I swear... this new laptop is going to drive me nuts.

Admittedly, it's a cheap ($250) HP laptop, but still... I expect better from HP. I bought it because my current machine is about 6-7 years old, and I figure it's going to drop sometime soon. I wanted a nice laptop like the one work issued me, until I found out that one was $1800.

Buy once, cry once, I know. But I just couldn't afford to do that right now. So I bought this cheapie.

And I kinda regret it. It's SLOW! I believe it's slower than my old machine. Example: I'm typing in this box right now and letters are showing up a couple of seconds later. Example: I press the up or down arrow keys to scroll a web page and it finally moves... a few seconds later.

GRRR!

Sorry man, if I was strapped for $$$ I'd still go to Best Buy (hate them) and get $1500 credit to buy a MacBook / MBP and pay it off monthly.

You know, Rhino, that's awfully tempting. I worked on a friend's MacBook Pro last week. The more time I spent with it, the more I liked it.

Hit control,alt,delete and see if your system memmory is pegged at 100 percent. Windows 10 and HP are having a serious issue together. I tried three different ones before I gave up and returned the last one for a Lenovo laptop. So far that is working great. There are lots of complaints online with no definitive fix.

When you got it home and set it up, did you take a few minutes to get rid of the bloatware?

Hell, the first thing I usually do with a new retail PC is a clean reinstall of the OS.

-Rob

I have always recommended AGAINST HP PCs and laptops. There are seemingly lots of features there for the $$$, but I find them to be so loaded down with HP’s shoddy versions of “support” and “update” software that they are problematic at best. The hardware seems second or third rate as well.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
You know, Rhino, that's awfully tempting. I worked on a friend's MacBook Pro last week. The more time I spent with it, the more I liked it.

I know nothing about MacBooks, but the Best Buy thing, more times than not they are running a promotion to get you to sign up for their card. Usually 18-24 mo 0% financing and some kind of cash back/store credit promo.

I bought my TV this way.

Just remember it's just like Home Depot or any other store card, pay that debt one day late and all interest charges during the differed period are due.

I love having use of free money. I just bought an engagement ring with a CC, got 3% in credit at Amazon.com, then transferred it to a CapOne card with 0% for 18 months with 2% balance transfer fee. Got paid 1% to borrow money at zero percent.

quote:

Originally posted by hudr:
I have always recommended AGAINST HP PCs and laptops. There are seemingly lots of features there for the $$$, but I find them to be so loaded down with HP’s shoddy versions of “support” and “update” software that they are problematic at best. The hardware seems second or third rate as well.

I have a 1 yr old HP Envy x360 that I'm very happy with. It's fast, versatile and the battery life is very ample. Admittedly it is a $700 unit but has been well worth the cost.

Jim

You should figure out what's wrong with your computer. That is abnormal behavior.

If the browser window is struggling to respond, that means there is other software running in the background that is using up all of the computers available resources.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
You know, Rhino, that's awfully tempting. I worked on a friend's MacBook Pro last week. The more time I spent with it, the more I liked it.

I know nothing about MacBooks, but the Best Buy thing, more times than not they are running a promotion to get you to sign up for their card. Usually 18-24 mo 0% financing and some kind of cash back/store credit promo.

I bought my TV this way.

Just remember it's just like Home Depot or any other store card, pay that debt one day late and all interest charges during the differed period are due.

I love having use of free money. I just bought an engagement ring with a CC, got 3% in credit at Amazon.com, then transferred it to a CapOne card with 0% for 18 months with 2% balance transfer fee. Got paid 1% to borrow money at zero percent.

+1, great deals for financially responsible people - I just set up an auto payment (usually over 12 months max) to pay it down well before the promo period.

Like you, I did it for a TV years back and a MBP 3 years ago.

quote:

Admittedly, it's a cheap ($250) HP laptop, but still... I expect better from HP.

You are blaming HP for this?

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:
When you got it home and set it up, did you take a few minutes to get rid of the bloatware?

Hell, the first thing I usually do with a new retail PC is a clean reinstall of the OS.

-Rob

Agree.
Even without a clean re-installation, get rid of the bloatware.
Probably the biggest offender in my past experience was (is) Norton AntiVirus software running in the background.
This alone could bring a lower spec version laptop to it's knees by hogging memory and CPU cycles.

What are the specs on it as far as CPU and RAM? In my experience you should not expect very good performance from a $250 bottom end laptop and part of the reason for the low price will be all the bloatware installed on it as HP gets kickbacks for such. Other reasons will be low end CPU, low end chipset (including video), and slow hard drive.

Plenty of reasonably priced laptops with Intel Core i4 CPU and minimum 8GB of RAM that will perform very well.

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:
When you got it home and set it up, did you take a few minutes to get rid of the bloatware?

I got rid of what was obvious, yes.

quote:

Originally posted by hudr:
I have always recommended AGAINST HP PCs and laptops.

Understood. I got this one because I’ve had such good service from my last one.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

quote:

Admittedly, it's a cheap ($250) HP laptop, but still... I expect better from HP.

You are blaming HP for this?

To some extent, yes. I don’t see a speed knob here that I might have accidentally turned downward. Remember, I did admit that I bought a cheapie, and knew I shouldn’t expect much. However, I feel it should be far quicker than my old one. It’s not.

quote:

Originally posted by grumpy1:
What are the specs on it as far as CPU and RAM?

This glorious beast sports an AMD A6-7310 APU (with AMD Radeon R4 Graphics, to boot!) at 2.00 GHz, with 4GB RAM.

Drifting my own thread a bit: I stewed on Rhinowso's MacBook suggestion a for a while today. Aside from purchase price (back to buy once, cry once, I know), I guess my only questions will be whether it would run software I already have and use. Office is no biggie... I can get a good deal on a new copy through work. Quicken has gone to an annual-subscription model -- I'm not happy with that, but previous versions are available on eBay. My old PaintShop Pro probably won't run on it, I'd have to get a new copy of Acrobat (or something similar), and some of the machine-specific software for actual work (PLCs and HMIs)probably aren't Mac-friendly.

What about the tons of files I have on external hard drives or jump drives? Could I pick up the external drive that holds my iTunes library and expect it to carry on without issue?

Back on topic: it looks like rduckwor may be having some of the same symptoms. (Linky)
I do use Firefox. (Though I'm working from the "old" PC right now, and it's clicking along nicely.)

Nothing wrong with a new Mac but dang are they expensive. I used to have a client in Chicago before I retired and they payed close to $2000 for new Macs and four years later they would sell to employees for $350 for the ones that were still functional. I usually agree with the buy once cry once (firearms, power tools, etc) but not in this case.

There are really nice Lenovo refurbs for next to nothing like this Lenovo T430 on Amazon. The T series is one of their robust business class line and they can take a beating.

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-...300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

quote:

Admittedly, it's a cheap ($250) HP laptop, but still... I expect better from HP.

You are blaming HP for this?

To some extent, yes. I don’t see a speed knob here that I might have accidentally turned downward.
Remember, I did admit that I bought a cheapie, and knew I shouldn’t expect much .
However, I feel it should be far quicker than my old one. It’s not.

You know grasshopper there is so much I could teach you.

Lesson One: look at what's inside the computer not the name on the box.
Lesson Two: You get what you paid for.

Indeed, sir.

I'm not really sure what was happening, but for the last two days this PC has been much more like what I expected.

(I'm still thinking this machine will be somewhat temporary....)

What type of Internet Security/Virus program do you have - some are known resource hogs.

Put cCleaner (free) on it and see what you have that loads up at start up. I get rid of most everything in there. Do a clean and reg scan.

Use Revo Uninstaller (free) and get rid of any other programs/bloatware you don't need.

Skip the above - Reload the operating system to start fresh and don't load any crap you don't use.

Only accept windows required updates, no optional crap.

Had an HP with the AMD processor and it would not upgrade to WIN 10. Not even the "experts" at Micro Center could get it to upgrade.

Not even a nuke and pave clean install.

It is stuck with 8, so I bought Tabitha a Lenovo with an i3 and Win7 pre-installed and she has been happy since. Her iMac has an i5 in it and just plain works perfect. I never have to touch it.

Gave the HP to my brother to run the telescope with.

I used to be a big PC fan. Built several of my own and was obsessed with GHZ and processor speeds. I always criticized MACs for how much they cost for what you got.

I was SO wrong!

Macs just work. It's that simple. When you get sick of all the incessant upgrades and BS a PC sticks you with and just want to actually USE the computer you will really appreciate a Mac. Forget all the I5, I7 ghz etc etc PC vs Mac. Macs run faster. The operating system on Mac is so much more efficient it's ridiculous.

I still have a PC, it's a top end with I7 etc etc. The lowest end Mac with an I5 and 1/4 the memory starts up and runs 3-4 times faster. Maybe for some serious number crunching maybe the I7 PC would be faster but in every day use the much lower spec Mac blows it away. The only common use I can think that I'd recommend a PC over a Mac for is for gaming since more games are out for PC, better yet buy a Mac and a gaming console like a PS4!!

For apps like Microsoft Office, just buy a yearly license. It will work for both Macs and PC's plus you phone and tablets. $99 per year gets you 5-10 copies of the latest versions.

Not that Macs are perfect but they are so much less of a headache than PC's I strongly recommend you at least try one, maybe rent one?? and see what I'm talking about. You will hate it for the first couple days because enough things are a little different to frustrate you but in the long term once you get used to a Mac you'll look back and wonder how you ever tolerated all the crap you had to deal with using PC's............dj