Win10 excrutiateingly slow

Topic

New Reply

Windows 10 Home Version 22H2; OS Build 19045.3930.

I have a Win10 HP laptop, which has  suddenly turned excruciatingly slow. I was traveling overseas last month and used the laptop successfully on Feb 19 in London. On returning home to US, the performance problems started appearing immediately.

Most actions take at least 10 times longer, from startup, file explorer,  opening small local pdf etc. The Task Manager shows System Usage less than 10% and Memory usage less than 50%. I have Malwarebytes Premium antivirus program, which does not report any malware. The Device Performance and Health shows no issues.

I use a local Windows account and do not login to OneDrive or Windows online.

I apply Windows Updates manually using WuMgr, when Susan Bradley signals it is safe to. The last Windows updates were the January one applied on Jan 22, 2024.

The latest restore point was created by HP One Agent on Feb 19 at 12:03:08 during my last session in London.

Please advise on how I might identify and correct the performance issues? Or should I just roll back to a previous restore point when things were working well? I also have a system image after the Dec Windows updates and recent backups of my Documents.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

rnam

 

 

Reply | Quote

Replies

Are you very low on disk space?
What is the disk SMART status? Use CrystalDiskInfo or ClearDiskInfo.
Have you run a scan with MalwareBytes free?
Are the air vents clogged / can you hear the fan running?

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

Hi Paul,

The C drive disk SMART status is Ok. I ran using cmd and also HP Support Assistant Device Health. I do not have Crystal or Clear DiskInfo.

I have Malwarebytes Premium 4.6.8 and the scans find no malware.

I don’t hear any fan noise. It is quiet as usual.

The drive is  SSD 476GB capacity (363GB free) – NVMe WDC PC SN530 SDBPNPZ-512G-1006

Thanks for your help.

 

Reply | Quote

Consider eliminating the possibility of disk file system physical & logical errors.  It’s a simple easy test.  From a DOS administrators CMD window, run “chkdsk”.  If it reports errors, then run it again as “chkdsk /f”.  You’ll be asked to restart your computer.

Desktop mobo Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Robin Nam

Reply | Quote

Tech Tango,

Thanks for your suggestion to run chkdsk

The result:

“Windows scanned the system and found no problems. No further action is required.”

C drive has 476 GB capacity of which 363 GB is free.

 

 

 

1 user thanked author for this post.

TechTango

Reply | Quote

My first thought was if the heatsink compound could have split off of the CPU, causing overheating, but this would usually make the fan loud which you say it is not.  Does a CPU intensive game (I mention Overwatch 2 because it is free) play at reasonable speed?  This feels like a hard problem to diagnose and fix.  If you have enough free space on your backup drive to make an EXTRA image now, I would do that and try restoring your December backup.  If it fixes the problem, restoring your data to that.  Don’t be afraid to use CrystalDiskInfo for more hard drive smart data, but I have heard of several false positives from ClearDiskInfo.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Robin Nam

Reply | Quote

No fan noise is unusual. Does it ever run?
Use a temperature monitor to check the CPU temps. (HWMonitor)

Energy Saver wrote:

the heatsink compound could have split off of the CPU, causing overheating

The compound won’t split off without the heatsink coming loose and that would probably prevent the machine running / fry the CPU.

cheers, Paul

 

1 user thanked author for this post.

Robin Nam

Reply | Quote

Paul T wrote:

No fan noise is unusual. Does it ever run?

Yes fan does run, but not for unusually long or loud and laptop does not feel hot to the touch. I is just how it usually runs.

Paul T wrote:

Use a temperature monitor to check the CPU temps. (HWMonitor)

I have the HW Monitor results attached.  Not having used it before I don’t know if there is anything unusual.  The only thing I noted was the high Max GPU and 3d Utilization for Intel Iris Graphics GPU? Is this significant?

I was not playing any games or using graphic intensive apps. The main apps running were Firefox browser (3 tabs), WUMgr Windows Update download/install, Excel and File Explorer, plus Malwarebytes.

Thanks for your responses.

 

Reply | Quote

Throwing stuff at the wall here . . .

Have you verified that the Windows slowdown occurs with both battery power and when you plug the laptop into an electrical socket?

Have you tried temporarily disabling Malwarebytes to see if that makes any difference?

Are you running anti-virus software in addition to Malwarebytes? If you are have you checked to make sure they are set to work well together?

Have you tried temporarily disabling anti-virus software (if you are running any) to see if that makes a difference?

Have you checked power settings on the laptop to see how they are currently configured?

I assume you used power from electrical outlets to run and charge your laptop while you were in London. I wonder if it’s possible that something in the charger’s voltage regulator\conversion process, or maybe something in the laptop, or the laptop’s power settings, that handle switching from 110-120 to 220-240 back to 110-120 again could have broken or gotten confused?

1 user thanked author for this post.

Robin Nam

Reply | Quote

Typically the big manufacturers don’t show temperatures, but everything else seems OK.

Power is good with the battery at 100% so unlikely to be power supply.

Open Task Manager > Performance. Do you have high disk use? Network?

cheers, Paul

1 user thanked author for this post.

Robin Nam

Reply | Quote

Performance is back to normal when running on battery power. When the charger is plugged in performance is sluggish again. The difference is instantaneous. Web pages were taking very load when plugged in. The moment I removed the charger, the pages loaded almost immediately.

 

opt1, Your suggestions regarding power charger were right on the money. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

I had used my laptop last in London without charger, as this was a short session. However, previously I had used the laptop with charger and electric plug adapters. The charger itself is multi-voltage which automatically adapts to different voltage. You just need a adapter plug for the local socket.

Now the remaining issue, is what is causing the odd behavior while charging? I use the default Balanced power plan with factory settings, which I have never changed. Is there some battery or power management setting which I could tweak to fix the problem while charging. Physically the charger is doing its job and charging the battery.

 

 

Reply | Quote

@Robin Nam –

Unfortunately I don’t have an HP laptop to check the available settings there but I did find this on the HP community website:

when plugged in the laptop slows down incredibly

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Gaming-Desktops/when-plugged-in-the-laptop-slows-down-incredibly/td-p/8918455

Check out the link and see if you find a solution there. You could also look for a forum there that is dedicated to the particular model of laptop you have for more help.

Good luck!

1 user thanked author for this post.

Robin Nam

Reply | Quote

@Robin Nam –

I also found this link which is specific to an Envy 13 laptop and may give you more clues than the other link does even if yours isn’t an Envy 13:

Envy CPU speed slow when laptop power plugged in

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/Envy-CPU-speed-slow-when-laptop-power-plugged-in/m-p/5519085#M429518

It appears your problem may be BIOS related with BIOS updates available.

I still recommend that you try to find a sub-forum there that is specific to the model of laptop you have.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Robin Nam

Reply | Quote

Hi opti!,

Thanks for the links to various HP laptops with similar sluggish performance when plugged in. I too found some of these links while searching for the solution.

In Task Manager Performance I noticed the same drop in CPU speed from 2.8GHz to 0.2Ghz when the charger was plugged in. Previously, I looked only at CPU Utilization, which was below 10% so I didn’t catch the drop in speed.

I also tried a different HP charger, but it has the same problem.

Some of the posts suggested changing the Maximum Processor state from 100% to 95%. However this option is not available in my laptop’s power options. I would have to make complicated Regedit changes to enable the advanced power options. I am not inclined to try these as these seem to be the solution to overheating laptops, and mine is not overheating.

I am at my wits end on how to solve this. It is possible that the charger port is damaged.  However the actual charging works fine. Repair may not  be worth it for a 3.5 year old laptop. Other users have reported changing the charger or the charging port did not solve the problem. Fortunately performance is fine when not plugged in. So I may just have to use unplugged and plug it in to charge when not in use.

Thanks to all the forum users for their many tips and suggestions.

Reply | Quote

@Robin Nam –

If I’m not mistaken one of the posts in the second link I provided above mentioned that a BIOS update had fixed their similar problem to yours. I think it was the same post that mentioned HP has a utility on the laptop that allows you to search for available updates, including BIOS updates. You may want to run that utility just to see if there is a BIOS (or other) update that says it resolves your problem. If there is such an update and you are comfortable working with the BIOS you can install it to see if it fixes your problem.  Or if you’re not comfortable messing with the BIOS take it to a reputable PC servicing business in your area and have them do it for you.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Robin Nam

Reply | Quote

That is very weird.
Try resetting the power plan in case it is corrupt.

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

opti1 wrote:

I provided above mentioned that a BIOS update had fixed their similar problem to yours. I think it was the same post that mentioned HP has a utility on the laptop that allows you to search for available updates, including BIOS updates.

I do have HP Support Assistant. It is setup to look for updates every week. It says the laptop is up to date with software & drivers.

Thanks opti1.

Reply | Quote

Here’s what I would do..

#1) Create a Linux Live bootable USB using Rufus. Linux Mint would be good for that…just download the ISO and burn it to a USB.

#2) Boot up with the USB (you may need to use a function key to select the USB as primary boot). After booting into your menu, preform the same tests with a browser and charger plugged in and not plugged in.

#3) If you see the same issue, it is likely a hardware or BIOS issue. If you don’t see a problem, then it’s likely a software issue.

#4) If it’s a software issue, and you have the latest BIOS updates, then I suggest backing up all your data/settings/passwords/bookmarks, and do a FRESH install of windows. You want to wipe out what’s on your HD after making multiple backups.

Only add HP software/updates AFTERWARDS, and recheck your performance after every update. Good luck!

 

 

 

 

Reply | Quote