Slow new laptop

[tlogic]

I bought a new Acer laptop ( v5 122p-win 8.1) from PC world on Sunday,

 

 

after using it for about a day, I've found the laptop very very slow and sluggish,

 

 

it get to a point when the laptop just becomes unresponsive,

 

 

the internet is very slow also and I can't do basic taks. ,

 

 

I've delated all the pre installed apps that came with the laptop and it's made no difference what so ever,

 

 

the cpu is constantly reaching 100%.

 

 

I wanted to know if I had a legal right of requesting either a refund, exchange, or by me paying extra for a better spec machine.

 

 

Because I bought this in store the distant selling regs don't apply to me.

[scousepie]

The chances are the Laptop is fine.... You may find while you where surfing the net agents have been installed and add-ware is running in the back ground... I use www.malwarebytes.org to clear any unwanted rubbish..... do you know what ani-virus software is installed on your laptop ?... some of this free stuff has become blotted.

[dx100uk]

boot it in safe mode then try.

 

 

could well be that it needs an Ethernet connection to complete the required windows updating processes

that have been released since the OS was installed.

 

 

dx

[CrappoMan]

You can find out which processes are using CPU time and memory by looking at Task Manager.

To show Task Manager, press "Ctrl + Shift + ESC" at the same time, then left click on "More details". Use the "process" or "details" tab to see how much CPU time and memory each process is using.

[richard_se11]

also, if you can download and run ccleaner. I always find that helpful as it gets rid of a lot of the dross and makes systems faster.

[Eversir]

You may find the AMD A6-1450 CPU in your laptop will struggle in certain scenarios. It's a 1GHz Quad Core, which is fine if you're a light user

 

Try and find out what is using your CPU in task manager as in post #4. You can sort your list of processes by CPU usage.

 

Could be there is some bloatware still on the machine giving the CPU a hammering.

[BankFodder]

It certainly right that this laptop does not have a lot of grunt and so you shouldn't expect any lightning performance. However, for the speed to tail off as quickly as you suggest does indicate that it is struggling with some of the background software.

 

All laptops – and in fact all computers sold with a load of marketing bloatware and it is a good idea to try and clean out as much as possible. You have already removed what you consider to be unnecessary programs – so that is a start. However, before applying any of the other cleaning solutions that have been suggested above, it might be an idea to try and get a feel for what is causing the problem.

 

You can do this by preventing a lot of the services and start-up programs from running when you boot the computer up. If you find that by stopping all of the services and start-up programs that the computer, you can then go through them one by one and identifying where the problem is.

 

I had an issue with my desktop computer just a couple of days ago and I checked the services and I was stunned how much stuff was being started automatically. I had simply no idea of the extent of bits and pieces that I had acquired over a year since I last reinstalled windows.

 

I started off by stopping all of the services from installing on boot up and the effect was dramatic. A huge speed increase.

 

I then switched on some of the basic services that I knew I needed including my printer driver and restarted the computer. The performance of the computer was still like lightning and I'm sure that it must have been at least as good as when I first installed Windows – maybe better.

 

The amazing thing is that I couldn't detect any reduction in the functionality of the computer with pretty well all of the services switched off. I have no idea what benefit I was getting from them because leaving them of seems to have made no difference to the way that I use the computer except it is now extraordinarily quick.

 

This is what I did.

 

Click the Windows start button on Windows 7 and in the little programs and files box type – msconfig

 

And the msconfig function will start-up. In the first tab marked General make sure that you check the option for selective start-up. Uncheck "load start-up items" then click apply.

 

Go to the "services" tab and begin by checking the box which says "hide all Microsoft services". This is very important because you want at least the basic Microsoft services to load up. You don't want to be disabled.

 

When all the Microsoft services are hidden, click the button which says "disable all" then click apply. Then click okay

once you have done this, reboot your laptop and it wouldn't surprise me if you found a startling difference in performance.

 

If the performance is improved – then the solution is in the amount of bloat which is running in the background on your computer.

 

If the performance is still very sluggish then you probably have a hardware problem and you will have to try and take it back to the dealer – but don't expect that to be a very easy experience.

 

It probably is bloatware. If the performance of the laptop is improved then keep on going back to msconfig and switch the services back on one by one. However, if you want to follow my example, I simply switched on my printer service and also made sure that my antivirus software was running and I haven't bothered to switch anything else on and the entire computer works wonderfully without any difficulty at all.

 

Have a look on the Internet about speeding up your computer for getting rid of bloat services by using msconfig. You will get much better explanations than what I have given you here and I expect that you will get some diagrams.

 

You don't need to worry. You won't damage the computer. You won't invalidate any warranties. You can always switch all the services back on again by clicking enable all and you will be back to where you started.

 

One final thing is that I noticed that you are using Windows 8. I'm not quite sure how to call up msconfig in Windows 8. I expect somebody will tell you.

 

I'm sure that this is the correct starting point because then you really have a good way to identify what the problem is. With a new computer you really shouldn't need to be start doing cleaning or sweeping or any of that stuff

[GrumpyToSayTheLeast]

Windows 8 and 8.1. To call up msconfig, go to the top right corner with the mouse until the side bar shows up and then click on the search icon. Type is "msconfig" and the menu will appear. Bank fodders advice is very good but I will add that you do this on your own back and while I say it is good advice, I will not recommend you to it yourself just in case something goes wrong. You should be fine though as long as you hide windows services.

[Eversir]

Would also not turn off any services / startup programs that have the words "AMD" or "Catalyst". These are your graphic drivers and related software.

 

As per BankFodders advice, if you leave Windows services and antivirus stuff alone you should be fine. If you lose certain functionality (commonly sound, printer and wireless networking) you can always undo your changes.

[labrat]

quick windows 8/8.1 tip

 

Windows key + X brings up a shortcut menu for alot of items

fastest way to get to msconfig is

Windows key + R type msconfig + hit enter

 

while you can still turn off services through msconfig all startup items are now done from task manager

[tlogic]

Update:

 

Thanks for all your helpful replies . I'm certain I will revisit this thread again in the future as their are some really useful tips on here. Much appreciated.

 

Even through It was a cheap laptop I was expecting it to run at least MS office, that was the last straw when I couldn't get it to install , During installation of office the thing completely froze up and I had to uninstall it so I can get some sort of control back on the laptop.

 

This afternoon I boxed up the laptop neatly and I took it down to PC World IN beckon for a refund or exchange , once there I explained the situation to them with the problems I had , at first they didn't want to know as the laptop was still functioning. After getting to know the technician a little and talking about football whilst he was checking the laptop, he agreed to refund the money back on to a gift card so I can choose another laptop, normally they are not allowed to do this as the machine was still working. I ended up buying a HP laptop for nearly £560 quid,even though I had to pay a little extra but was worth it as it's super fast. I know PC World and Currys get bad press most of the time but they helped me out big time on this one. One lesson i've learnt from all of this, 'Never buy a cheap laptop'

[GrumpyToSayTheLeast]

Good result and well done to pc world on this occasion for a swift resolution to a customer issue.

 

Now you just have to get rid of all the bumf on the hp laptop. I hate hp preloads.

[Anus Horribilis]

Yes, well done PCW. An unusual result, you must have some pretty good charming skills, tlogic!

 

As others have said, all retail laptops come bloated with rubbish. I usually format the hard drive and start again from MS media, it's easier than trying to sort out all the hidden partitions, dodgy apps and adverts etc.

[tfp]

Does your new laptop (and did the old one) come with a copy of Win 8 on a DVD? Most have nothing but the restore partition to reinstall Windows. However, this simply reinstalls the bloatware. Leaving you back at stage one. The Medion laptop I bought a couple of years ago has a restore partition and a Windows DVD that gives a basic bloat free installation. A lengthy but very effective way to get rid of unwanted programs.

[Oliver Queen]

i dont know of any machines that pcw sell that come with a windows dvd, except the business models that come with windows 7 pro and an upgrade dvd for windows 8 pro.

 

the models in store have windows 8.1 home, which is not sold on its own, they have the license key digitally injected into the bios of the machine and not on a license sticker. recovery media has to be made or purchased by the customer. either by using a usb stick, or via buying it from the manufacturer.

you COULD make the recovery media (hp and toshiba still allow to dvd, but everyone else goes to usb now) then use something like pc decrapifier to remove all the stuff you'll never use.