Solved Windows 8 very slow after update

Ray8

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I did the update issued the other day (four reboots when it took one with Windows 7) and now the system is incredibly lethargic. Log on is as slow as a wet week and every application seems to almost hang before they start up. Even shutting down takes at least three times longer than with Windows 7. I've also lost colour management on my dual screen setup, even though I've manually re-selected the calibration files that worked previously.

I was pretty impressed with Windows 8 and looking at transitioning fully to Windows 8, but this latest setback has made me doubtful about its integrity. So I'm now back to using Windows 7 (mine is a dual boot), as it's working fine and much faster. What on earth is going on here?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows Phone 6, Windows CE 5, Windows Vista x32, Windows 7 x32/x64, Windows 8 x64
I'd try to uninstall the recent updates or to run a restore of it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    AMD FX 8320
    Motherboard
    Crosshair V Formula-Z
    Memory
    16 gig DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS R9 270
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Seagate Barracuda (starting to hate Seagate)
    x2 3 TB Toshibas
    Windows 8.1 is installed on a SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB
    PSU
    OCZ 500 watt
    Case
    A current work in progres as I'll be building the physical case myself. It shall be fantastic.
    Cooling
    Arctic Cooler with 3 heatpipes
    Keyboard
    Logitech K750 wireless solar powered keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Touch Mouse
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, but I might go back on KIS 2014
That's an option, but I was wondering whether anyone else has experienced a similar issue. There were 44 updates for Office 2010 and Windows combined, so I'm loathe to go through and delete them all.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows Phone 6, Windows CE 5, Windows Vista x32, Windows 7 x32/x64, Windows 8 x64
Yes, they broke perfectly working installation, unfortunately, I had to do a clean install.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire E1-571
    CPU
    i5-3230m
    Motherboard
    Acer Type-2
    Memory
    8GB DDR3 1333MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD 4000
    Sound Card
    High Definiton Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 850 Pro 256GB
    PSU
    Generic
    Keyboard
    QWERTY
    Mouse
    ELANTECH Touchpad
    Internet Speed
    12.68Mbps
    Browser
    IE11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
I did some Googling and it appears I'm not alone, as others are experiencing the same issues. Not a good look for Microsoft after such a short time out. It'll give those who said Windows 8 will be another Vista simply more ammunition. I think I'll just leave things as they are for the moment and see if anything comes out in the next week or so to address the problems.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows Phone 6, Windows CE 5, Windows Vista x32, Windows 7 x32/x64, Windows 8 x64
I did the update issued the other day (four reboots when it took one with Windows 7) and now the system is incredibly lethargic.

and what are the spec of this lethargic PC ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 enterprise x64
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Pc-Quebec / Area 66
    CPU
    i7-3960X Extreme Edition
    Motherboard
    Rampage IV Extreme
    Memory
    Gskill 4x4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    4 x HD 7970
    Sound Card
    onboard
    Screen Resolution
    2560*1600
    Hard Drives
    C:\Intel series 520 SSD , 250 GB
    D:\ WD 750 black with Intel 40gb SSD cache Intel RST
    E:\ WD 2TB Black
    PSU
    Corsair AX 1200
    Case
    TT Mozart TX
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Logitech G-15
    Other Info
    Windows 8 VM is install on his own SSD.
Your type of hardware, is one parameter that you must take into consideration before installing Windows 8. Does your system support Windows 8 or/and does it meet the minimum requirements?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro 32-bit
Out of curiosity, what does task manager to show your disk usage to be at when these hangs occur? Or even on idle?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Studio 1558
    CPU
    Intel i3 2.27GHz
    Memory
    3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5400
Mine's a low spec x64 PC with an i7 920 2.67GHz processor, 8 GB RAM and Radeon HD4800 graphic card and a few other bits.

I had another look at the updates and discovered that none of them had succeeded. When I did the updates, I just left the system running and came back every so often to log in for a restart. It seems that Microsoft decided that the system would try to install the updates multiple times before giving up and that's the reason for the original number of restarts. I found this out after trying to reinstall the updates while watching the entire process and seeing it go through multiple attempts (stupid idea).

Remembering an issue I had with a very big Windows 7 update, that also failed on the initial attempt, I decided to do the same thing that achieved success ie, install the updates individually. The largest update was around 170MB and this succeeded, so did the next largest at about 150MB and when I went to do the next one, instead of there being nine updates remaining, there was only one left, KB2770917 at about 170MB. This was strange, but I started the install and it promptly failed. Clearly this one was an issue. What I don't understand is why the original failure did not appear as an alert, as it would with Windows 7.

Windows 8 is still slow, despite the two successful updates, so something is clearly amiss with the updates.

I might also add that the updates applied to my Gigabyte S1080 (x32) have not affected speed and the tablet is running fine, much faster than my PC in both desktop and tiled interface. So it's only affecting my x64 system.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows Phone 6, Windows CE 5, Windows Vista x32, Windows 7 x32/x64, Windows 8 x64
An interesting update. I had another look at Windows Update and three new updates popped up, a 1.9MB, 165MB and the KB2770917 again. So I installed the 1.9MB update and all went well, but when I went back to consider the 165MB update, it had disappeared and a 50MB version of KB2770917 had appeared.

OK, thought I, I'll install that and see what happens. Surprisingly, it installed without issue. So once again I had another look in Windows Update and this time another KB2770917 had appeared, but this time around 90MB. OK, try again, but this time the install failed and I had to go through two install attempts before I was finally able to log in.

One has to wonder what on earth is going on here, with failing updates, constantly changing updates, the same updates changing etc. Is Microsoft just doing things on the run, without a real clue as to what they are doing? And everything is still slower than on Windows 7.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows Phone 6, Windows CE 5, Windows Vista x32, Windows 7 x32/x64, Windows 8 x64
This 920 should have no problem running Windows 8 , why 8 GB RAM, you should have 3, 6 , 12, 24 GB , how many stick you have ? if you are using 4 sticks, you loose a certain speed. I wait your reply to explain more
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 enterprise x64
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Pc-Quebec / Area 66
    CPU
    i7-3960X Extreme Edition
    Motherboard
    Rampage IV Extreme
    Memory
    Gskill 4x4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    4 x HD 7970
    Sound Card
    onboard
    Screen Resolution
    2560*1600
    Hard Drives
    C:\Intel series 520 SSD , 250 GB
    D:\ WD 750 black with Intel 40gb SSD cache Intel RST
    E:\ WD 2TB Black
    PSU
    Corsair AX 1200
    Case
    TT Mozart TX
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Logitech G-15
    Other Info
    Windows 8 VM is install on his own SSD.
It's a Dell XPS Studio, it's the way it came and has worked flawlessly with Windows 7. It was also working flawlessly with Windows 8, until the updates.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows Phone 6, Windows CE 5, Windows Vista x32, Windows 7 x32/x64, Windows 8 x64
Are you sure the CPU heatsink are clean, if a CPU overheat , it will reduce the speed to compensate for the heat
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 enterprise x64
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Pc-Quebec / Area 66
    CPU
    i7-3960X Extreme Edition
    Motherboard
    Rampage IV Extreme
    Memory
    Gskill 4x4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    4 x HD 7970
    Sound Card
    onboard
    Screen Resolution
    2560*1600
    Hard Drives
    C:\Intel series 520 SSD , 250 GB
    D:\ WD 750 black with Intel 40gb SSD cache Intel RST
    E:\ WD 2TB Black
    PSU
    Corsair AX 1200
    Case
    TT Mozart TX
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Logitech G-15
    Other Info
    Windows 8 VM is install on his own SSD.
Only cleaned the entire system recently. But also, Windows 7 works fine and is faster at opening applications than Windows 8 on the same machine, yet before the update, Windows 8 was faster.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows Phone 6, Windows CE 5, Windows Vista x32, Windows 7 x32/x64, Windows 8 x64
Can you look into the Windows Update history as to what the last Windows update was before your PC started to slow down? Try removing that or the other updates around that time Windows 8 started to crap down. This seems like it would be the best shot.

By the way, what as the date too you started to experience this?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    AMD FX 8320
    Motherboard
    Crosshair V Formula-Z
    Memory
    16 gig DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS R9 270
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Seagate Barracuda (starting to hate Seagate)
    x2 3 TB Toshibas
    Windows 8.1 is installed on a SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB
    PSU
    OCZ 500 watt
    Case
    A current work in progres as I'll be building the physical case myself. It shall be fantastic.
    Cooling
    Arctic Cooler with 3 heatpipes
    Keyboard
    Logitech K750 wireless solar powered keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Touch Mouse
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, but I might go back on KIS 2014
The update happened on 14 Nov. Apparently, these were critical updates (some 44 of them), so removing them is going to be a right pain.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows Phone 6, Windows CE 5, Windows Vista x32, Windows 7 x32/x64, Windows 8 x64
Of which, what are Windows updates? I'm looking at my update history and I have nine updates for Windows, no Office as I have Office 2013 RTM evaluation running.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    AMD FX 8320
    Motherboard
    Crosshair V Formula-Z
    Memory
    16 gig DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS R9 270
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Seagate Barracuda (starting to hate Seagate)
    x2 3 TB Toshibas
    Windows 8.1 is installed on a SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB
    PSU
    OCZ 500 watt
    Case
    A current work in progres as I'll be building the physical case myself. It shall be fantastic.
    Cooling
    Arctic Cooler with 3 heatpipes
    Keyboard
    Logitech K750 wireless solar powered keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Touch Mouse
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, but I might go back on KIS 2014
There were 30 updates to Office 2010 and 14 updates to Windows, at least on my Gigabyte tablet. My PC is pretty much a duplicate of my PC, but the tablet is x32 and the PC x64. Something is amiss with the x64 updates.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows Phone 6, Windows CE 5, Windows Vista x32, Windows 7 x32/x64, Windows 8 x64
I believe the update is tied to TiWorker.exe which is part of Windows Modules Installer Worker

I was having this problem of the system just pounding on the CPU, I was working on a Rainmeter Skin that I thought was causing the issue.

I just did "Remove everything and reinstall windows" had it wipe the drive that windows is installed on
When it finished reloading, i installed all current updates (approx. 530M or so, can't remember).

But it seems for now the issue is resolved. I do believe this was caused by a Windows Update, but not sure which one.

It seems to be fine for now, will report back if the issue starts again.

I have also reinstalled Rainmeter 2.4 final with my Layout (a.k.a. Skin) and ClassicShell, along with other modifications I had also done previously, to see if the issues return.

This is on a Dell Inspiron 1764

Sorry for all the edits... I also remember seeing Service host: Local Service (Network Restricted) using a ton of CPU as well.
Not sure which part of that might have also been causing issues, or be related to TiWorker.exe
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Self Built
    CPU
    I7-3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77
    Memory
    CORSAIR 8GB 2X4 D3 1866
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX680 4GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ASUS 24" LED VG248QE
    Hard Drives
    SAMSUNG E 256GB SSD 840 PRO -
    SAMSUNG E 120GB SSD840 -
    SEAGATE 1TB PIPELINE
    PSU
    CORSAIR GS800
    Case
    CORSAIR 600T
    Cooling
    CORSAIR HYDRO H100I LIQUID COOLER
    Keyboard
    THERMALTA CHALLENGER ULT GAME-KYBRD
    Mouse
    RAZER DEATHADDER GAME MS BLK-ED
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    APC 1000VA -
    LGELECOEM LG 14X SATA BD BURNER -
    CORSAIR SP120 Fans x 3 -
    NZXT 5.25 USB3 BAY CARD READER -
    HAUPPAUGE COLOSSUS
There is definitely something wrong with KB2770917. I opened Windows 8 again this morning and the update was again there, but a different size this time, so I gave it another go and it failed once more. Why would this update go from something around 150MB, into two smaller updates, one of which succeeded and the other which does not?

I really don't want to remove any of the successful updates until this issue is resolved, as the updates will keep popping up again, and this failing update may have a bearing on the OS performance.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows Phone 6, Windows CE 5, Windows Vista x32, Windows 7 x32/x64, Windows 8 x64
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