Windows 7 lag when unplugged

Four of a kind

I've a 2 month old laptop which runs on win 7 x64 bit

I've noticed that once it's unplugged and the power gets to about 50% on battery that things start to lag up.

This is very noticeable on things like gmail and facebook.

I've tried to change the power plan to "high performance" and even create a power plan of my own to see if that would change things, but it hasn't.

Are of ye know what else I can do?

There's like 16GB of RAM in this thing so I know it can't be a RAM issue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

Torqay

Is it running some 3rd party power-saving gadget? Many laptop manufacturers install their own power management software.

Four of a kind

Torqay wrote: »

Is it running some 3rd party power-saving gadget? Many laptop manufacturers install their own power management software.

This is an unbranded laptop. Got it from pcspecialist.co.uk. It's the 15.6" ultrabook(you recommended to me as well)

Super laptop for sure.

How can I see if there's a 3rd party power saving program running?

cheers.

Torqay

Four of a kind wrote: »

How can I see if there's a 3rd party power saving program running?

Msconfig or Autoruns.

Or check the BIOS for power management settings.

Capt'n Midnight

get cpuz or intel utility that shows the realtime cpu speed

that way you can see if it's the CPU slowing down or something else

if something else then sysinternals procmon is handy

Overheal

could also simply and sadly be defective caps or something.

Capt'n Midnight

Overheal wrote: »

could also simply and sadly be defective caps or something.

For a second I was going to ask

but then again defective caps can cause weird stuff , only thing I'd say is that it would be unusual on a 2 month old laptop, on a 5 year old desktop I'd say pop the hood and have a look

Loved the BIOS "fix" that just underclocked the system anytime it got remotely close to overheating - a software fix for a hardware problem

Torqay

To investigate the issue, you might also run CPU-Z and see if the processor is being throttled when the lagging occurs.

As for defective caps, I can't see how since it only happens while running on battery but not on the charger.

Four of a kind

Just so as to be clear, it only lags when on battery, not when it's plugged in.

I've CPU-Z installed and running. The core speed is reading 1596 MHz and it's on battery now.

I can only see lagging while in gmail presently. However, once I plug in the laptop the lagging disappears.

I thought it might have been a gamil issue at the start but its not.

I've no idea how to get techy with the laptop, so any tips would be very useful guys.

Cheers.

Torqay

speed goes up when plugged into the mains?

Which pocessor did you order? Core i5? Or Core i7 QM?

Overheal

Torqay wrote: »

As for defective caps, I can't see how since it only happens while running on battery but not on the charger.

Just one thought. My old man bought a desktop the other year that after a week took hours to load to desktop. I traced the problem to the motherboard model - the wholesale vendor had configured the desktop with motherboards it must have had in overstock given they were part of an Intel recall for poorly designed southbridges or something to that effect. I had him promptly return it.

Whatever the OPs problem actually is it doesn't sound related to a software issue, or desirable. Easy enough to argue the machine is defective and get a warranty replacement or repair

Four of a kind

Torqay wrote: »

speed goes up when plugged into the mains?

Which pocessor did you order? Core i5? Or Core i7 QM?

i7- 3632QM 2.20 GHz

Yeah, the speed returns to normal when i plug it back into mains.

But the lag is only noticeable on gmail and facebook when its unplugged and has about 50% of the batter left.

I'm typing away here in this with zero issues with 14% battery left, but once I switch over to gmail and facebook even scrolling or typing is full of lag?

Overheal

have you checked for updates to or tried reinstalling java and/or flash? Or using alternative web browsers? This might sound cringeworthy to most, but try the websites using IE10 with hardware acceleration enabled.

Torqay

Gmail offers a basic HTML view. Reducing the number of conversation per page helps too.

Still, a quadcore i7 processor w 16 GB RAM shouldn't be challenged with Gmail in regular view, even in power save mode.

Four of a kind

Ok, I did a little testing using IE

So the problem actually seems to be chrome browser, as there's zero lag on IE on either gmail or facebook when I unplug!!!

Battery is currently on 95% and the moment I unplug, it lags on gmail and facebook, but this doens't happen on IE!!

I honestly can't use IE as it's just a nighmare, plus I've got everything sorted on chrome.

Is there any way now that I can fix this lag on chrome when unplugged?

At least I found the problem. I thought there might have been an issue with the laptop. But it appears there isn't thankfully!

Thanks.

Torqay

Try SRWare Iron, use the portable version for testing if you want. It's based on the same code as Google Chrome (sans the privacy issues).

Overheal

IE has forgivable usability honestly but no its not my weapon of choice

28064212

Sounds like it might be related to hardware acceleration. Chrome => Settings => Show Advanced Settings... => Uncheck "Use hardware acceleration when available", see if that makes a difference

Four of a kind

28064212 wrote: »

Sounds like it might be related to hardware acceleration. Chrome => Settings => Show Advanced Settings... => Uncheck "Use hardware acceleration when available", see if that makes a difference

No difference at all with this!

It's really driving me ****ing bananas. It only causes gmail, facebook and youtube videos to lag when it's unplugged.

Don't know what to do. I don't like having the laptop charging all the time, but the lag really is so irritating.

As a last ditched effort before I start thinking of bringing it into a computer shop here in Thailand, is there anyone else that can offer some information as to how to get rid of the lag?

I'm not very technical when it comes to these things, so any help would be appreciated.

Trying to communicate the problem here in Thailand may be an issue

Four of a kind

Any other ideas guys?

Torqay

You never reported back if the problem persists with SRWare Iron. Since all is well in IE, it's all pointing to your Google Chrome installation.

Four of a kind

Torqay wrote: »

You never reported back if the problem persists with SRWare Iron. Since all is well in IE, it's all pointing to your Google Chrome installation.

Should I reinstall chrome then dude?

Torqay

Did you test it with the portable version of Iron?

Four of a kind

Torqay wrote: »

Did you test it with the portable version of Iron?

Is that a different browser or something? I'll try it when on laptop later and report back.

Cheers

Torqay

It is and then it is not. See post #16 in this thread. The "portable" vesrion does not require an installation, just unzip and run. Test gmail and youtube and whatever else you're experience the lags with.

Four of a kind

Torqay wrote: »

It is and then it is not. See post #16 in this thread. The "portable" vesrion does not require an installation, just unzip and run. Test gmail and youtube and whatever else you're experience the lags with.

I tested it like you said using the portable version and there's no lag on that when unplugged.

So it's obviously chrome itself then isn't it?

Should I reinstall chrome or what do you think?

Thanks for the help so far.

Torqay

Four of a kind wrote: »

I tested it like you said using the portable version and there's no lag on that when unplugged.

So it's obviously chrome itself then isn't it?

Should I reinstall chrome or what do you think?

Either that or get rid of Chrome altogether and install Iron instead.

Four of a kind

Torqay wrote: »

Either that or get rid of Chrome altogether and install Iron instead.

But I've all my stuff synced with chrome etc. Surely there has to be a solution. I can't be the only one who's experiencing this issue with chrome.

Nowso

Maybe it could be related to some chrome extension you have installed ??

Four of a kind

Nowso wrote: »

Maybe it could be related to some chrome extension you have installed ??

Could well be! Never thought about that. Only way is to go and deactivate each one and see.

Four of a kind

Nowso wrote: »

Maybe it could be related to some chrome extension you have installed ??

Thanks! This fixed it!.

I disable a few extensions that I wasn't using and immediately the problem was solved.

Back to normal now on all scores.

Thanks guys for the help.