Laptop CPU maxed out - what options

Clo-Clo

So I picked up a cheap Lenovo laptop second hand, mainly to use for transfering files etc and for the kids for school work

The laptop and screen are perfect, but the CPU is constantly at 100%. I have removed all the bloatware etc but still seems to be constantly maxed out even with just the a brwpser open. Turned off all the fancy graphics and shut down all the apps which open on boot. No better. A refresh was done first thing to see if it would help

Spec is below, am I flogging a dead horse on this and need to move off windows or any idea?

Lenovo 330-15AST

AMD A9-9425 RADEON R5, 5 COMPUTE CORES 2C+3G   3.10 GHz

8GB memory

Samsung CM871 128GB SSD SATA III

Window 10

Spear

What process is eating the CPU time according to task manager?

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121778008#Comment_121778008

At the moment

Chrome: 35%

Task Manager: 10%

Pointing Device: 10%

Antimalware: 5%

Desktop 3%

System Interrupts: 5%

Then loads of random stuff

Spear

When it's acting slowly, in task manager, checker under performance and choose the hard drive. I'd be more inclined to suspect that low RAM and older slower drive are more of the bottleneck than the CPU.

harmless

The easiest thing to do might be just reinstall windows 10. This will remove bloat from the previous owner.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121778141#Comment_121778141

I done a reinstall first time to get rid of everything and still running bad

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121778141#Comment_121778141

With 8GB of memory I thought it would be ok, I do think the quality of the SSD might be suspect

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121778253#Comment_121778253

8GB is pretty bare bones. Chrome loves RAM, so I suspect it's eating all the RAM then swapping out to the slower drive. The drive quality is okay, I tend towards Samsung drives myself, I have 6 of them in the machine I'm typing this on. But you have older SATA style ones, which are much slower than the modern m.2/nvme ones.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121778276#Comment_121778276

Task Manager doesn't seem to be hitting the memory.

I was wondering would it be worth looking at Chrome OS which should* run better on the system, in a limited capacity compared to windos...as mostly for browsing and editing documents it should suffice

smuggler.ie

Does device heat up? Being second hand could be clogged preventing proper ventilation. Dismantling tutorial

SSD replacement - for test purposes should you wish to try

As you will see, only single RAM slot , single channel and 8GB is MAX supported by chip

CPU bench , not impressive, specs from AMD

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121778950#Comment_121778950

It cost 30 euro :-)

TO be fair to the guy the laptop is clean and I it's not overheating. I think the proc is just a bit crap.

I was going to stick on Chrome OS which should* run better on it. I have fired on linux on laptops before so Chrome might be worth a try

Then maybe pick up something like this just to keep for kids for Windows based work

Would love buying something new and fantastic but don't have the money

https://www.refurbed.ie/p/hp-prodesk-400-g3-6-gen/27103b/

Flinty997

It's 7yr old entry level 2 core CPU.

All I can find online is people complaining how slow it is. Even when new.

I also found people struggling to get Chrome OS or Linux on to it. It's doesn't seem well supported.

I don't think it will fix the issue that modern websites with all their fancy coding need a bit of power to use then. They aren't html anymore.

I've laptops with 8gb of ram not causing any issue for me. Only need more when gaming or video editing, or development work.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121779098#Comment_121779098

I was thinking when buying with the AMD it was not goign to be any super rocket :-)

But going to back up Windows and try Chrome, I have run Linux on older laptops and it ran perfectly fine so it does depend on what version of linux you run on it....

I was just surprised as I expected Win10 was shipped on it and it seems incapable of running it

wandererz

Perhaps try Tiny10.

https://beebom.com/what-is-tiny10-lightweight-windows-10-how-to-install/

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121779158#Comment_121779158

Tried that before on a really old laptop, it was a bit of a nightmare and didn't seem to run anything so might try it again if Chrome doesn't run.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121779121#Comment_121779121

I think its a common issue with netbooks and atoms and celeron class CPUs. You have to be careful to check what is cheap Vs bad.

If you were buying something for Chrome OS or Linux I'd buy something very generic rather one of the lesser known AMD apus where driver support on Chrome OS or Linux is going to be a factor.

DopeTech

Worth running this on your laptop to see if it helps at all. It will bring the resource uses down a bit anyway.

https://christitus.com/debloat-windows-10/

Flinty997

I find modern browsing requires a decent bit of power.

A used M1 MacBook air if you can find one cheap is actually really good Chromebook, Netbook alternative.

The Windows and Chrome book alternatives seem overpriced in comparison. If you are OS agnostic.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121779002#Comment_121779002

€30 your not going to get much for that.

Maybe a surface go might be useable for least amount of money.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121779309#Comment_121779309

I use a MacBook myself on my primary latptop, wanted a windows for the kids for the simple reason they seem stuck on windows in all schools

I have managed to convert the other half who now won’t use windows and MacOS only 😂

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121779309#Comment_121779309

Even if it crashes and burn I could probably sell the parts for more than 30 quid or if I can get it working with Linux and someone wants it I could donate to a charity so it’s not a major dent in pocket and gives me something to mess around with for a few weeks 🤣

10-10-20

The CPU might have broken away from the thermal compound used to bond it to the heaksink. It causes spikes like that when it goes into a thermal-throttle. You might see the CPU max speed dropping and rising if that's the case.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121779403#Comment_121779403

The schools use Office365 and usually lock it down so its web apps only. Usually a ring fenced cloud space. Even on a Windows laptop.

Yeah you've nothing to lose basically.

Flinty997

That CPU benches slower than mid level core2 duo.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121779463#Comment_121779463

I won't be doing any crypto currency mining anytime soon for certain

You’ll just have to think of it as a collectible 🤣

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121780421#Comment_121780421

I like to resurrect old things so hopefully I can do something with it

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121779293#Comment_121779293

Checked this out today, fantastic piece of software. I ended up getting an ISO and creating a cut down version using the tools provided.

Its made it a lot faster

Still if I can get Chrome working, failed so far, I think it will be a better solution

deirdremf

If the chrome browser is using so much CPU time, would you consider removing it and installing a smaller browser?

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121782614#Comment_121782614

Oh I think I will move it on

Like the look of chrome Fle so might just buy something to run that for the moment

Homelander

That CPU was considered bottom of the barrel in around 2017 but it's based on tech even older than that, and at that point in time AMD made absolutely awful mobile processors.

You'd probably find laptops much older than that that perform 3x as fast. My parents have a 4th gen i5 laptop from around 2013 and it's grand for web browsing and it's only dual core as well.

For €30 that's fair enough but it'll never be useful for anything at this point really, unless you try Linux or a super lightweight browser.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121797212#Comment_121797212

The original owner paid nearly 600 for It in 2019 🤦‍♂️