This one has stumped IT at work. My laptop is super slow and laggy when it is not plugged in. If I type a sentence in Word or Outlook, I can complete the sentence before it appears on screen. Opening an email will take 5-10 seconds. Websites load at dialup speed. As soon as I plug it in, everything works exactly right. It isn't all the time it is unplugged, but it is pretty often.
What in the world could be causing this?
Usually a power setting slows things down when set to "best battery life", but I don't think it should be that slow. Try changing it anyway.
j_tso said:Usually a power setting slows things down when set to "best battery life", but I don't think it should be that slow. Try changing it anyway.
It is set to "Balanced", but I can't change it - admin has that locked down.
Sounds like your IT is not quite up to speed if they don't understand power settings.
Also the chipset manufacturers can sometimes provide their own utilities that need to be installed in order to properly control power management, this can be left out of IT built OS Images because they are meant to be generic and uniform.
A quick check on the manufacturer's website for software downloads on your specific model should show you whether there might be missing utilities or perhaps BIOS updates that could correct this issue.
I'm not sure that's a power management issue, as that's WAY TOO SLOW to be deliberate.
Have you checked task manager to see if something is using up lots of resources when you're experiencing the problem?
If you can get into the BIOS, see if there is a power management option that will allow you to select how the computer reacts to being on battery - if so, select Performance. Your system may also have CPU throttling, which slows down the CPU to save power. If it does, disable it.
Unfortunately, if your admin has locked your system down, you may not be able to access the BIOS. In that case, contact the admin, get them to fix it, or have them replace the system as being unusable.
CJ (FS) said:In that case, contact the admin, get them to fix it, or have them replace the system as being unusable.
If it's a company laptop, then this is the answer.
Are you by any chance connecting to Ethernet when you're plugging in and using WiFi when unplugged? Just wondering if you're chasing the wrong cause.
APEowner said:Are you by any chance connecting to Ethernet when you're plugging in and using WiFi when unplugged? Just wondering if you're chasing the wrong cause.
Nope, wifi the entire time.
BIOS was updated a while back when I first started experiencing this. I've tried tracking on task manager, to no avail. Just seems weird.
BoxheadTim said:CJ (FS) said:In that case, contact the admin, get them to fix it, or have them replace the system as being unusable.
If it's a company laptop, then this is the answer.
So glad due to the nature of my job, our laptops aren't locked by admin protocols.
If local IT is stumped, couldnt you present them with these possible solutions and let them just enter the magic words?
Yoy didn't mention it explicitly but it sounds like it wasn't always this way. I am less inclined to blame the BIOS or power settings then.
Were I them, Id ensure it happens on another profile first. If so, I'd swap in a fresh hard drive and no driver updates yet and see if that eliminates the issue. If so, driver updates one at a time, test after each one. If still no issues, just use preferred method to xfer your files over and if you have unique programs, install one at a time.
But really, if an end user is asking about possible fixes on a car forum, it's gone on too long and you should have gotten a new image or new machine :P
P3PPY said:If local IT is stumped, couldnt you present them with these possible solutions and let them just enter the magic words?
Yoy didn't mention it explicitly but it sounds like it wasn't always this way. I am less inclined to blame the BIOS or power settings then.
Were I them, Id ensure it happens on another profile first. If so, I'd swap in a fresh hard drive and no driver updates yet and see if that eliminates the issue. If so, driver updates one at a time, test after each one. If still no issues, just use preferred method to xfer your files over and if you have unique programs, install one at a time.
But really, if an end user is asking about possible fixes on a car forum, it's gone on too long and you should have gotten a new image or new machine :P
It is one of those situations where, had I been in the office at any point in the past year, it would have been fixed. But to get it fixed in the current remote environment, I'd have to drive 45 minutes to drop it off, and it has been easier to just plug it in (I happen to have 4 power cords for it, so I have one anywhere I may use it). And it isn't all the time. Just seems like an odd set of symptoms.
I'm coming up for a replacement soon - this one is 3 years old - so the problem will go away then.
In reply to mtn :
Ahh, so you're left here trying to get some resolution with no admin creds, huh?
Try pulling the battery and running it. Any difference? What about safe mode? I understand intermittent, so safe mode would be annoying to try very long. You can always run selective startup - I'm not sure how locked down you are. Also when you run Task Manager are you able to see processes from all users or just your own?
Again, without magic words this would be perhaps impossible to do the right way, but maybe someone else here could come up with a way to force creation of a temporary profile to try your luck there?
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