My new laptop is so slow :(

[Julia_37]

Hey! I purchased a laptop from HP a few days ago and its spec supposed to be pretty good. I got HP spectre x360 (2015 version) and i5-6200U and RAM 8GB etc etc!!!! I bought it fresh on its official website, online, and I was really happy to receive it! It's a 2-in-1 BTW

BUT NOW, I have been using it for a day and I realised that it responds quite slow. Not suuuuuper slow that I have to report to HP and get it replaced straight away, but it's quite frustrating. It's quite iffyy.... Sometimes it takes 2-3 seconds or so to load a page or just to switch between tabs or programs... Often, opening a new tab takes a while too! It's so much slower than my previous laptop I have been using for 5 years, which has worse spec LOL and my previous one is also a touch-screen one ahahahah

Uncertain if it's working at its maximum capacity T_T I checked it with crystal disk mark and CPU-Z.

Results were- crystal disk mark: pretty fine
CPU-Z: everything was fine but the clock core speed ranged around 797-798 MHz with occasional 1-sec spurts to 1998-2001MHz.

Any ideas why it's so slow? It's supposed to be 2.3GHz...

Would there be anything I can make it faster? Or is the laptop faulty? I really don't want to go through the process of returning it and getting a new one I want your expertise. Thanks in advance

 

[mbilal2]

Hi there,

It's so much slower than my previous laptop I have been using for 5 years, which has worse spec

Lol

Is THIS the exact model of the laptop? If yes, I don't see any reason why it would run slow. The lag that you described, is it more of an input lag or performance lag? You can check input lag by simply typing onto a notepad. Is there lag between you pressing the key and letters popping up on the screen? Let us know.

clock core speed ranged around 797-798 MHz with occasional 1-sec spurts to 1998-2001MHz.

This is normal. Your core speed is only pushed if your computer needs the power/speed.

Another reason could be that it's running on power-saving mode and the performance is being held back to conserve battery. Try putting it in high performance and check the results.

Cheers

 

[Julia_37]

Hi there,

It's so much slower than my previous laptop I have been using for 5 years, which has worse spec

Lol

Is THIS the exact model of the laptop? If yes, I don't see any reason why it would run slow. The lag that you described, is it more of an input lag or performance lag? You can check input lag by simply typing onto a notepad. Is there lag between you pressing the key and letters popping up on the screen? Let us know.

clock core speed ranged around 797-798 MHz with occasional 1-sec spurts to 1998-2001MHz.

This is normal. Your core speed is only pushed if your computer needs the power/speed.

Another reason could be that it's running on power-saving mode and the performance is being held back to conserve battery. Try putting it in high performance and check the results.

Cheers

Hey! Yes, this is the exact model. I think it isn't an input error. When I type on notepad, it responds just as fine. Typing isn't a problem.

The lags arise when I am scrolling up and down using page up/down keys, switching tabs, switching between programs (b/w internet explorer, chrome, calculator, gallery, etc) and opening Microsoft word/presentation/excel!

Oh, and it was always on the balanced mode. I turned on high performance after I saw your reply and now there's less lags, just random lags here and there. But I

Even then, it shouldn't have lags during battery saver mode right? My previous one (and it costed less too even though it is also a touch screen laptop) didn't really change in terms of function or speed, at least noticeably.

 

[mbilal2]

What you described all indicate towards your RAM being the issue. Please got to task manager and see how your RAM (memory) usage is. If under heavy use it's above 80%, you simply need more RAM for your laptop usage.

Here's what's happening: When your RAM is running low on space, your data on the RAM starts transferring to your hard disk drive which runs very slow when compared to your CPU (i5 processor). This causes occasional lag due to your processor not being able to access the files it needs, as it has to wait for the files to be fetched from the hard drive.

Order of speeds:
CPU > RAM/memory > Hard Drive.

Even though your computer has an SSD hard drive which is faster than traditional HDD, the lag can be avoided if you simply get a 16Gb RAM instead of 8, so that the files that your CPU (processor) needs will not be transferred to the HDD and kept in the RAM for faster access. A temporary fix would be to go to the Task Manager and under "start up" tab, disable all programs except the antivirus, realtek audio drivers and intel graphics drivers. This will prevent useless programs from running until you need them and save space on your RAM. This will also increase startup boot time.

You can also increase the page file.

For the long term, I recommend you return the laptop and get one that has a 16Gb RAM (if it's under warranty) Or replace/add 16 Gb RAM if it's not under warranty.

NOTE: Physically tampering with the laptop will void it's warranty.

it shouldn't have lags during battery saver mode right?

No it shouldn't. It shouldn't lag at all period. You have too many programs running (like me and most people) or you need more RAM for the kind of work you do. You don't use Photoshop/AdobeCC apps do you?

 

[Julia_37]

Mmm, I see. I thought 8gb of RAM would be enough because that was the RAM I used before. Strange thing is, I don't actually have a lot of tabs open? It's usually just internet explorer, not even chrome. Maybe several tabs (around 5-6), I admit, but nothing too overwhelming. I don't use photoshop or play a game or use a video editing program either! I mainly used it for Facebook and my university website. Right now, I only have Task Manager open and it's using 35% of RAM... strange

Edit: I was looking at Task Manager and I realised it was due to a lot of HP default apps running in the background!! But I'm not sure which apps I can safely "end task" without compromising with the laptop's function. Will find it out XD Anyways, thank you!