My Dell Inspiron E1705 has been lagging BIG time ever since my laptop's battery died last night. I thought I had plugged in the power cord, but apparently I didn't which caused the computer to shut off when the battery got to 0%. I figured no big deal, I'll just plug it back in and load the computer back up, which I ended up doing, but since then, everything has been at a slow lag. The best way to describe my computer's performance since the battery died is that it "hiccups", every few seconds it slows down for a split second. For instance, I can't listen to music or watch videos since the outcome is very choppy due to it lagging every few moments. It was never like this before. I've had nothing but a smooth performance with media up until yesterday.

My first thought was to check my system's processes to see if there were any programs running that was taking up resources. Turns out there is nothing out of the ordinary running and on average my system is 99% idle. I then did virus scans with AVG, spyware scans with Webroot Spy Sweeper, Trojan scans with Trojan Remover, ran Registry Mechanic, along with Error Repair Professional.. computer still at a lag. Figured I'd try doing them all again but in safe mode, still the same outcome.

My next thought was to clear my cache, history, and temporary internet files. Still lagging. So my last thought was to run Disk Defragmentor. I ran that in safe mode and let it run through the night only to wake up to having the same lagging issues.

When I move the mouse, it like skips at times and doesn't keep up with my movements. I can't explain why this has started to happen but I can only attribute the problems to having something to do with having the battery die down yesterday. I've done everything I could think of to try to resolve the issue only to no avail. It's pretty frustrating.

Are there any tech savvy people on here that could help explain why this issue is occurring and how to fix the issue? My Dell Warranty ended literally two days ago (just my luck huh?) so I'm not about to spend $40 to have Dell diagnose the problem and additional $160 to have them fix the problem. I use this computer to listen to music and watch movies all the time, so I really hope that by letting the battery die down with the computer shutting down abruptly didn't ruin any of the hardware in my computer. these lag issues are putting a huge damper on things! Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

How long has it been since you've cleaned your fans? Sometimes these lag problems are caused by a dust buildup in your fans, which leads to your fans running slower and in turn your CPU will be downclocked to produce less heat. Not a sure fix, but an easy thing to try none the less.