Less than a year old, good spec laptop seems extremely slow...any help?

[A-Mac]

Hi folks,

So I bought a laptop through pc specialist just under 11 months ago and have been having a few issues and have a month left on the 1 year return warranty and so before returning it I was hoping for any advice/suggestions before I do. The problem isn't performance when I actually load a game (mostly play league of legends) but the time it takes to load/do tasks. For instance small 30mb updates of LoL tend to take 30 mins to complete and upload to the client, where as my flatmate that uses an apple mac air (with much lower spec) can do this within minutes. When loading up smaller tasks like opening the chrome browser or even the windows start button in the bottom takes up to 1-2 minutes. I ask because for the spec I paid for it just seems pretty ridiculous and I thought a laptop of this calibre would be incredibly quick, especially with the smallest of tasks as I mentioned before. Also to note I have 797GB/930GB memory space free of my hard drive, so it's not as if I've clogged it up either!

The specs are as follows:

Is anyone able to provide any suggestions as to why this laptop is so slow? I had intended to use it for Autodesk programmes and use pretty hefty rendering software, but not performing under small tasks is making me want to send it back. As the collect and return warranty runs out next month I feel I should address it now before it's too late.

Appreciate any help,

Thanks,

Andy

 

[SpyderTracks]

You only have an HDD in there which is unusual these days, most people would have a minimum of a Sata SSD, but these days mostly an NVME SSD which is about 20 times the speeds of an hdd. HDD’s these days are usually only used as data drives.

You friends Mac Air for example will use similar to an NVME.

It’s possible windows isn’t configured correctly, but I’d say the drive is the most immediate bottleneck in the system.

 

[Oussebon]

As above, this:

For instance small 30mb updates of LoL tend to take 30 mins to complete and upload to the client, where as my flatmate that uses an apple mac air (with much lower spec) can do this within minutes.

sound like an HDD vs SSD. I have some games on SSD, some on HDD; frequent, small updates can actually involve a lot of writing to the disk, which even with a pretty fast desktop HDD as a secondary drive takes a long while and works the disk hard. And your disk also has the OS on it.

tasks like opening the chrome browser or even the windows start button in the bottom takes up to 1-2 minutes. I

That doesn't sound normal. Perhaps using Task Manager / resource monitor can help you figure out what's the issue, for instance if something is causing a lot of desk activity. Perhaps programs running / running in the background. Perhaps sometimes Windows updates happening in the background.

One option to consider, ideally after you've done some troubleshooting, would be a clean install of Windows. Perhaps you could take the opportunity to add an M.2 SSD before doing so - SSDs are pretty cheap now.

Even with an HDD working as fast as it possibly could, an PC with an SSD will load things a lot faster and feel much more responsive.

 

[Oussebon]

Oh, and log the issue with PCS.

The hardware may well all be fine, but logging it means if there is an issue and you have a problem related to that just outside the warranty period, you can point back and show you reported the issue during the warranty. Could be useful to be able to do so.

 

[ubuysa]

It's the HDD. It's always the HDD when systems slowdown after a year or so. You can restore reasonable performance by managing the HDD properly, full performance will be restored by a reinstall of Windows.

Things to do now, in order to better manage your hard disk are...

1. Uninstall all those programs that you no longer need or use.

2. Run a junk files cleaner, either Windows Disk Cleanup or something like Ccleaner.

3. Either delete or archive to an external drive all the data files you either no longer use or which you almost never use. You want to remove enough unwanted data to reduce the disk space utilisation below about 70%.

4. Defragment the drive, either with the Windows defragmenter tool or an external defragger.

As already mentioned, installing a fast SSD for Windows and programs (leaving the HDD for user data) will make a massive difference to performance.

 

[A-Mac]

Perfect, thanks very much for the quick replies folks! I'll try these things as soon as I'm back tonight.

In terms of a SSD, I'm not very tech savvy in terms of buying the correct specs (probably the reason for an HDD in the first place!).

Is there any easy way of getting one of these bought/installed and used correctly to utilise the spec of laptop I've bought? And if so, do you think that lies within the Silver warranty? (Obviously I'd pay whatever the SSD would cost etc but I have no idea how much these cost 😂

Apologies if I sound useless! I appreciate the help so much!

Thanks,

Andy

 

[SpyderTracks]

Perfect, thanks very much for the quick replies folks! I'll try these things as soon as I'm back tonight.

In terms of a SSD, I'm not very tech savvy in terms of buying the correct specs (probably the reason for an HDD in the first place!).

Is there any easy way of getting one of these bought/installed and used correctly to utilise the spec of laptop I've bought? And if so, do you think that lies within the Silver warranty? (Obviously I'd pay whatever the SSD would cost etc but I have no idea how much these cost 😂

Apologies if I sound useless! I appreciate the help so much!

Thanks,

Andy

Give PCS a call and explain the situation. If you log into your main account on the PCS website, you’ll see an upgrades section. You can order another drive there.

 

[Oussebon]

As above, PCS do an upgrade service where you can order parts and I believe arrange to send the PC to them for them to fit it. But installing an SSD DIY is probably the most basic upgrade one can do, it is very straightforward. PCS can probably send you the manual that shows step by step how to open the laptop (generally involving little more than taking a few screws out).

 

[A-Mac]

Thanks for the reply, am I right in saying this would void the warranty though if I was to do it manually? Seems to be standard with most tech stuff these days!

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks for the reply, am I right in saying this would void the warranty though if I was to do it manually? Seems to be standard with most tech stuff these days!

PCS have an open chassis policy, you can add or change components as you like and warranty remains intact so long as you don’t damage anything in the process.

 

[Oussebon]

Indeed. 7.7. and 7.8 here https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/terms/