computer programs in slow motion

[mintel]

i am not entirely sure how it happened my moms laptop is acting odd the programs are opening and closing in slow motion to my knowledge it is not affecting games such as guild wars 2 or things like Skype. the computer is running windows 7 i am not sure if anything was installed today. i have run both malware and anti virus scanners twice and have not found anything i have even done a disk defragment and nothing. i am at my wits end have been working on this for about four hours and i would really appreciate any and all tips and advice.

thank you in advance

[Twoddle]

Few suggestions:

Most laptops come with their own Power Management software which will either be running as an icon in the desktop tray or you can find it in the start menu. Check the current settings and CPU speed throttle. There will be a balanced setting which makes the CPU run at full power when plugged in and reduced power when on battery for example.

Check in the task manager Ctrl Shift Esc to see if any processes are using up an abnormal amount of CPU time when the machine is idle.

Run a disk error scan, right click on the C drive for the menu it's in there somewhere I don't have Windows 7. Let it schedule at next boot up and fix errors.

Other possible causes:

Windows Defender could be doing a background scan, personally I turn WD off if there is an Anti-Virus program running.

Your AV could be doing a background scan.

Windows search could be internally indexing files.