Resolving Slow Performance and Continuous Hard Drive Activity
Question
A user calls the help desk stating a laptop is performing slowly and the hard drive activity lights are blinking continuously.
A technician checks for enough hard drive space, disables antivirus and indexing services, and runs a full-system diagnostics check, which returns no failure.
Which of the following should the technician do NEXT?
Answers
Explanations
Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer
A. B. C. D. E.B.
Based on the scenario described, the laptop is performing slowly and the hard drive activity lights are blinking continuously. The technician has already checked for enough hard drive space, disabled antivirus and indexing services, and ran a full-system diagnostics check, which returned no failure. So, what should the technician do next? Let's evaluate each of the answer choices:
A. Install a new hard drive: This is not the next logical step, as the hard drive is not showing any signs of failure. Installing a new hard drive without proper justification would be a waste of time and resources.
B. Check for hard-drive firmware updates: Checking for firmware updates could potentially improve performance or address issues, but it is not the most likely solution to the issue at hand.
C. Replace the hard drive with a solid-state drive: While replacing the hard drive with an SSD would improve performance significantly, this is a more drastic and expensive solution. It is not the next logical step, as the hard drive has not been identified as the root cause of the issue.
D. Configure the laptop in high-performance mode: This could potentially improve performance, but it does not address the underlying cause of the issue.
E. Change the boot order in the system BIOS: This is not the most likely solution to the issue at hand, as changing the boot order would not affect the performance of the laptop.
Based on the information given, the most likely cause of the issue is a software-related problem. The technician has already checked for enough hard drive space, disabled antivirus and indexing services, and ran a full-system diagnostics check, which returned no failure. The next logical step would be to identify and resolve any software-related issues that may be causing the problem. This could include checking for malware, checking for unnecessary background processes, or updating drivers. The specific next steps would depend on the technician's assessment of the situation, but it is most likely that further software troubleshooting is necessary before considering any hardware solutions. Therefore, the best answer choice is none of the above, and the technician should continue with further software troubleshooting.
