Sudden slow down

Hello I booted my main laptop this morning and it stuck at the lock screen and I had to manually power the machine off -something that I do not like to do - but this morning seemed like the only way to jog the machine out of some sort of doldrom. Then it took three restarts before I could even get a lock screen back let alone things like Settings, new tabs etc etc.
Now I have run sfc /scannow and also the DISM commands to check health and restore to health but the machine is still so sluggish when loading a new tab say for example eBay, Netflix etc etc I have also run the clean disk command but with not much of a change. I have installed all of the latest updates and nothing like this has happened until this morning. MY internet speed is fine it is just this slug-like operation of the system.
By the way I am now running a scan with the ESET Ultimate software but even that is taking a lot of time. I have to mention too that I am slightly on the paranoid side with any emails or links that I find suspect so I am not expecting it to be an infection of some sort.
Before I go back to a restore point or restore from an external drive I would really appreciate any suggestions before having to do that..

I would start out by booting into safe mode. If it is not sluggish I would suspect something software related or optional operating system component. If it is still sluggish then more likely hardware related or core OS (possibly something corrupt).

For hardware I would test the disk and memory, or if you can run a temp check tool. CPU temp issues could cause it to throttle down.
For OS if it's running any better try and get that SFC or dism repair commands to run

neemobeer said:

I would start out by booting into safe mode. If it is not sluggish I would suspect something software related or optional operating system component. If it is still sluggish then more likely hardware related or core OS (possibly something corrupt).

For hardware I would test the disk and memory, or if you can run a temp check tool. CPU temp issues could cause it to throttle down.
For OS if it's running any better try and get that SFC or dism repair commands to run

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Thanks for the reply neemober mate I have tried safe mode, done the Windows memory test, checked CPU / drive temps, run an extremely slow malware scan but nothing seems to be working. Am going to take it to the local tech shop as I am now left with no other option. I have a feeling that it is the drive and as I have brand new one handy may get the to swap it in if it is just that as I could very well break something if I did it.

ICIT2LOL said:

I have a feeling that it is the drive and as I have brand new one handy may get the to swap it in

Click to expand...

You can download Crystal Disk Info and/or DiskGenius in my signature and view the SMART Info on that and any other drives you have in your computer. If it is any less the GOOD, the drive needs to be replaced.

If your CPU temperature is below 90 degrees Centigrade, then it is not overheating. Before upgrading to a proper CPU cooler by Coolermaster, I used my old Intel Core-i3 cooler for my new Core-i7 (I bought it second hand and the previous owner kept the cooler). No issues until this July that we had very hot days in Greece (38-40 degrees) and the CPU temperature reached the safety threshold of 105 degrees! It immediately slowed down from nominal 3.5GHz to barely 1.4GHz and the computer was slower than old an Celeron with 1GB RAM!

Beside other things, check your graphics drivers. If Windows Update replaced with a faulty driver, it would explain the slow down. Update it directly from nVidia/Intel/AMD.