slow HP laptop

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Donald

Donald

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I have (backup laptop) a HP laptop with a Intel Celeron 877 and 4 GB of memory and Win10. Its OK most of the time but every once and awhile while using Thunderbird for email, I need to pause for a second or two typing so the letters displayed catch up with what I have typed. Annoying. I have brought up the Windows performance screens and never see a high CPU usage nor high storage usage nor high page faults. The storage usage is typically 70% to 80%. Given the low Passmark rating of the Celeron 877 I am convinced that the laptop is doing all it can and not much I can do except to get a faster laptop. Most of the time I only have Thunderbird email and several tabs under Chrome running.
 
Subscribed. I have a similar problem with an HP tower, and 8 GB of Ram running Win 10 Pro build 1709. No errors or warnings in the event viewer and everything else looks fine in the task manager. It doesn't happen often but when it does it is annoying...
 
Possibly RAM memory is getting full and it's hitting virtual memory paging file really hard to keep going. This can cause the symptom you describe when the computer has no separate video/graphics RAM and all graphics data is drawn from system RAM. The system dynamically sizes/shares RAM to the graphics GPU and when main system RAM gets tight on space graphics performance can slow. Maybe try downloading a small free utility called Memory Cleaner by Koshy John. Lets you free some RAM up by trimming processes' working set and clearing the system RAM cache. The program is safe but some anti-virus suites detect it as malicious. 4 gig RAM is really tight on physical memory for Windows 10, especially on a machine that only has shared graphics memory architecture.
 
You might try an ssd if you dont already have one. A fresh install of windows 10 and a ssd is a sure fire boost in performance. 4gb is plenty for basic tasks so i doubt memory is the issue. Many laptops have very slow spinning hdds due to the fact they are protable. My wife has a pentuim processor in an old asus laptop that i put a ssd in and it was night and day. Reboots are fast. Programs load fast. Other that that, the laptop is probably on its way out. Due to all the [censored] they put on the computers now. You can also search on how to turn off all of windows 10s visual goodies with a custon theme. That should free up some processing time as well. Search “optimize windows 10 for a slow computer”
 
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
Possibly RAM memory is getting full and it's hitting virtual memory paging file really hard to keep going. This can cause the symptom you describe when the computer has no separate video/graphics RAM and all graphics data is drawn from system RAM. The system dynamically sizes/shares RAM to the graphics GPU and when main system RAM gets tight on space graphics performance can slow. Maybe try downloading a small free utility called Memory Cleaner by Koshy John. Lets you free some RAM up by trimming processes' working set and clearing the system RAM cache. The program is safe but some anti-virus suites detect it as malicious. 4 gig RAM is really tight on physical memory for Windows 10, especially on a machine that only has shared graphics memory architecture.
While not looking all the time, I do not see a lot of page fault activity. So while I realize more memory might help, it probably would not be night and day.
 
try readyboost, just get a cheap usb drive and install it in a fee usb socket, you might be surprised how much it speeds up your computer https://www.computerworld.com/article/31...erformance.html you can get a 1 TB drive for under $50 dollars now, its at least worth a try https://www.amazon.com/Flash-Drive-Memory-Stick-Storage/dp/B01KOFOLLO/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1516197266&sr=1-2&refinements=p_n_size_browse-bin%3A10285020011
 
Few questions - how did the OS get on it? - Did you do a clean install? - OEM Windows 10? - Upgrade from an OEM Windows 8? I have had EXCELLENT luck doing a windows 8 / windows 10 "reset" on computers that have slow. I'm glad they finally made that feature. Another useful tool included since windoed 7 is the resource monitor, it will help you pinpoint which process is having heavy writes to cause it to be slow
Originally Posted By: ZZman
Pretty sure the processor is slowing you down. Really should have a minimum dual core.
Celeron 877 is 2 phyiscal cores
 
+1 on installing an SSD. They are a good price right now and will make a huge difference in how your laptop will run. The Samsung EVO is a good one and it has a ridiculously simple wizard you can download and copy your old hard drive with ease.
 
While I believe an SSD will help speed things up, I'm not sure I'd be willing to dump more money into an old low end laptop like this. But if you don't mind spending the money, SSD is what I would spend it on.
 
It's the processor. I have almost the same setup in a little 11.6" laptop with the Celeron N3050, 4GB and a SSD and it's slow. It boots up fast and it's usable, but it's laggy. I have i5s in all my other machines and they fly.
 
Thunderbird does not native interface elements (else it would be a bugger to be cross-platform). I wonder if there is some undue stress on the graphics chip? OP, have you - especially given your pedestrian CPU horsepower - disabled graphics effects?
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
While I believe an SSD will help speed things up, I'm not sure I'd be willing to dump more money into an old low end laptop like this. But if you don't mind spending the money, SSD is what I would spend it on.
My strategy has been moving the SSD between laptop upgrade. You don't need a big one if you don't store all your videos and photos on it.
 
Celeron brings back memories. I built a desktop back in the day w/ a Celeron 300. Can't remember the year but sometime in the 1990's. The particular Celeron 300Mhz you wanted, as an overclocker, was the Malaysia made chip. That's what mine was, it overclocked to 450Mhz and was rock stable for the life of the build. I was into building my own desktops back then. Not anymore.
 
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
Celeron brings back memories. I built a desktop back in the day w/ a Celeron 300. Can't remember the year but sometime in the 1990's. The particular Celeron 300Mhz you wanted, as an overclocker, was the Malaysia made chip. That's what mine was, it overclocked to 450Mhz and was rock stable for the life of the build. I was into building my own desktops back then. Not anymore.
Was using that back in the college days too.
 
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