New Laptop Slow Internet - PC World

Giraffe23

HI,

I bought a new HP Pavillion 15 Notebook on the 3rd of June 2014 as I was starting college at the end of June. I turned it on quickly to put Microsoft Office on and then I didn't turn it on until the end of June at college but I could not connect to the internet, I got a DNS Error, I asked the IT department in college and they said that there must be something wrong as this shouldn't happen to a brand new laptop. It turned out to be an adapter issue and I fixed this. The internet has since been really slow on it. Actually it is slower than my 8 year old laptop that I was replacing. So I was really unhappy

My receipt was in my homeplace so it was the 8th of July by the time I could bring my laptop back. When I brought it back to PC World they told me I was too late to return it and that there was nothing wrong with it. The manager was very rude and as he surfed the web (slowly) he told me that this was normal speed! I heard that people will not wait over 2 seconds for a webpage to load and my brand new laptop takes 4 seconds for each page!!

I asked other people afterwards if they thought it was slow as I was worried I was being too fussy but they all agreed with me. To be honest after my experience in PC World I was going to leave this but I am just so disappointed and stressed because this is way too much money for me to waste.


Has anybody else had this experience? Do you have any advice for what I should do?

Thanks for any advice

mcw92

Did you trying running an Internet speed test?

Go to speedtest.com and see what speed you are getting.

Compare it to another device connected to the same WiFi.

Overheal

I heard that people will not wait over 2 seconds for a webpage to load and my brand new laptop takes 4 seconds for each page!!

thats really not all that obscene.

Giraffe23

Hi Overheal,

Maybe it is not obscene but I would not have expected that a brand new laptop with no cookies or plug ins etc. to already be slow. I am worried what will happen in 6 months.


Hi mcw92,

I ran the speed test, I was faster on the upload speed but slower on the download speed;

Upload: 26.41 Vs 19.03

Download: 20.72 Vs 22.76

What do you think?

ED E

Throughput is good on both of em, nothing that would slow browsing.

Latency figures normal on both (otherwise called ping, both should be within 10ms of each other).

Whats the spec of the new laptop?

mcw92

I'd assume its just the laptop spec then. As in just general slowness.
Might also be a lot of bloatware running.
Also which browser are you using, Internet Explorer? Chrome? Firefox?

TheChizler

Try changing your DNS settings to Google maybe, might just be your provider. For instance UPC's default DNS is pretty poor response wise.

8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Giraffe23

Hi

Thanks a million for the replies, it is great to have the help.


The spec of the laptop is:

AMD A8-4555M APU with Radeon (tm) HD Graphics 1.60 GHzs
RAM 8 GB, 7.19 usable
64-bit OS, x64-based processor

I hope that makes more sense to you than it does to me!!!

I am a Chrome user

Does the RAM answer the question about the bloatware? I had to google bloatware FYI

When I tried to change the DNS it disconnected from the internet all together. Actually to fix the DNS before I had to select automatically obtain DNS otherwise the internet wouldn't work.

What do you think did I just buy a dud?

ED E

20W ULV processor. Might be the issue. Shouldnt be that bad though.

Giraffe23

It gets worse.... I am working from a new location and it won't let me connect to the internet at all. It keeps saying that the network security key is not correct. It is the correct key. Before you say it, I have not inputted it incorrectly even once

I have connected my phone and my tablet to the connection no problem. There are other people using the connection also

I don't know what to do. I will Never buy anything from PC World again!

Does anybody know what I should do? Also is this normal for a new laptop?

RossieMan

Sounds like a WiFi card issue. Have you access to another one to test? A friend or family member perhaps?

Giraffe23

RossieMan wrote: »

Sounds like a WiFi card issue. Have you access to another one to test? A friend or family member perhaps?

Hi RossieMan,

Can you explain that to me more cos that sounds like a hardware problem? Not sure I could do that , I am a bit out of my depth here

TheChizler

Giraffe23 wrote: »

I don't know what to do. I will Never buy anything from PC World again!

Most likely this error has nothing to do with PC World. No retailer is immune to buying in product with possible manufacturing errors. If it is a manufacturing error they're obliged to do something about it but it doesn't necessarily sound like it to me.

How did you fix the initial adapter error?

RossieMan

Out of interest, have you tried updating your wireless driver?

Giraffe23

Hi TheChizler,

to fix the DNS before I had to select automatically obtain DNS otherwise the internet won't work at all.

I agree with you that PC World is not immune to buying product with faults but it is PC Worlds' responsibility to refund it or exchange it if it is not working. I have spent hours trying to fix what is a 7 week old laptop.

What other fault could it be if it is not a manufacturing fault?

Hi RossieMan,

I have not tried to update the wireless driver but I do update the laptop almost every day. So there are no updates that are queuing to be done. Would that make a difference?

TheChizler

If it point blank wasn't working I'd be all up for a refund, but you say it's slow, not broken. It's a very subjective term. Any brand name laptop (vaio etc) I've set up for people has been so filled up with bloatware that they've been slow right out of the box, so unfortunately slow could just be an unintended feature of a perfect machine.

Edit: you say you hadn't turned it on in months, is it possible it's downloading updates? Turn off windows update temporarily and try again.

Giraffe23

Hi again TheChizler,

The laptop is only 7 weeks old.

Today I cannot log it on to the internet, as it keeps saying the password is incorrect although it isn't. There are usually more people using the router so it has not been overloaded and if I connect to the router via cable it works.

I did a fix where I basically removed the password of the wifi network. but I will have to secure the network with a password later. So I am stuck as I cannot keep doing this fix as other people use the network.

PC World sent me an amazingly complicated fix that is way beyond my competency level. I still don't believe that this is normal for a 7 week old laptop.

From my research this could be an adapter issue- not a guru but have spent hours in the last 3 weeks on google trying to solve this

I did not turn on the laptop for the first 3 1/2 weeks and then I did 50 updates. I keep it updated daily so I think it should be fine.

Also if the laptop was not working that would make this less complicated as I am not an IT professional (nor is most of PC Worlds customers) and having to constantly try to fix and come up with work arounds for my new laptop is crazy and out of my comfort zone. I just want a laptop that works.

ED E

Few things for you to try OP. Record all of them as you do em for PC World in case they dont work.

1. Adapter
http://h22207.www2.hp.com/us-en/products/laptops/hp-pavilion-notebooks/
Go to here
Find your model
Go to drivers, wireless, find the latest wireless drive. Windows update is usually a few versions behind. Download the file and install. Reboot. Test performance.
2. Browsers
Try Chrome, Firefox and Opera. Make sure they all see the same issues.
3. DNS
https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm
Run this baby, record results and post back a screenshot.
4. AV Software
Disable any AV that might be running a "smart filter" and screwing load times.

Once youve gone through that and documented it theres no way PC world can claim its ok.

F7Z

He's a Chrome user. Everyone, please vacate the thread, the OP has answered his own question.

Uninstall the botnet that is Google Chrome, try a new browser and don't even report back with results because the issue will be miraculously fixed. You are welcome

TheChizler

F7Z wrote: »

He's a Chrome user. Everyone, please vacate the thread, the OP has answered his own question.

Uninstall the botnet that is Google Chrome, try a new browser and don't even report back with results because the issue will be miraculously fixed. You are welcome

Whatever about botnet theories and potential security issues, Chrome is at least on par or better than most other browsers in terms of speed. The OP is concerned about their computer being slow, not how accessible their computer is to someone who somehow manages to hack Google. Granted it would be wise to try a few different browsers, but uninstalling is overkill.

AlmightyCushion

On the network that you cannot connect to when using the wireless key, is it possible that it's asking you for the WPS pin instead. You could also be using the wrong encryption standard. That would explain why you can't connect even though you are sure the password is correct.