Inspiron 3277/3477, very slow

First thing I notice.  Your using 64 bit OS but only have 4GB of RAM.  That can be an issue and a possible bottleneck.  May not be all the problems but is one area that should be addressed.  I would say 8GB would be a better "basic" memory amount for those PC's. Many PC's, even entry level consumer PC's, are being sold with 8GB of RAM as the basic configuration. With only 4GB of RAM there is a lot of disc caching going on, and the disc I/O can slow down processing.  Upgrade the memory in one machine and see if that makes a difference.

Here is the Crucial memory listing for the 3477.  Crucial is one brand that is guaranteed to work in a Dell.  Some other brands will and others won't. Can't say for sure about other brands as one brand may work OK in one PC and not work in another of the same model.  Reason we suggest Crucial for non-Dell branded memory.

Memory should be all the same, mixing brands can also cause problems (and this is all PC's not just Dell).  If you buy an 8GB kit from Crucial you can move the 4GB Dell module to one of your other PC's and have 8GB in it too.

 https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Dell/inspiron-3477-aio

Hey Fireberd, Thanks for the suggestion. So can i buy a Laptop ram 4GB 2400MHz or a 8GB Stick as an upgrade? I will let you know once i have installed that to see if it solved the problem.

You left out some key pieces of info:

1. Which CPU in each of these systems? Core i3 CPUs are going to be slow compared to Core i5 or Core i7.
2. Do you only have Intel HD Graphics or do you have an add-in video card (NVidia or AMD) in each AIO (assuming it's offered in these AOIs)? If you have an add-in video card, go into Device Manager to disable Intel HD Graphics and see what happens.
3. Are you running McAfee antiviral suite? It can cause performance issues. You might want to disable it and switch to Microsoft Windows Defender (free) to see if that helps.
4. Did you go into the active Windows Power plan and adjust Advanced settings, like processor power management, video performance, WiFi performance, etc., etc?
5. Did you didn't mention what specific apps are running slowly, or how you "measure" that.
6. Did you check to make sure you have the latest drivers for each model, eg chipsets, video etc? Go to Dell's Support page and put in the Service Tag for each PC and let the site show you new drivers that may be available. 

And you might pick one system and do a clean install of Win 10 to see if that improves its performance. But image that HDD first with something like free Macrium Reflect.

Below are the answers to your questions in bold :

1. Which CPU in each of these systems? Core i3 CPUs are going to be slow compared to Core i5 or Core i7. -I have both i5 and i3, i understand there will be difference in operation, but in general both of them are very slow and lag
2. Do you only have Intel HD Graphics or do you have an add-in video card (NVidia or AMD) in each AIO (assuming it's offered in these AOIs)? If you have an add-in video card, go into Device Manager to disable Intel HD Graphics and see what happens. - its all basic, no additional card only the integrated graphics as i dont need to video edit or something of that sort
3. Are you running McAfee antiviral suite? It can cause performance issues. You might want to disable it and switch to Microsoft Windows Defender (free) to see if that helps. -I saw it taking up both RAM and CPU in task manager so i uninstalled it, no luck here as well
4. Did you go into the active Windows Power plan and adjust Advanced settings, like processor power management, video performance, WiFi performance, etc., etc? - i have currently set it to high performance, still no luck
5. Did you didn't mention what specific apps are running slowly, or how you "measure" that. - i am talking about the basic microsoft windows experience, plus all pre installed app responses such as file explorer, Edge browser, cortana etc etc
6. Did you check to make sure you have the latest drivers for each model, eg chipsets, video etc? Go to Dell's Support page and put in the Service Tag for each PC and let the site show you new drivers that may be available. - have updated everything using the Dell Update, Support Assist etc. - Nothing Helps

And you might pick one system and do a clean install of Win 10 to see if that improves its performance. But image that HDD first with something like free Macrium Reflect. - I restored the system to factory image once on my i3 and i5 both gave back no results.


Also i have additional tried below settings as i saw on the internet - 

1. Disable all non microsoft services from msconfig.

2. Disable all Startup programs.

3. Disable all Performance Settings from Advanced Device Settings, set it to Fastest performance instead of best appearance.

Basically i have tried all the things in the book except for upgrading a ram which i dont see fair as the PC is not running the stock windows that it comes with

Fireberd has a good idea to borrow RAM from one of the other systems. If each system only has one RAM module, memory is running in single-channel mode and not in dual-channel mode which is much faster.

To run in dual-channel mode you need identical RAM modules in the same bank (sockets with matching color RAM retention clips on motherboard). So borrow RAM from the same model, which -presumably- should have an identical RAM module.

Keep in mind that 4 GB is low for even barebones Win 10. And since you don't have an add-in video card, onboard Intel HD Graphics is using some of that 4 GB, leaving less for the OS itself and your apps.

In order to completely remove McAfee, you need to run their MCPR tool. So google for it. Hope you registered McAfee on each PC before you uninstalled it, so you can get it back again, assuming you want it back.

Great.  My suggestion worked.

Hey Thanks all. Increasing the RAM has just a bit solved my issue. the computer feels a little faster now

:Yes: :Yes:

Thanks for this thread. I will by trying an upgrade on my new old stock Inspiron 3277.