So I got another laptop sitting here, it's a single core, 2Gb system running Windows 7 64-bit. It had a few virus' which I cleaned out, but that, and removing unnecessary bloatware did not make a difference. I ran every Windows fixing piece of software that I have in my collection (too many to list) and at the end of it all, nothing.
So I did a fresh install of Windows 7, at first it was a tad bit faster, but once you install Avast, Malwarebytes, and Firefox, everything is about as slow as before.
The hard drive has no errors, and the only thing I can think it could be is the mother board?
Mind you, it's an old single core system, but it should not take 5 to 10 minutes for programs to load and the hard drive light should not be lit up all day long.
Any clues? I'm dropping a solid state in it next...