it into laptop, LR struggles to the point of failure. I cant even format the card. I think the laptop needs a good service and clean up. Thanks.
 
I just save everything I need to save, then reinstall windows and nuke the whole system and start fresh.

Then go to the PC manufacturer website and download and install all the drivers for that PC.

And it works better than when brand new because all the crap they put on the PC when new was deleted along with everything else.
 
jpgreenwood said:
spec;
Lenovo ideapad 510
c'drive; 379gb used-508gb free
d'drive; 1.96gb used-23gb free
RAM 8gb

There are 19 different apps/Features for Microsoft visual c++ from 2012 to 2017 (do I need all these?)
Ive removed Mcafee.
There are 93 background processes
92 window processes (service host etc)
Click to expand...

I've recently changed the internal disks on some similar Lenovo's for family members as although the spec's of the machine are ok, it came with a mechanical disk, no SSD! Do you happen to know if yours has an SSD as it looks like you've got 1Tb of storage and it's still relatively uncommon to get 1Tb SSD's in consumer laptop's (unless you pay a relatively extorionate amount).

If it's not, then invest in a 512Gb SSD, it'll be like night and day....
 
Run malwarebytes (free) just to make sure theres no malware running in the background.
 
Another vote for SSD here; I had a 7 year old Dell Latitude i5 laptop converted to SSD + double the RAM last year when the original HD broke, and it's made a huge difference. It starts up in seconds now and it's a pleasure to use.

Compare the difference between that an entry level HP laptop I bought three years ago with 8gb of RAM and conventional hard drive. The latest Win 10 feature update took around 2 hours to install on that after downloading... and just under 10 mins on the SSD Dell. I know the Dell was about twice as fast before it was converted to SSD, but after conversion it seems light-years ahead. However, the technician who converted it did say it had responded very well to the upgrade and some models don't benefit as much as this one did.
 
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