Dell laptop is super slow

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rage4order

Gawd
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Oct 4, 2004
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I have a dell GS5587 laptop that my wife bought new for me a few years ago. This thing has just gotten super slow to the point it is painful to use! I have added 8gb RAM and run a defrag. None of that has helped. I also just ran a cpu bench test with CPU-z and the scores seemed very low(284.8 single thread/843.5 multi). Can anyone help me figure out why it's running so slow??? Even as I type, the letters lag about a second from when I press the keys to when they appear on my screen. Below are my specs:
i5 8300H, 16 GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX 1050, 1TB hybrid HDD
 
rage4order said:
I have a dell GS5587 laptop that my wife bought new for me a few years ago. This thing has just gotten super slow to the point it is painful to use! I have added 8gb RAM and run a defrag. None of that has helped. I also just ran a cpu bench test with CPU-z and the scores seemed very low(284.8 single thread/843.5 multi). Can anyone help me figure out why it's running so slow??? Even as I type, the letters lag about a second from when I press the keys to when they appear on my screen. Below are my specs:
i5 8300H, 16 GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX 1050, 1TB hybrid HDD
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use task manager to watch the cpu speed and make sure its not stuck in low mode, ive had that happen before. also make sure the fan and exhaust ports are clean. and run a check of some sort on the drive to make sure its not going bad.
 
pendragon1 said:
use task manager to watch the cpu speed and make sure its not stuck in low mode, ive had that happen before. also make sure the fan and exhaust ports are clean. and run a check of some sort on the drive to make sure its not going bad.
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Ok, just ran cpu stress test with task manager open and while on battery my max cpu usage only goes to 34%, but when plugged in it does go to 100%. I've checked my power management settings and I have minimum set to 75% and max at 100%. What's strange is right now with nothing running, cpu speed shows 1.88 GHz, but when I start the stress test, the speed drops down to .87 GHz. Is there a reason it's only getting to 34% on battery power?
 
Last edited:
rage4order said:
Ok, just ran cpu stress test with task manager open and while on battery, my max cpu usage only goes to 34%, but when plugged in it does go to 100%. I've checked my power management settings and I have minimum set to 75% and max at 100%. Is there a reason it's only getting to 34% on battery power?
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what speed does it show on the performance tab, like below? is the dell power center thing on those units? that could do it or windows maybe switched power plans. check the "on battery" settings in you power plan. did windows or dell software do any updates lately?

1646588608113.png
 
pendragon1 said:
what speed does it show on the performance tab, like below? is the dell power center thing on those units? that could do it or windows maybe switched power plans. check the "on battery" settings in you power plan. did windows or dell software do any updates lately?

View attachment 451075
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Here's task manager with no load on cpu
Task mgr_no load.jpg

Here it is with stress test
Task mgr_stress.jpg

Running stress test with laptop plugged in
Task mgr_stress_plugged.jpg
 
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Def sounds like it's overheating. I had an old p4 dell inspiron 6700 iirc, which would throttle to almost nothing when it overheated. It had a gel pad between the cpu and heatspreader, but I think the paste over the nvidia gpu had dried up and the fan was dieing, which didn't help.
 
Nobu said:
Def sounds like it's overheating. I had an old p4 dell inspiron 6700 iirc, which would throttle to almost nothing when it overheated. It had a gel pad between the cpu and heatspreader, but I think the paste over the nvidia gpu had dried up and the fan was dieing, which didn't help.
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could be that but i figure youd see the same thing happen on a/c.
 
Oh, didn't see the second graph with it plugged in. Weird...

If changing the power plan settings doesn't help, it could be the battery has a dead cell or something, so it's struggling to supply enough voltage/power for a higher power state.
 
Nobu said:
If changing the power plan settings doesn't help, it could be the battery has a dead cell or something, so it's struggling to supply enough voltage/power for a higher power state.
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good call, didnt think of that.... like when you dont have the correct a/c they go into limp mode. the bios should have a battery health check.

edit: speaking of the bios, if that unit is fully uefi, dell might push bios updates via windows updates, it does on new towers. so he might want to check power setting in bios too, while testing the battery...
 
pendragon1 said:
yeah see its not boosting on battery, its stuck at 800, so theres a low power/battery mode or power plan being enabled somewhere. youll have to look at the dell software, if it has it, and at windows power plan options.

you should have "on battery" options in here:
View attachment 451091
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My minimum processor state is 75% and my max is 100%(on battery). This is why I can't understand why with no load it's running about 75% but then drops to 34% when stressing. I'll take a look at the bios also.
 
Erm it's running on spinning rust...

:eek:


Had to check this wasnt a post from 2004. C'mon guys...
 
pendragon1 said:
i did suggest testing it but that wouldnt cause the cpu to get stuck to 800mhz....
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Yeah but c'mon, don't bother even trying to work on a machine that's 'slow' whatever the cause with a HDD still in it. Just wasting your time. Bring it to 21st century spec first. Besides opening it up may well give all the clues needed...
 
daglesj said:
Yeah but c'mon, don't bother even trying to work on a machine that's 'slow' whatever the cause with a HDD still in it. Just wasting your time. Bring it to 21st century spec first. Besides opening it up may well give all the clues needed...
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its a hybrid, its usable and still wont make this situation happen.
 
pendragon1 said:
its a hybrid, its usable and still wont make this situation happen.
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Ahhh c'mon, a HDD has no right to be in any laptop even with a Optane kludge. Open up the machine, find all the cat hair and upgrade it. ;)
 
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