Windows 11 and an incredibly slow, new Dell desktop

Fishmill · Mar 20, 2026

CMB62 said:
And thanks for the detailed instructions. I wouldn't mind at all dropping $150 on a solid-state 1TB drive, but if it means re-installing all of my files, iTunes, song files, re-installing programs, etc... ugh. That would take me weeks, plus I'd have to find someone to install the new drive, because I certainly wouldn't want to open up the metal box.

But again, do you think that alone is the main reason for this problem, or is it file structure or Defender running amok?

It's been a long time since I heard of significant Defender issues. Not impossible.

More likely:

Dell crap running

One Drive running amok.

Undiagnosed and unnecessary processes running....probably fixable, but not by you alone.

Undiagnosed hardware issues; not sure what Dell service guys checked? RAM? This needs to be confirmed by Micro Center or whoever.

Virus/malware; unlikely if Defender is doing what it is supposed to do.

I suppose you could even have a CPU throttling issue due to heat. Don't know if Dell checked that.

If you ever get this thing sobered up, you should install "HWInfo64" a superb way to get an overview of hardware performance....temperatures, wattage, CPU speeds, fan speeds, etc. It's free.

CMB62 · Mar 20, 2026

Fishmill said:
If you ever get this thing sobered up, you should install "HWInfo64" a superb way to get an overview of hardware performance....temperatures, wattage, CPU speeds, fan speeds, etc. It's free.

Sorry, I just can't let this one pass... From everything you know about me from this thread, what possible benefit do you think I would get from knowing the temperature, wattage, CPU speed, etc. of the hardware? I'm guessing you're an engineer? (No offense, but I can barely change a light bulb, as you can see from my questions). Just kidding, of course!

Fishmill · Mar 20, 2026

CMB62 said:
Would you trust them to do a decent job with that? And maybe replace my Desktop folder system with shortcuts to the Documents folder, if that makes the whole thing work better?

I would not want to vouch for anybody.

But it's not like you have 10 choices from which to pick...as far as I know. Given MC or Best Buy, I'd lean to the former, but you could have a bad experience from anyone. Take the risk or spin your wheels.

If you go to Micro Center, I'd print out a document of what you EXPLICITLY want. Don't be vague.

I'd want:

General diagnosis; have them find out why it's slow BEFORE doing anything else.

After they report back to you, then authorize whatever you then want.

Probably:

New SSD; not necessarily 1 TB if you don't need 1 TB; probably an NVME; generation 3 or 4, not 5. Western Digital, Samsung, Crucial brands OK.

Clean install of Windows alone, using your current Product Key; activated

May as well keep the 7200 rpm drive as an extra storage device, but have them confirm it is not defective.

Have them test your hardware generally, including RAM.

Have them confirm cooling is at least adequate, say various temps in the 40s to 70s when PC is working hard. Maybe splurge on a new cooler, but don't know if it will fit in that skinny Inspiron.

Don't know if you are capable of installing whatever software you use. If you are not, that becomes part of their job and you'd pay for it.

I wouldn't have them fiddle with your file structure/file system. That's highly personal and could confuse you. I assume you've been using defaults. That's OK.

Pretend they will lose ALL of your personal data when you walk in the building and know how you will recover from that after you take it home. If you don't know how, don't make a move toward a repair man.

Fishmill · Mar 20, 2026

CMB62 said:
Sorry, I just can't let this one pass... From everything you know about me from this thread, what possible benefit do you think I would get from knowing the temperature, wattage, CPU speed, etc. of the hardware? I'm guessing you're an engineer? (No offense, but I can barely change a light bulb, as you can see from my questions). Just kidding, of course!

At a minimum, I'd want to know if my fans were spinning at all. You probably have 2 or 3 inside that thing. And the resultant temperatures if they were not. At a certain temp, your CPU will literally shut off by design.

For all either of us know, that is happening right now. Unlikely, but possible. That's one of the reasons I'd want a diagnosis, rather than merely "just gimme a new drive and a clean install". An engineer's curiosity if nothing else.

CMB62 · Mar 20, 2026

Fishmill said:
I would not want to vouch for anybody...

Pretend they will lose ALL of your personal data when you walk in the building and know how you will recover from that after you take it home. If you don't know how, don't make a move toward a repair man.

Very helpful, thanks.

CMB62 · Mar 20, 2026

Fishmill said:
At a minimum, I'd want to know if my fans were spinning at all. You probably have 2 or 3 inside that thing. And the resultant temperatures if they were not. At a certain temp, your CPU will literally shut off by design.

For all either of us know, that is happening right now. Unlikely, but possible. That's one of the reasons I'd want a diagnosis, rather than merely "just gimme a new drive and a clean install". An engineer's curiosity if nothing else.

First, I was only joking, of course, didn't mean to mock your recommendations. Self-deprecation.

But it turns out I know a thing or two about overheating, because that's what my 10-year old crappy ASUS work laptop does. At least 2-3 times a day when doing things like Norton updates. I can hear the fan ramp up louder, then poof, it's asleep, requiring a 30-second "work break" before I can boot up again. Fortunately it's not an actual crash, I don't lose anything, it just goes dark until I restart it and I'm right back in the middle of that email or webpage. Now when I hear the fan ramp up, I unplug it, moving it to battery power, which seems to reduce the auto-sleep mode.

Turns out it's a known ASUS fault on that model, but I can't go to the trouble to get it fixed and should just get a new laptop - but then back to the same copy-and-reinstall nightmare!

BUT THAT'S ANOTHER STORY THAT I WILL NOT BURDEN YOU WITH!

(Now you can see why I hate computers so much.)

zbook · Mar 20, 2026

Please run the V2 log collector > post a share link

BSOD - Posting Instructions

BSOD - Posting Instructions This will show you how to help provide needed information about your system and dump files. It will not contain any personal or sensitive information about you or your data. To get better help with your Windows BSOD issue, please read these instructions and follow...

www.elevenforum.com

Run Tuneup plus > post a share link

https://www.tenforums.com/attachments/bsod-crashes-debugging/360139d1645183596-batch-files-use-bsod-debugging-tuneup_plus_log.zip

Batch files for use in BSOD debugging - Windows 10 Help Forums

Information This thread is for use by the BSOD team to store batch files that can be used to collect additional data, fix settings or anything else that is useful in debugging BSOD problems in Windows 10. The way I see it working is the first

www.tenforums.com

Batch files for use in BSOD debugging - Windows 10 Help Forums

Information This thread is for use by the BSOD team to store batch files that can be used to collect additional data, fix settings or anything else that is useful in debugging BSOD problems in Windows 10. The way I see it working is the first

www.tenforums.com

CMB62 · Mar 29, 2026

Hi all - just a quick update on this Dell desktop situation (I haven't had time to take it to Micro Center). The machine has been running for a week now without shutting it down (although it has gone into Sleep mode), and at times it runs better and I can scroll through photos, or open multiple webpages with the Edge browser. But today I started Edge and opened two or three tabs of news items from Yahoo.com. That's virtually all I was doing with the computer, not running iTunes or a single program (as far as I know). The whole thing froze up because I had four tabs open in the Edge browser! I couldn't go to a different tab, nothing lighted up when the cursor crossed it, it was simply frozen for several minutes. I couldn't switch tabs or close the browser either.

So I hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bring up Task Manager. That alone took 20-25 seconds to pop up. There were the usual hundreds of background processes on the list under Processes (Console Host, service host, etc), none of which I understand what they do, or whether they are supposed to be there or not. Across the top it said the CPU was at 3-8% (is that full or empty?), but Memory was showing like 90%. Does that mean that memory was 90% free, or 90% in use - while running the Edge browser with four tabs open??? Disk was showing between 6% and 57%.

So then I went down to the Performance tab in the Task Manager and took a photo of it. That showed the CPU graph at about 3% (2.14 GHz), but below it the memory graph was at 6.7/7.7GB (87%)! So does this mean that opening four tabs of Yahoo news in Edge - AND DOING NOTHING ELSE - is somehow consuming 87% of this computer's RAM or whatever it is? What the hell is running on this computer that is consuming all the resources, when I am doing NOTHING but opening a webpage? It can't be Norton Antivirus because I removed it, it's got to be some Windows process out of control, right?

Thanks.

CMB62 · Apr 11, 2026

CMB62 said:
So I hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bring up Task Manager. That alone took 20-25 seconds to pop up. There were the usual hundreds of background processes on the list under Processes (Console Host, service host, etc), none of which I understand what they do, or whether they are supposed to be there or not. Across the top it said the CPU was at 3-8% (is that full or empty?), but Memory was showing like 90%. Does that mean that memory was 90% free, or 90% in use - while running the Edge browser with four tabs open??? Disk was showing between 6% and 57%.
So then I went down to the Performance tab in the Task Manager and took a photo of it. That showed the CPU graph at about 3% (2.14 GHz), but below it the memory graph was at 6.7/7.7GB (87%)! So does this mean that opening four tabs of Yahoo news in Edge - AND DOING NOTHING ELSE - is somehow consuming 87% of this computer's RAM or whatever it is? What the hell is running on this computer that is consuming all the resources, when I am doing NOTHING but opening a webpage? It can't be Norton Antivirus because I removed it, it's got to be some Windows process out of control, right?

Thanks.

Bumping this - can anyone tell me what is going on based on the above Performance data under Task Manager? Is this relevant to the problem? Thanks.

zbook · Apr 11, 2026

CMB62 said:
Now I'm out of here to find that MicroCenter.

What was found at the Microcenter?

Please update the progress with posts #5 and #67.

Fishmill · Apr 11, 2026

CMB62 said:
Bumping this - can anyone tell me what is going on based on the above Performance data under Task Manager? Is this relevant to the problem? Thanks.

CPU and 3 to 8 percent means that is the load on the CPU at that moment, very low. Over 90 percent not used. Memory 90 percent means 90 percent in use; 10 remaining. Not surprising. Right now, my Windows 11 PC is under a very light load and I'm using 12 gb of memory out of 32 total. The more memory you have, the more Windows will tend to use. When I had Windows 10, my PC would typically use 5 of 8.

You say "and doing nothing else" other than 4 tabs of Edge. Not correct. You also state you have "hundreds" of processes running...much more than Edge alone.

You are using nearly 7 of 8 GB of your RAM and certainly could have some extraneous and unnecessary processes running every time you start. We don't know.

But the bigger point was made earlier in this thread...by your own admission you have very little knowledge and probably even less inclination to personally I say personally attempt to get under the hood of the PC.

Thus the recommendation for repair places such as Micro Center. Maybe you still can't find time for that?

We could attempt to dig into your processes and give you things to try, etc etc. But your earlier responses indicate there's not much point to that.

"I can barely change a light bulb". "I certainly wouldn't want to open up the metal box". "I don't have the time, skill, patience or interest to deal with it".

glasskuter · Apr 11, 2026

CMB62 said:
I loaded up all my old files on to the new computer, files and programs which consists of almost nothing but photos (more than 30,000 of them, about 100 GB), plus my old iTunes library, which I still use with my ancient but functional iPods. Plus a program called HAP which allowed me to load a few thousand CDs worth of music onto an external hard drive Sony player. That's it - a total of about 250GB of data on this brand-new 900GB machine. No gaming, no performance-hogging programs of any kind, not even Word or Excel on this computer.

From what I can tell no one has pointed out a glaring issue?

I'm betting you set it up using a Microsoft account which means all your personal folders (Desktop, Documents, Pictures, and Videos) are located in Onedrive, not on your system drive. You are given only 5gb of free onedrive storage. Yet you loaded 100 gb of photos onto it. That ain't gonna work. You will have to remedy that. The only way you can get enough Onedrive storage to accomodate that much data is to subscribe to Microsoft 365.

I know I'm going to regret giving my opinion, but here it is anyway.

With as much this and that you've done and been told to do I would reset the laptop to factory and start over. If you call Dell support, that's the first thing they will have you do, either before you start any troubleshooting with them OR before they will let you return the computer..

This time, set it up with a local account. To do this, when you boot up the machine after it's reset to factory condition, it will go through out of box OOBE.
When you get to the "Add a second keyboard" DO NOT SELECT SKIP.
Press the Shift + F10 keys to open a command prompt.
You may need to press the Shift + Fn + F10 keys on some devices instead.
At the command prompt, type start ms-cxh:localonly

Enter a user name you want for this local account.
Enter and Re-enter to confirm a password you want for this local account.
Answer the security questions.
It will then go to add second keyboard which you can select SKIP. Setup will continue using a local account. When using a local account your personal folders are not attached to Onedrive. If you get any prompt to backup your files, decline it, If you get popups regarding Onedrive, DO NOT SIGN INTO ONEDRIVE.

RUN IT A COUPLE OF DAYS AS IT CAME FROM THE FACTORY. DO NOT INSTALL ANY APPS OR MOVE YOUR FILES INTO THE NEW SETUP. If it runs as expected, you know there's nothing wrong with the computer. You can copy your files back into their respective folders which will be located on your system drive... If it does NOT run as expected, contact Dell support before moving files or installing apps..

You will also need to go to Onedrive on the web and delete all the files, because after so long your Microsoft account email will stop working since there is no Onedrive space for your Outlook emails to be stored because you are so far over your onedrive limit. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onedrive/online-cloud-storage

CMB62 · Apr 11, 2026

Fishmill said:
CPU and 3 to 8 percent means that is the load on the CPU at that moment, very low. Over 90 percent not used. Memory 90 percent means 90 percent in use; 10 remaining. Not surprising. Right now, my Windows 11 PC is under a very light load and I'm using 12 gb of memory out of 32 total. The more memory you have, the more Windows will tend to use. When I had Windows 10, my PC would typically use 5 of 8.

You say "and doing nothing else" other than 4 tabs of Edge. Not correct. You also state you have "hundreds" of processes running...much more than Edge alone.

You are using nearly 7 of 8 GB of your RAM and certainly could have some extraneous and unnecessary processes running every time you start. We don't know.

But the bigger point was made earlier in this thread...by your own admission you have very little knowledge and probably even less inclination to personally I say personally attempt to get under the hood of the PC.

Thus the recommendation for repair places such as Micro Center. Maybe you still can't find time for that?

We could attempt to dig into your processes and give you things to try, etc etc. But your earlier responses indicate there's not much point to that.

"I can barely change a light bulb". "I certainly wouldn't want to open up the metal box". "I don't have the time, skill, patience or interest to deal with it".

Fair point - I just wondered if any of the performance data pointed to an obvious issue. Apparently it doesn’t, and we’re left with those hundreds of unidentified processes running that I can’t sift through. So it appears unplugging everything and hauling it to MicroCenter is the only solution. Thanks.

CMB62 · Apr 11, 2026

glasskuter said:
From what I can tell no one has pointed out a glaring issue?

I'm betting you set it up using a Microsoft account which means all your personal folders (Desktop, Documents, Pictures, and Videos) are located in Onedrive, not on your system drive. You are given only 5gb of free onedrive storage. Yet you loaded 100 gb of photos onto it. That ain't gonna work. You will have to remedy that. The only way you can get enough Onedrive storage to accomodate that much data is to subscribe to Microsoft 365.

I know I'm going to regret giving my opinion, but here it is anyway.

With as much this and that you've done and been told to do I would reset the laptop to factory and start over. If you call Dell support, that's the first thing they will have you do, either before you start any troubleshooting with them OR before they will let you return the computer..

This time, set it up with a local account. To do this, when you boot up the machine after it's reset to factory condition, it will go through out of box OOBE.
When you get to the "Add a second keyboard" DO NOT SELECT SKIP.
Press the Shift + F10 keys to open a command prompt.
You may need to press the Shift + Fn + F10 keys on some devices instead.
At the command prompt, type start ms-cxh:localonly
View attachment 168361

Enter a user name you want for this local account.
Enter and Re-enter to confirm a password you want for this local account.
Answer the security questions.
It will then go to add second keyboard which you can select SKIP. Setup will continue using a local account. When using a local account your personal folders are not attached to Onedrive. If you get any prompt to backup your files, decline it, If you get popups regarding Onedrive, DO NOT SIGN INTO ONEDRIVE.
View attachment 168362

RUN IT A COUPLE OF DAYS AS IT CAME FROM THE FACTORY. DO NOT INSTALL ANY APPS OR MOVE YOUR FILES INTO THE NEW SETUP. If it runs as expected, you know there's nothing wrong with the computer. You can copy your files back into their respective folders which will be located on your system drive... If it does NOT run as expected, contact Dell support before moving files or installing apps..

You will also need to go to Onedrive on the web and delete all the files, because after so long your Microsoft account email will stop working since there is no Onedrive space for your Outlook emails to be stored because you are so far over your onedrive limit. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onedrive/online-cloud-storage

Thanks, but I do have Microsoft 365, and I’ve never activated OneDrive for either my home PC or my work laptop.

snerd · Apr 11, 2026

Just an observation............ with only 8GB ram and a spinning hard drive, you're probably getting all you're going to get out of that machine. Sorry.

BunnyJ · Apr 11, 2026

snerd said:
Just an observation............ with only 8GB ram and a spinning hard drive, you're probably getting all you're going to get out of that machine. Sorry.

And an I3 processor.. It's not going to be fast.

BunnyJ · Apr 11, 2026

BunnyJ · Apr 11, 2026

BunnyJ · Apr 11, 2026

Bottom line is the HDD is your main issue. Get an SSD

BunnyJ · Apr 11, 2026

And get 8GB more RAM.

Windows 11 and an incredibly slow, new Dell desktop

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