Trying to find out what to do with my laptop

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Droher

Droher

PCHF Member
Sep 6, 2022
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I'm trying to play lost ark on my hp 15-bs0xx and have been benchmarking a bit to see where the bottleneck is. is it the hdd cpu or memory? is it worth to upgrade to ssd and get some ram? or should I just invest into a new laptop (I already have a gaming desktop though so idk if its overkill)
The laptop itself is slow as a brick. For some reason the disk caps at 100 percent for the most minute task so I'm definetly going to do something. Just dont know what yet
 
Bruce said:
how old is the laptop?

let's get all its specs so we know what we are dealing with.

get Speccy from here; https://www.piriform.com/speccy/builds
in Speccy, click File > Publish Snapshot > Copy to Clipboard > Close.
now you can paste (Ctrl+V) that link into a post.
Click to expand...
I bought it in 2019 I think so it's already a little aged I guess.

getting speccy to run at all is already a pain. everything takes three or four times as long because of stuttering, long wait times and programs just straight up not responding.


thanks for the quick answer btw
 
you have a few options.

firstly, reload Windows again, from scratch.
the process may be all that is needed - a fresh, clean Windows.

but it may also expose a failing hard drive.
so for about $AUD80, why not reinstall Windows onto a new, faster drive.
killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.

you currently have 8GB of memory, so if budget permitting, you could get 8GB more.
but doubling the RAM won't produce double the speed or performance.
in fact, with a new SSD, I doubt you'll even detect any difference by getting more RAM.
but hey, budget allowing, it's worth a throw of the dice, you should see about 10-15% improvement.
more importantly, not so much improved speed, but you should notice no speed drops with the increased RAM.

Speccy shows your BIOS is 5 years old - see if there is a newer version.
also the HDD shows a G-Sense error, potentially indicating a knock in the past.

so - plenty of reasons to get the SSD upgrade, maybe more memory.
until then, you won't know what else, but really, anything else wouldn't be worth the expenditure in my books.
better to put the money towards a replacement. :)
 
Bruce said:
you have a few options.

firstly, reload Windows again, from scratch.
the process may be all that is needed - a fresh, clean Windows.

but it may also expose a failing hard drive.
so for about $AUD80, why not reinstall Windows onto a new, faster drive.
killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.

you currently have 8GB of memory, so if budget permitting, you could get 8GB more.
but doubling the RAM won't produce double the speed or performance.
in fact, with a new SSD, I doubt you'll even detect any difference by getting more RAM.
but hey, budget allowing, it's worth a throw of the dice, you should see about 10-15% improvement.
more importantly, not so much improved speed, but you should notice no speed drops with the increased RAM.

Speccy shows your BIOS is 5 years old - see if there is a newer version.
also the HDD shows a G-Sense error, potentially indicating a knock in the past.

so - plenty of reasons to get the SSD upgrade, maybe more memory.
until then, you won't know what else, but really, anything else wouldn't be worth the expenditure in my books.
better to put the money towards a replacement. :)
Click to expand...
Towards a laptop replacement or an ssd replacement? Hahaha
 
SSD first :)

because the SSD upgrade is fairly cheap and the reload of Windows is simple enough - I reckon that would be a worthwhile exercise in itself, if for no other benefit than to get the old gal back to a useful, speedy rig - maybe still won't be good enough for games but it could have many more years of service for other tasks.

if after that, and it still doesn't play the game, then it's the big decision of replacing the whole laptop.

I'd definitely recommend the SSD upgrade for starters.
 
Bruce said:
@Droher - any news?
Click to expand...
Yes! My laptop has a free m2 slot where I could fit a 480gb ssd into. I also added another 8 GB of ram and it runs smooth as hell. Unfortunately I guess my cpu and GPU are still not powerful enough to run games like lost ark since it kept stuttering or even full on freezing every few seconds or so. Other games like minecraft do run pretty okay though.
 
so the extra memory has helped as bit, asnd the OS and games loaded onto a new SSD will help even more.
have you checked the minimum requirements of Lost Ark and how your laptop compares to those?
 
that good, it should mean that a clean install of Windows may be all you need.
and since that's being done, why not do it to a new faster drive!

a quick and nasty trick may be to give the laptop a complete cleanup as follows.
  • chkdsk c: /r
  • sfc /scannow
  • dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
  • dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup /resetbase
after those, try these;
• reboot modem/router
• delete restore points
• turn off hibernation
• empty web browser cache
• delete system temp files
• disable unwanted scheduled tasks
• disable unnecessary startup services
• disable scheduled defragging
• turn off Timeline and Activity History, and all things Microsoft Telemetry based
• empty recycle bin
• delete log files and error reports
• remove old Windows Updates files
• cleanup software installer and distribution caches
• delete unwanted programs
• remove any browser extensions
• if connecting via wireless, try ethernet
• pause any online cloud storage synchronising (OneDrive, DropBox)

CCleaner or Glary Disk Cleaner or the inbuilt cleanmgr command can do most of those points.
ShutUp10 by O&O Software can stop a lot of telemetry items.
 
Bruce said:
that good, it should mean that a clean install of Windows may be all you need.
and since that's being done, why not do it to a new faster drive!

a quick and nasty trick may be to give the laptop a complete cleanup as follows.
  • chkdsk c: /r
  • sfc /scannow
  • dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
  • dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup /resetbase
after those, try these;
• reboot modem/router
• delete restore points
• turn off hibernation
• empty web browser cache
• delete system temp files
• disable unwanted scheduled tasks
• disable unnecessary startup services
• disable scheduled defragging
• turn off Timeline and Activity History, and all things Microsoft Telemetry based
• empty recycle bin
• delete log files and error reports
• remove old Windows Updates files
• cleanup software installer and distribution caches
• delete unwanted programs
• remove any browser extensions
• if connecting via wireless, try ethernet
• pause any online cloud storage synchronising (OneDrive, DropBox)

CCleaner or Glary Disk Cleaner or the inbuilt cleanmgr command can do most of those points.
ShutUp10 by O&O Software can stop a lot of telemetry items.
Click to expand...
actually oddly enough, after the change and re-checking in the systemrequirementslab site, it doesnt say i can run the game anymore. and even more strangely it shows that I dont have the appropriate gpu or the appropriate cpu. but not the two at the same time.
Like this:
Untitled.png
 
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