Hi prbearden,

I would suggest you to run Thorough test on hard drive and memory in Dell diagnostics.  You may try to connect the system with any other wireless network and not to a specific domain and check if the issue persists.

Please remove the e-mail address from public view for security reasons.

Keep me posted with the results. I will be glad to assist you.

By-the-way... I've been using this laptop for two years. The slow down just began about a week ago. Several months ago I had rebuilt the PC with Windows 8 Pro. When all the problems started I decided to go back to Windows 7 Pro. I did a format prior to both installs.

Amogh,

I did run the thorough test in Dell diagnostic. I also tried the laptop on a public wireless connection... no change.

If it means anything: Sometimes when I'm typing, whether on the web or just in MS Word, the display of characters lags way behind my actual typing (and I don't type THAT fast). Sometimes the cursor just goes away and what I typed never appears so I have to retype it.

Thanks for responding!

Hi prbearden,

As the system is running slow, you may update the system BIOS. Please refer to the link: http://dell.to/1bg4LKD.

Note: Before updating BIOS please ensure that:
*Battery is 10%> or >10% charged
*Battery charger should be connected
*No external devices (flash drives, printers, external hard drives) should be connected.
*All other programs should be closed and documents saved 

Keep me posted with the results. I will be glad to assist further.

I can't find a way to paste a screen shot of the task manager but the blue lines for the disk graph are maxing out. The cpu is running at 1% - 8%. The network spikes way high about every 30 seconds. Physical memory is at 33%. All I have open is the browser and task manager. I have disabled AVG anti-virus.

Thanks!

I updated the bios. No change.

The hard disk lights stays on a LOT. Should I suspect the hard drive even though it passes the diagnostics? I'm starting to grasp a straws.

Thanks!

Whats going on in Task Manager?

Once you're logged in does your laptop continue to communicate with the DC? Use Netmon to find out

www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx

support.microsoft.com/.../148942

Where do I find Netmon? I entered it in the command prompt and Windows 7 doesn't recognize it. Thanks!

That's why I gave you the link...

Ah... mea culpa!

Ok. It's running and capture seems to just run forever. What am I looking for? I don't know what DC refers to.

Thanks!

Ok... I just started over. I formatted the drive and reinstalled Windows 7 Pro. I did not connect to a domain. I did not install anything else. Windows is installing updates. No anti-virus installed. No updated drivers. This is as clean as I can get the PC.

Before the updates began the PC was still responding extremely slowly. When I type (sometimes) the screen lags behind by 10 - 20 seconds before displaying what I typed. Sometimes it doesn't display the text at all and I have to retype it.

Please help. Thanks!

Did you install this (F6) ?:

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/Product/latitude-e5520?driverId=9NCD1&osCode=W764&fileId=3098295648&languageCode=EN&categoryId=SA

Also, there's recommended HDD firmware upgrades available( does one apply to your drive ?)

This install only applies to 64 bit systems. I'm running Windows 7 Pro 32 bit.

I'll download all the recommended drivers and install them.

Thanks!

Sorry for the wrong assumption.Can I assume you know the correct order for the driver installs (if the firmware upgrade does improbe the overall performance) ?

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/Product/latitude-e5520?driverId=4HM0V&osCode=W732&fileId=3098288999&languageCode=EN&categoryId=SA

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kcs/document?c=us&docid=268873&l=en&s=gen&DoNotRedirect=y&dgc=IR&cid=254348&lid=4672891