I bought a new Dell laptop a three weeks ago running Windows 8.1 and McAfee antivirus. All was fine for about a week and it was absolutely flying compared to my old Dell.

Now it hangs on just about every programme. Firefox and Chrome have the " script running " message on nearly every page inc.TVF and " not responding". It's hit or miss on Office 2010 and quite often "not responding". The mouse won't scroll smoothly some of the time or allow you to enter text.without constant left clicks.

I use this laptop for work and have a minimal number of programmes installed. Just the anttivirus and CCleaner and as it's for work I haven't visited any dodgy sites where I might have picked up something nasty. A full scan came back as clean. I've done system restore back to the basics and it's the same.

It's doing my head in and makes my old laptop look like a better option.

I'm a computer idiot so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

is it a ssd or hybrid drive?

and dump McAfee, its bloatware at its worst

Sounds like a possible dodgy disk drive..

is it a ssd or hybrid drive?

and dump McAfee, its bloatware at its worst

SSD.

I'll uninstall McAfee. What do you recommend instead?

Sounds like a possible dodgy disk drive..

Is there a programme I can run to check for errors? Cheers.

Sounds like a possible dodgy disk drive..

Is there a programme I can run to check for errors? Cheers.

If its a new Dell the best bet is to contact their support.

is it a ssd or hybrid drive?

and dump McAfee, its bloatware at its worst

SSD.

I'll uninstall McAfee. What do you recommend instead?

i like avast, but others may differ, the reason i ask the ssd and hybrid question is that i had the same problem until i did this:

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/disable-superfetch-prefetch-ssd

these services are essentially pointless on ssd drives as they are already blindingly fast

^ Much appreciated

Hard Disk Sentinel will give you a check on the disk (http://www.hdsentinel.com)

but as suggested, if the computer is new, take it back

I wonder if it is Windows?

I am running Win 7 with a hybrid disk and over the last couple of days have been

getting hangups. It has happened whilst I am typing this reply

The cursor just hangs, and keyboard is in active

but switching to a different window and back wakes it up

It happens in Firefox and Open Office

All very odd

Run Dell diagnostics on it: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Products/

Many thanks for all the good advice guys

Update. Took my laptop back to the shop and apparently the Windows hadn't installed properly. Re-installed and everything is running fine now. Thanks for all the advice.

Is your Windows legit? As you know, Thai shops have a reputation for loading pirated Windows....or Windows which will not activate....maybe works fine for 30 days but since it hasn't been activated after 30 days you start getting problems, warnings, issues, etc.

Bought it from JIB in Rama 9 same as my last one so here's hoping

You should definitely be legit then since you bought the Windows separately in its original packaging. I thought maybe you may have went to one of those shops that will load-up your computer with what OS and software you wanted real cheap if you know what I mean. Also these kind of shops will usually load "generic" drivers or drivers included with Window and not the drivers specifically made for your laptop. Laptops can be very picky about their drivers. You might want to check the drivers for you model on the Dell web site and compare those to the driver versions installed....any that don't match then install them.

Cheers Pib. Very informative. Thanks a lot