Brand new computer is slooooow

[Big Dave2]

Just got a brand new cheap Toshiba laptop last night. It has 4 GB of memory and 500 GB of hard drive, very little of which is being used. Right out of the box this thing is the slowest computer I've had in many years. There has to be some sort of bloatware on it that is slowing it down but I'm not all that tech savy so I don't want to go deleting things that are important. I did delete several programs that I knew were just games or something I didn't want including an AMD program that was slowing down my internet connection. That sped up my connection but it did nothing for the overall speed of the computer. I checked the Task Manager and there is not one single extra open process running.

Anyone have any suggestions?

[DTro]

Noticing this on battery or AC power?

I think I might have the same laptop and if I use it on battery power, it is almost unusable while browsing he web, but then really speeds up when I plug it in.

Probably a power management setting I'm guessing.

[Big Dave2]

Noticing this on battery or AC power?

I think I might have the same laptop and if I use it on battery power, it is almost unusable while browsing he web, but then really speeds up when I plug it in.

Probably a power management setting I'm guessing.

Actually I have it plugged in and I changed the power management to high performance. I also forgot to mention it has Windows 8.1.

[MN Mike]

I cringe when people say they picked up a 'cheap' laptop, many times, these systems that cost in the area of $200 to $400 are grossly underpowered and IMO not worth the headache.

Could you post up what model of Toshiba you bought?

Also, Antivirus / Internet Security programs can have a huge impact on the performance of any system, fast or slow. You might want to try a different program for protection, there are many freebees out there for home use, Microsoft Security Essentials, AVG Free and others, that might help speed up your system before you pull your hair out!

By the way, you only want to have 1 security program installed.

Good luck!

Mike

[Big Dave2]

I cringe when people say they picked up a 'cheap' laptop, many times, these systems that cost in the area of $200 to $400 are grossly underpowered and IMO not worth the headache.

Could you post up what model of Toshiba you bought?

Also, Antivirus / Internet Security programs can have a huge impact on the performance of any system, fast or slow. You might want to try a different program for protection, there are many freebees out there for home use, Microsoft Security Essentials, AVG Free and others, that might help speed up your system before you pull your hair out!

By the way, you only want to have 1 security program installed.

Good luck!

Mike

I'm not sure if this is the info you're looking for but it appears to be a Toshiba C55D-B5308 with an AMD E1 processor. I might also be off base by what you consider "underpowered" but this computer has 4 GB of RAM which would make it the biggest computer I have ever owned. My last laptop had 2 GB of RAM and was much faster.

As far as anti-virus goes, I uninstalled the Norton that came pre-loaded on it because I have never had good luck with Norton and I thought that might be what was slowing it down. The computer purchase came with a disk I can load called WEBROOT and 6 months for free. Is this a good anti-virus? I have tried AVG in the past and that seemed to significantly slow down my old computer.

[Big Dave2]

BTW, I timed my pageloads here on HSO and it has taken a minimum of 22 seconds to load each page I timed. My old computer seemed to load them in less than half that time.

[MN Mike]

Dave,

You did provide the correct model number of your Toshiba laptop and with that AMD Processor ( think of it as the motor of your laptop ) that would be exactly what I consider a grossly underpowered laptop, 4 GB of ram means very little although it does help some, in the big picture it's the AMD processor that is the biggest limiting factor in that laptop you bought and it will NEVER be any faster than what it is right now.

Its maddening that these companies build these laptops this way and I'm not trying to knock AMD, Intel does it too with their Celeron and Atom processors.

Mike

[Big Dave2]

Thanks for the info, that sucks to hear. I didn't do any research on this model and bought it on a whim. I was there to take a look at the Chromebooks because I have been certain that's what I wanted for quite some time but they had such a limited selection of them at Best Buy where I was shopping and they had none of the larger 14 or 15" units at all so I was talked into this Toshiba.

I had a cheap Toshiba several years ago that was even cheaper, had less RAM and less features than this laptop that was faster than this one so I assumed I would be ok. I guess I was wrong.

[jmd1]

So you uninstalled Norton, if you bought this at Best B, they possibly loaded it up with their junk too. First thing i do when i buy a new computer is to uninstall everything that is not used or trash. Then i put on the things that i use, i use webroot on my sons laptop and it runs quietly in the background. Also look at what is on the start up page, that will slow it down too. If all else fails take it back. I got away from using PC based machines years ago went to apple. Yes it costs a ton up front, but my vintage 2005 macbook pro is still running. Good luck.

Follow up, i did a quick search for the model and looked at the reviews. Seems the issue you are having is a common issue and may not get any better.

[rundrave]

I would type msconfig into the run command and uncheck anything that doesnt need to be running at startup.

also make sure you have all the latest service packs etc.

[upnorth]

Well the AMD E1 processor is a dual core processor, not a quad core. I am not sure just how much that would impact performance, but it could. I would open task manager(right click on the task bar go to task manager, click details) and go to the performance tab and loo at the CPU and processor utilization.

You can also open up resource monitor and see how your system is being hit by various things. You will see that in the performance tab.

[Finns]

I would type msconfig into the run command and uncheck anything that doesnt need to be running at startup.

also make sure you have all the latest service packs etc.

How does one tell what doesn't need to be running?

I'm new at this stuff.

[MN Mike]

Generally, if you are in MSCONFIG I uncheck everything except your Antivirus / Internet Security software and any software I need to have running in the background, if you don't recognize it, uncheck it, you can always recheck it again if something isn't working.

Mike

[Big Dave2]

Well the AMD E1 processor is a dual core processor, not a quad core. I am not sure just how much that would impact performance, but it could. I would open task manager(right click on the task bar go to task manager, click details) and go to the performance tab and loo at the CPU and processor utilization.

You can also open up resource monitor and see how your system is being hit by various things. You will see that in the performance tab.

By resource monitor, do you do you mean the live graph thingy? If so, I had that open yesterday while I opened a page here on HSO and it went up to 100% for quite a while. I opened a different forum page and it went up to 100% but only for a couple of seconds.

[aanderud]

I don't want to rain on your parade here, but if you have a chance to return that laptop, I would. The E1 processors are about the slowest that are available on PCs today -- literally slower than some of the cheapest processors from computers that are 7 years old.

I just put a laptop out of commission that I used for 3 years and then someone else used for 3.5 years. It was purchased in late 2008 for $400. The CPU in that 6.5 year old laptop is a 1.6 GHz Intel Core Duo T2050 CPU that benchmarks with higher performance than the E1-2100 that your laptop has in it.

It's sometimes a bit painful, but often the jump from a $250 laptop to a $350-$400 laptop is worth it. It can make the thing last literally 5+ years longer based on CPU longevity alone, versus starting with a CPU that's terribly outdated already.

[Big Dave2]

Generally, if you are in MSCONFIG I uncheck everything except your Antivirus / Internet Security software and any software I need to have running in the background, if you don't recognize it, uncheck it, you can always recheck it again if something isn't working.

Mike

I did the MSCONFIG thing last night but I was too chicken to uncheck anything. I know there were a lot of boxes checked though.

[Big Dave2]

I don't want to rain on your parade here, but if you have a chance to return that laptop, I would. The E1 processors are about the slowest that are available on PCs today -- literally slower than some of the cheapest processors from computers that are 7 years old.

I just put a laptop out of commission that I used for 3 years and then someone else used for 3.5 years. It was purchased in late 2008 for $400. The CPU in that 6.5 year old laptop is a 1.6 GHz Intel Core Duo T2050 CPU that benchmarks with higher performance than the E1-2100 that your laptop has in it.

It's sometimes a bit painful, but often the jump from a $250 laptop to a $350-$400 laptop is worth it. It can make the thing last literally 5+ years longer based on CPU longevity alone, versus starting with a CPU that's terribly outdated already.

Yeah, I've been contemplating doing just that. I might go back to my original idea of a chromebook but I'm not sure.

[Elybound]

The AMD E1-2100 is only a dual core non turbo 1 ghz processor. In comparison most smart phones and tablets now days are running dual to quad core 1.5 to 1.8 ghz.

There will be very little tweaking or deleting of programs that you can do to be satisfied with a performance boost.

If at all possible, return it.

[Big Dave2]

What processor speed should I be looking for?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/toshiba-sate...p;skuId=2326023

This one seems to be the same computer I bought but with a different processor and same price. Would this one be any better?

[Big Dave2]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-elitebook...kuId=1306097077

This one is in the same price range but with windows 7 instead of windows 8.1.Although I have already decided I don't mind 8.1 as long as I download the classic start menu.

[Big Dave2]

The AMD E1-2100 is only a dual core non turbo 1 ghz processor. In comparison most smart phones and tablets now days are running dual to quad core 1.5 to 1.8 ghz.

There will be very little tweaking or deleting of programs that you can do to be satisfied with a performance boost.

If at all possible, return it.

Wow, I never realized that but I just looked at the specs on my LG G2 cell phone and that processor is over twice as big as the one in the computer I bought. Very disappointing.

[MN Mike]

That Elitebook is decent, how long of a warranty? Buying any refurb laptop is always a roll of the dice because you don't know how they were previously treated.

I bought a Lenovo T410 i5 Off Lease a few months back, really happy with it, Windows 7 Pro ( Upgradeable to Windows 10 in a few months for free ), I want to say it was about $250, they are still out there, some with 1 year warranties.

I'll sacrifice 1" smaller screen display ( T410 is a 14.1" display ) for a i5 processor any day.

I would stay away from the Celerons too but that's me.

Mike

[Big Dave2]

Oh brother! I didn't notice that Elitebook was refurbished. Not sure I want to go down that road.

[aanderud]

I generally avoid celerons today. In the past they were slightly-cripped versions of the high end 'pentium' processors and they were a good bargain. Nowadays they're slightly-beefed-up versions of the lowest-end 'atom' processors, and they perform terribly relative to the i3 and i5 processors. The toshiba you linked to that has the celeron has more 1-star reviews than 5-star, which is never good.

That elitebook looks like it might be a nice unit back in the day but it lacks a couple of components you want. No USB 3.0 (faster transfer to backup stuff to external hard drive, for instance), no webcam, and a fairly small hard drive. That being said, it is priced nicely. The CPU is about 2x what you see in the E1 processor you're running now. "passmark" score of 1651, versus somewhere in the high 700s for that E2100. It also has 4 USB ports, which is awesome, and a gigabit ethernet, which might not matter. With refurbished laptop units, the primary question I'd have would be the state of the battery. Often the battery that comes in it won't hold much of a charge, or if it does now it might easily fail within a year. Replacement batteries generally will cost you around $60 for a good quality OEM battery, and you do NOT want a cheap knockoff battery (they don't even last a year, so the $30 you save is better spent on original equipment). So basically factor in a $50 to $60 battery within a year and you're just around $300 for something that again lacks a couple of important components in it (usb 3.0 and webcam).

All things considered, I would buy this brand new Toshiba unit, at $299.99 after a $50 rebate and $50 instant savings. Should be about 3x to 4x as fast as that E1-2100 you have. The easy rebate will be file-able electronically and should come within just a couple weeks:

http://www.staples.com/Toshiba-C55-B5362...mArea=home_box1

It has really solid reviews, and is fast (for the price). It has an i3 processor that will draw less power -- 15 watts versus 65 (read: longer battery life) than the elitebook, and it's brand new, and the CPU is roughly 50% faster than that in the refurbished elitebook (bechmark score of 2454 versus 1651). Also has a webcam built in, and HDMI video output, and USB 3.0, which the elitebook does not have. Probably a brighter screen too.

Oh and here's the annoying thing -- you can't just go by 'clock speed' on these computers, and you definitely can't use the model number to guess the clock speed. The E1-2100 folks want you to think it's clocked at 2.1 ghz, but as was mentioned earlier it's simply 1 ghz. Any time you have a CPu model number (not the laptop model, but the actual CPU, like i3-400u or E1-2100, for instance), you can put the model number into google and follow it up with "benchmark" and click on the cpubenchmark link to see roughly where it matches up on benchmarks as well as when it was first released, how fast it is clocked, what the power dissipation is, etc. Generally the newer intel processors have the highest performance with lowest power (longer battery life).

As you can see from the following links to the benchmark charts, the newer i3 that is clocked at 1.7 ghz outperforms the AMD by almost 4x, and outperforms the intel core 2 duo from the elitebook, even though it is clocked at 2.53 ghz, and does all that with roughly 1/4 of the power draw. Moore's law is amazing!

Here's the i3-400u LINK

Here's the E1-2100 LINK

core 2 doi from the refurbished elitebook LINK

[Big Dave2]

All things considered, I would buy this brand new Toshiba unit, at $299.99 after a $50 rebate and $50 instant savings. Should be about 3x to 4x as fast as that E1-2100 you have. The easy rebate will be file-able electronically and should come within just a couple weeks:

http://www.staples.com/Toshiba-C55-B5362...mArea=home_box1

It has really solid reviews, and is fast (for the price). It has an i3 processor that will draw less power -- 15 watts versus 65 (read: longer battery life) than the elitebook, and it's brand new, and the CPU is roughly 50% faster than that in the refurbished elitebook (bechmark score of 2454 versus 1651). Also has a webcam built in, and HDMI video output, and USB 3.0, which the elitebook does not have. Probably a brighter screen too.

Interesting, thanks for all the info.That really helps put it into perspective for me. That model looks like just what I need as long as it is faster than the one I bought.