RootsChat.Com
General => Technical Help => Topic started by: silvery on Tuesday 14 February 17 15:45 GMT (UK)
-
Just got a lenovo all-in-one as my old laptop is slowing down and certain keys have stopped working.
This new one is fine at times but is often slow and sluggish loading. The blue circle goes round and round ......and round. Evntually it might slowly load, or it might time out.
Sometimes the pages load incompletely or without photos (eg newspapers) or it looks as thought it's loaded a site but features are missing.
It's driving me mad at times.
I wonder whether to send it back, or would it be better with a faster broadband connection? Can anyone say?
The old laptop, win 7, can be a bit slow but doesn't seem as bad. It's just that it's past its prime being 8 years old.
Details - Intel celeron CPU j3160, 4gb ram, 64 bit x 64 processor , running windows 10 home - if that all helps.
-
Quick link to check out your internet speed, just click onto the green arrow.
http://www.speedtest.net/
Certainly currently a low spec machine, mind you if all you do is just surf the net should be o'k.
Brian
-
Did that speed test
Down 6.83 Mbps Up .82 Mbps
Is win10 more demanding than win7 ?
-
that speed is abyssmal .... no wonder its slow to populate pages !
Can you do the same on the old PC ?
-
Currently I would say yes,bare in mind if a recent purchase there are loads of updates to do!
Brian
I was going to say the same, good old BT wet string!
-
Bookmarking out of interest
Frank.
-
It just decided to flake out again, taken over two mins to get back to here, and wouldn't load the test again. Will try old laptop.
Theyre both driving me mad now. Laptop has a problem with flash. aaaaargh. One result for it even worse
Laptop down 4.45 Mbps Up .46 Mbps
Can't seem to get a better test, or a test at all on laptop.
Would fibre broadband help?
-
Fibre depending on how much you can afford, is light speed compared with a wired connection.
Using broadband myself here, 200Mb down and 20Mb up via Virgin.
BT do a fibre system called Infinity with different speed levels, cost wise sorry no idea.
Brian
-
Including Line Rental of £18.99, Infinity 1 is circa £40-44 pm .... I'm on Infinity 2 with a £4 discount and its almost £50 pm for 76Mb down & 18 up
-
You're very helpful, much appreciated. So ....... just ordered fibre from Bt, got a good deal. Will be on next week.
Would that make new lenovo much better do you think?
-
Including Line Rental of £18.99, Infinity 1 is circa £40-44 pm .... I'm on Infinity 2 with a £4 discount and its almost £50 pm for 76Mb down & 18 up
Well, I've ordered infinity, but will this lenoveo work better when it arrives next week? Otherwise I'll return it. I don't watch films, play games etc and there's only me on the pc.
-
it should do !
How quick is it just booting up ?
4 Gig of RAM will be fine for your described useage, so unless theres summat odd internally with WIN10 or your Browser, you should see a marked improvement.
Dont let BT mess you about !
-
BT have been ok. I've got a deal cheaper than I had. Can't wait for it. This pc is brand new. Seems to be ok booting up.
Thanks for help. Willl update next week when I'm switched on with the new router, and the new fibre/infinity broadband.
-
Before you go out on a spending spree can you check your internet speed about breakfast time in the morning, bare in mind school holidays and most will be using which causes congestion!
Brian
-
that speed is abyssmal .... no wonder its slow to populate pages !
Can you do the same on the old PC ?
6.8 Meg may be abysmal but is twice what we get out here in the sticks >:( You really shouldn't notice much delay in loading pages at that speed unless there are lots of large photos or video.
I find 3Mb quite adequate for normal use although it can be a bit frustrating watching the iPlayer, etc. Windows 10 can be greedy for resources but I turn off as many as possible of the 'features' that run in the background and slow things down. Also Windows 10 updates seem to completely take over the system for the duration, so you just have to admit defeat and find something else to do for a while.
Mike.
-
But I am noticing large delays in websites loading. That's the problem. And the pic in the newspapers are loading even later than the print. And they shouldn't be a problem.
-
Out of interest I just tried a few websites. The slowest was the BBC which took less than 5 seconds to fully load at 3Mb with at least 2 other devices also on the same connection. RC pages take around 2 secs to load . . . so 6.8Mb shold be twice as fast as that :-\
Mike.
P.S. Just tried FindMyPast and found census images took around 4 secs, at 3Mb as above.
-
So ........ is it the pc. mmmmh
-
If Windows is doing updates it can slow things down like that. If you go to Settings and then Update & Security it will show the update status. Screen image attached . . .
-
Another thing to check is whether the tiles on the desktop are 'live', if so you can right click on them and switch them off - especially the news & weather tiles.
If they are live they are updating in the background ALL the time, which can reduce your computers speed to a crawl.
MJL
-
Ok. I haven't got any tiles on the desktop. ??? How do I switch these things off?
update - I think I've found out how to switch them off.
-
Left click the Windows icon at the bottom left of the screen and the start menu & tiles appear.
Right click on a tile, select 'More' & left click on 'Turn live tile off'.
You can always turn them on again with the same actions.
MJL
-
Left click the Windows icon at the bottom left of the screen and the start menu & tiles appear.
Right click on a tile, select 'More' & left click on 'Turn live tile off'.
You can always turn them on again with the same actions.
MJL
Thanks.
-
just to add my twopenny worth
At xmas I ordered a Lenovo and suffered many of the problems that you describe (plus a few more) and I returned it just over one week later. I replaced it with a HP laptop and everything has been fine - running same internet speeds etc. Much happier with the new one.
-
Update.
Just hooked up the Lenovo again. Got the new optic fibre broadband Monday, so should have settled down (as BT says it needs to ).
Did the speed test again and results are 52.38 up and 9.56 down, so a big massive improvement.
Going to keep an eye on it for a couple of days. I like the all-in-one setup of the Lenovo.
The laptop hasn't moved from the desk for years, and the ipad mini is the one that moves about these days.
-
A friend got her son a Lenovo for Christmas and I had the pleasure of setting it up for them.
A couple of issues to think about:
1) If you don't move the laptop about the house much (i.e. you normally work at a desk) is it feasible to connect to the internet using a cable rather than wifi? It obviously depends where the internet router is in relation to your desk though. One other option is to use plug-in adaptors which use the mains wiring in the house to transmit the internet connection direct to your PC.
Wifi is great if you move around a lot or the device doesn't have an network adaptor built in, but physical cable links are almost always faster than sending your data through thin air!
2) Windows 10 itself is fairly demanding on your internet connection, regardless of what you are trying to do yourself. Updates and live tiles have already been mentioned, but if you know what you are doing or are willing to find out, it is possible to identify and deal with many other sources of loading on your network connection. One of the early issues people raised about Windows 10 was that as well as your device having to update itself, MS had arranged things so that user's devices could also be the source of update files for other users. So in theory your neighbour's Windows 10 could be updating itself using files from your laptop, not the MS website. Obviously on a slow internet connection this could be a problem - and luckily there was an option (again if you go looking for it) to stop Microsoft from using your device as a 'free' fileserver :)
One other tip - if you don't already have a 'btinternet' email address (provided 'free' with BT Infinity) you should think twice before switching your current email address to a BT one. If you ever leave BT they charge a fee, currently £5 per month, to keep your old email address going. :'( :-[ >:(