Question HP ProBook 4520s working slower than it should

rodriobr

Prominent
Aug 12, 2019
2
0
510
Hello everybody.

So i have a HP ProBook 4520s (in fact it's not mine it's from a job), I am struggling to revive her, I´ve used almost every windows on the HP to make it work again (Windows 7 64x 32x, Windows 8 x32, 8.1 x32 x64, Windows 10 x64) and the last windows is the best attempt so far, at least it does not "lock" completely as the other windows (I even tried older or more actual versions but once they started up the computer stayed on a pitch black or trying to execute windows process i would guess, is not a graphical problem because you can see the mouse cursor moving on the screen and even some times the explorer.exe appears).
As i said before the computer now "works" , but at the start up it locks at 100% process, eating the entire hard disk bandwidth around 20min (with windows processes, I don't see any serious abnormal activity there).
The story then is not better when you are on the desktop, since is really slow doing anything, trying to enter to trashbin takes several minutes, trying to install firefox was an eternity. Now i found a new problem with CMOS (probably old battery on motherboard) and GPSVC service (when log on windows).
I KNOW IS NOT BECAUSE IS OLD, I was working on older and more agile computers than this one (and with more reason after having a fresh installation). Im trying to find a solution to this issue but i have nothing else to try.

The system specs are this ones:

Mother:
Hewlett-Packard 1413 KBC version 57.34
CPU: Intel Core i3 380M with Intel HD graphics
RAM: System ram is 3gb total (1st slot 2gb + 2nd slot 1gb) They are Chinese brand but I doubt they are the memories, i already used MemTest64 around 3hs not a single issue there. (I even tested with each one, removing the other in the process)
Storage: New WD blue 1tb installed (where each windows was used)
Battery: Here is where the problem may reside on, The battery is the original from HP which means that it is old and used several times BUT even using it plugged on the problem persist (in fact it doesn't work if it's not connected)

Important detail: The biggest problem I have anyway is that another technician saw it before me and he was not careful to treat it (poorly adjusted and missing screws, improperly placed caps, even a very bad cleaning in the cooler) BTW I cleaned it completely, even change the thermal paste of the processor with no changes in performance. So I was thinking and what if the previous technician screwed up with another BIOS? maybe he used an incorrect charger (he didn't have the original charger like me) and possibly screwed the motherboard with different voltages?

Any opinion or solution is appreciated, cheers!
 

Sagar_20

Distinguished
Replace the CMOS battery with a similar 3 volt CR 2032 battery and that 1 TB WD Blue with 250 GB Crucial MX 500.

Also, 3 GB RAM is quite low for 2019 standards.

If you want, you can upgrade that 1 GB RAM with a 4 GB DDR3L RAM, 1600 MHz.

Replace the battery as well, or just use it on direct power.

Upgrading that laptop doesn't sound like a good idea but if you want to turn it into a good working machine, this is what you'd need to do.
 
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rodriobr

Prominent
Aug 12, 2019
2
0
510
Replace the CMOS battery with a similar 3 volt CR 2032 battery and that 1 TB WD Blue with 250 GB Crucial MX 500.

Also, 3 GB RAM is quite low for 2019 standards.

If you want, you can upgrade that 1 GB RAM with a 4 GB DDR3L RAM, 1600 MHz.

Replace the battery as well, or just use it on direct power.

Upgrading that laptop doesn't sound like a good idea but if you want to turn it into a good working machine, this is what you'd need to do.

Thanks for your answer!

i´ve changed the battery CR2032 (No CMOS error now) and was thinking to change the 1tb WD for a SSD and buy a new battery, but none of this will matter if i can not find the real problem, being the extreme slowness when starting the operating system and then its speed when executing simple tasks

I never saw this problem before on older machines (and I have worked with them, and example an Acer Travel Mate with Celeron M 380, 40gb HDD, 1gb RAM) and that machine was 10 times faster, clearly there is something that does not work properly and im sure it can't be the HDD.
So the only thing that comes to cause me doubts are the RAM and possibly the battery somehow (although it works the same with or without the battery)

They seem to operate just fine, but what if the instability of the system is due both RAM being different size, brand and of doubtful origin?
The battery is totally dysfunctional, but once connected directly (without it) the doubt about it is virtually eliminated. The only thing left is some kind of damage to the internal circuits.

Thanks for the help again, best regards.