Laptop slow after hibernation/startup

What if your PC is only slow after startup/hibernate? It wasn't even a gradual slowdown. One day, I can use the pc instantly after hibernation. The very next morning after booting up and reaching the desktop, it stops being responsive for or takes at least an hour before being back to (sort-of) normal. Right now, I'm using sleep mode due to online exams and I'm really not in the mood for a hang. 

Is it because I hibernated with programs (2 Microsoft word and 1 chrome browser page) on for a week or so? Or is it some other problem?

How much Memory does your Computer contain ???

Hibernation uses random access memory ( RAM that is installed ) in conjunction with your Hard Drive.

In Hibernation it stores the information what was in Memory to the Hard Drive usually on a file called " hiperfil.sys ".

It basically takes a snapshot of whats on the Memory and sends it to the hard Drive before Hibernating so you can start from where you left of.

Once coming back out of Hibernation this Information once again gets imported to Random Access Memory.

Not enough of that, ( Random Access Memory ), and things will slow down.

More so with programs that are still open.

On top of that there usually are automatic startup programs as well such as Updater`s that may be checking for Updates as you bring the computer out of hibernation.

The TOTAL combination of Open Files, Updater`s kicking in, other background processes kicking back in from Hibernation may slow down some computer immensely as it all has to import back through the Random Access Memory from the Hard Drive.

You need to do a lot of diagnostic work:

1. Scan the hard drive for logical data errors
2. Scan the hard drive for hardware problems
3. Run system file checker to find if there are corrupted Windows programs
4. Run this malware program:  ADWcleaner from Toolslib
5. Start globe (bottom left)
6. All Programs
7. Accessories
8. RIGHT-click on Command Prompt, choose Run as administrator
9. type in chkdsk c: /r

this will take at least an hour could be 3 or more.  It will check every sector of the drive for errors and almost always fixes what it finds

Download and run Sea Tools for Windows (a free hard drive checker from Seagate)

https://www.seagate.com/ca/en/support/downloads/seatools/

1. Start globe (bottom left)
2. All Programs
3. Accessories
4. RIGHT-click on Command Prompt, choose Run as administrator
5. type in sfc /scannow

this program will take 5 or 10 minutes.  If it tells you it cannot fix, run it several more times

Report back all results please

Some programs update themselves:  your antivirus program or Windows for example.  

• First, since windows updates for windows 7 ended Jan 14, reset the setting in WU to Never....
• Second, your antivirus software should have controls that allow you to control how often and under what circumstances updates occur.  Some even allow you to temporarily suspend updating

Consider shutting down instead of using hibernation.

1. Laptop
2. Around 8 years
3. HP 15 Envy Notebook PC
4. Windows 7 Home Premium (Avoided the Win10 free download due to reports of bugs)
5. 64bit and SP1
6. 132 free out of 231 GB - C Drive and 92.5 GB free out of 234 GB for D Drive
7. TOSHIBA MQ01ABD050
8. Around 4 years
9. 8GB
10. Microsoft Security Essentials
11. Mainly use LAN cable. Switches to Wifi occasionally depending on circumstances.
12. 69ms ping, 400 mbps (download speed) and 323 mbps (upload speed).

Sorry about the lack of installed programs. Might be too many to list in short order. Most of the programs generally never take up more than 1 GB of disk space.

I did shut down when it happened the first time before turning it on shortly afterwards. The slow processing speed still happened for the first hour or so.

While my anti-virus program (Microsoft Security Essentials) does update practically everyday, this doesn't happen during the first few hours of usage. In fact, most of the time it updates without affecting performance. Outside of a full computer scan, it hasn't caused a slowdown before.

Will deleting the temp, prefetch and running dish cleanup work? Because those folders while big (4.4 GB for temp and 40+GB for prefetch), my C drive still has over 130GB free out of a total of 231GB. Also, what about doubling the RAM from 8 to 16 GB?

I have been running this laptop without any issue in this state for the last 4 or so years and then poof, this happens around 2 weeks ago.

This old-timer has been running for around 8 years. This was so stable that I never needed to undergo or even knew about any mass deletion protocols throughout that period. The only failures I had were only due to the graphics card giving out and needed to be replaced along with a hard disk change that was unnecessary in hindsight.