Windows 10: General sluggishness on i5-4200U processor (laptop, windows 10)

Great! Thanks for this info!

Sometimes it is however better to just let Windows Update take care of the drivers for you. Some drivers will however never be downloaded, nor updated unless you manually go fetch them from the computer manufacturer or from chip manufacturer.

 

So I disabled a bunch of stuff, system interrupts seems to have gone down quite a lot to not be a problem anymore, however Google Chrome still takes the CPU to nearly 100% when watching a video or a stream. When just at idle or using google chrome for something else, CPU usage is at a comfortable 10-20% and that is a big improvement that I had not seen before, so something worked, but still that video problem is really annoying.

 

Hmmm... that still isn't quite right.

Did you install latest BIOS into your computer? If you did not, then do that. After it's installed, reset the BIOS to defaults. There might be some conflicts there too. Only edit settings in BIOS that you need in order to get Windows running again.

Also run with just one RAM stick, for now, or if you have 2 sticks that are exactly the same manufacturer, speed, size and timings, then you can run with those. You can identify the models by comparing the model numbers on the sticks. They have to match 100%

Is it possible for you to wipe the computer completely and reinstall Windows clean?

What we should try is to install Windows from scratch, setup local user account possibly connect that account to an MS account if you are using things like OneDrive or other MS services. Then let Windows update install all updates on it's own, including drivers.

I have a suspicion that the issue is either in conflicting software or in the Intel drivers.

The point here is that we leave the system as 100% MS default. No 3rd party drivers, no 3rd party software, just pure Windows with MS WHQL drivers installed. This would help better diagnose the problem, since then I know exactly in what state your computer is. Then we could remove/modify a few Windows default feature that you don't need and take a look at performance in Edge and Internet Explorer and finally tweak a few more Windows setting.

I know you have a lot of software there, like Steam, Chrome and other stuff...there. Any 3rd party AV could also be an issue...We would be using Windows Defender while diagnosing the issue.

 

I have installed the latest BIOS, and I have also completely wiped my hard drive and reinstalled a fresh windows multiple times, each time completely reinstalling all drivers including BIOS. I've even tried using different windows 10 ISOs that I've had laying around, including the latest one directly from Microsoft's website. And I've already let updates do a bunch of stuff, and the windows update manager cant find any more updates to do. I noticed this problem start with each one of those fresh installs before downloading any 3rd party stuff. My account is local.

Interesting thought on the ram stick; yes they are different models and brands. I bought one of them extra after a Crucial memory diagnostic and it told me that this one would be compatible, but I will take one out and see how it runs.

I mean if this doesn't work I guess i'll just partition my hard drive and reinstall windows again if that would be more helpful for you to diagnose.

Thanks for the help

 

So I just looked and apparently I do have the same Crucial memory sticks, just of different capacity... oops. I removed one anyway to see, and no change occurred.

Something else to note is that the CPU now only basically spikes to near 100 usage, meaning that after a few seconds, the usage will go back down to a safe usage. For example, when I first open a program (really any program at this point, but especially Google Chrome, but also applies for Office products and others), the CPU really will max out its usage and will last for as long as it takes for that program to run its stuff basically. Another example, if I simply refresh a page such as on Youtube or Twitch (which I use both quite a bit), just that alone will spike the CPU above 50 for a few seconds, and make a noticeable slowdown occur.

 

That sounds perfectly normal to me. If I refresh a YouTube page, the CPU usage spikes to 40-60% for a moment and then settles down. Even closing one browser tab increase usage to 15-25% because the browser cleans up something that is not needed anymore.

So do you experience any mouse stuttering during application loads?

 

I don't experience mouse stuttering, no. I guess I just think it's weird that it does this since in my desktop 4th gen i7 CPU I never notice this sort of stuff happening, and even when I had a 4th gen i3. Maybe it's just a mobile processor thing.

I guess everything is as it is now. Basically for anyone viewing this looking for a solution, disabling a bunch of devices in Device Manager seems to have helped. I don't know exactly which one did the trick, but I disabled a bunch of USB Hub Controller things as well as a few things in System Devices and Software Devices. I'll leave this open for now and come back to mark it as solved if this continues to perform fine generally. Basically I'm thinking that this laptop has taken a general beating over the years and the it's causing some hardware issues that transfer into software problems. I'm planning on getting a new laptop soon anyway, so this will do for now. If anyone is curious on a really good spec'd laptop for a completely understandable price, https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-i...cer+aspire+e15 that's probably what I'll be getting; it's very tempting especially since it has that 4 core processor and dedicated graphics.

Slicendice, thanks for all your help, I appreciate it a lot *Smile

 

You are very welcome!

You could try to enable one device at a time and check what changes. You should eventually find the issue.

And yes, mobile is always mobile, can't really compare to a desktop computer. Desktops are in most cases a lot snappier than any mobile.

That Acer sounds really cheap to me...wonder what they have saved on in order to achieve that low prices... it might be a low end laptop(poor build quality) with good specs on paper. Be careful when buying those. *Smile

 

Yeah it's basically all plastic. I've done a lot of research into it, reviews are awesome about it, it's an Amazon's choice laptop, and top tech reviewers recommend it as an awesome laptop for the price; although it clearly has some downsides and lacks a lot of stuff since it's only 600 USD. You just gotta really make sure these days to take care of laptops with a case or a bag or something because stuff like this can happen; I'm almost certain my troubles with this laptop stem from bad treatment or lack of protection. It has had screen problems in the past, so I've learned to really take care of my stuff nowadays.

 

Great! Yes I believe it is good value for money. The reviews aren't that bad at all. I think you got that one under control.

I purchased an Asus UX305CA "surfing board"...or I thought it would be only capable of surfing...but it turns out is has more power than I imagined. What I love about it the most is that it's dead silent because it's passive cooled. Very pleased.