B575 - Slow as mud - need help

[jstrutton]

Just bought the B575 laptop from BestBuy earlier in October.  Unfortunately, it is past the point of returning it to them.  I did the typical start-up processes and everything was fine.  However, it is slower than mud when you are browsing the internet.  I haven't loaded anything on this laptop except for a few pictures.  I did load McAfee virus software, but that won't take up there much memory.  So at this point it is a fresh factory load from Lenovo. 

The CPU seems to be running at 100% most of the time.   So, I'm confused on whether it is their Windows 7 load that is eating up memory and processor time or not.  I just purchases another 4 gig of memory to put in over the weekend, but that has to be a different reason it is running so slow. 

Any suggestions/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Jay

[andyP Community SuperMod]

Jay, welcome to the forum,

just a thought on a possible reason; as you installed McAfee; was there another security software pre-installed on the system and did you uninstall it before installing the McAfee?

Maybe you could start task manager and take a look and see which process(es) are eating up your resources and post what you see.

[jstrutton]

Thanks for the quick response.  I'm not on the laptop, but out of town.  I will do that over the weekend and hopefully someone can help me.  As far as I know, there is no other security running in the background, but not being a laptop wiz I could be wrong. 

I know that McAfee is the only one that appears to be running and it is just the virus and not the entire McAfee suite. 

I did buy an additional 4 gig of RAM and will install that, so that should help.  But there has to be some Windows 7 configuration or something running that I can disable to get this computer running faster.  My old 6 year old Gateway with XP and only 2 gig RAM is faster than this laptop.

Thanks and welcome all the advice that I can get

Jay

[pagroundhog]

Hello Jay,

I also bought a B575 a few weeks ago and I also was not happy with the initial CPU usage (although it was far from 100%) so here are some of the things I did to lower my average cpu usage to less than 20%:

I deleted the "Boot Optimizer" software because it doesn't really work in my opinion. I also deleted the Finger Printer, Veriface, Bio Excess and Port Locker software. Unfortunately, I'm doing this from memory so some of the software names may be incorrect. Anyway, you might have to reinstall the Egris Fingerprint Driver to get rid of that yellow exclamation point in device manager.

Next, use MSCONFIG (as advised in the previous post) and disable all non-microsoft services and all startup programs (except your antivirus) to see if that lowers your cpu usage. If that works, then use MSCONFIG to re-enable your services and startup programs (one at a time) until you find the service or software that is causing your high cpu usage. Then take actions accordingly.

Also, regarding your comments about the internet being slow; yes, it could be due to your high cpu usage; however, I'm guessing it is more like a bandwidth issue and how you are accessing the internet. Now, in my case, I have a direct ethernet connection that is very fast; however, when I connect wirelessly, the bandwidth is reduced to 1/2 of the ethernet internet connection speed (I benchmarked it). There is nothing I can do to improve that speed because it is inherent to the router's capabilities and also the need for encryption also contributes to the slowdown. Is your son's PC perhaps on a wired ethernet connect and you are using your laptop on a wireless connection? Just curious.

One final comment regarding your upgrade to 8gbs of ram. I don't think that upgrade will have any affect on your internet browsing speed but you might want to check/adjust your browser's options as follows:

So, with the browser open go to Tools > Tabs > Settings and disable tabbed browsing (if not needed) because it really eats up the ram and adds (slightly) to cpu usage too. Next (while still on that view), go to Browser History and click "Settings." Now, make sure your "Temporary Internet Files are set to "automatic" and you can also make other adjustments while you are there as well. This will allow you to cache some of the elements on the web pages you visit so they will load faster the next time you visit the same web page. Also, going back under Browser History, make sure the "Delete Browser History on Exit is Unchecked."

FYI, I also ditched the McAfee antiviurs software (because it has always been a resource hog) and downloaded the free Avast antivirus which has always been effective for my purposes .Just my preference.

Hopefully some of these recommendations will help you resolve some of your problems.

Good luck!

[orion9727]

how to make the B575 run right.

1. uninstall all the crapware or reload windows.

2.dont use msconfig that is wrong,use services.msc in the run box or you find it in the system config menu.

edit setting based on black viper templete,read what they do and his site.

services should be around 35 on a normal system.blackviper.com

3.edit power options menu for best performance at cord,yea it makes a big difference.

4.install a good ssd rather then more then 4 gig of ram.

more ram means slower in windows 7 over what you need.4 is all you ever use on a brazos based machine.

ssd options are msata ssd like the new ones made for rapid boot.there sata 2 300 speed no lenovo on msata is faster then that no matter what the chipset is.or a standard 2.5 if you going to toss the platter drive.

dont use a sandforce based drive.there a desktop solution only and have issues.

4.dont silly tweeker problems or change settings other then well known windows 7 fixes.most people think a majic bullet will solve there toolbar problems.

5.turn off any auto starts you dont need.there is no need of half the items shiped from auto starting when windows dose it anyway.

i ran windows 7x64 on 1 gig of ram,2 made allmost no difference,why i was on a netbook single core atom and windows 7 really knows how to manage memory well.windows 7 need at the most around 3 -3.5 after that it slows the system down with the added swap file and fact it must manage a larger memeory footprint.

infact very few programs will ever make use of anything over 4 because they have to rewrite the complete program from day one.

any that do wont run well on a brazos,get a sandy bridge if you doing hard vid and photo editing and if you wanna play flight sim then a quad.

brazos runs well for web surfing but it wont run netflix well even with silverlight beta,not if you want ps3 like experence then you need a desktop type cpu.that means a mobile cpu that based on a desktop cpu.

brazos is a light multi media engine.

there is no way it will ever replace a sandy bridge cpu and in many cases a allendale as well.

it can replace a CULV like the su2300 from 4 years ago with ion but nothing more.

[jstrutton]

Thanks for feedback.  I disabled and/or deleted some of the Lenova software and now it is much better.  Didn't update the RAM yet, but might not considering it is pretty decent now.  Might just take the RAM back and get a refund.

The only thing that I left on from the Lenovo stuff was the BioExcess for the fingerprinting stuff.  But might take that off as well depending on how performance stays. 

Jay

[orion9727]

i threw a samsung 830 ssd 64 model in mine.
i had a microcenter (adata)G2 64 gig sandforce before in mine and it was kindy twitchy.
the samsung wont run full speed shame i think it a lenovo thing however it runs great at sata 2 speed.
has alot of extras such as norton ghost and a ssd toolbox.
best ssd i ever seen 140 at new egg thats what i would change.
dont go over 4 gig ram thats silly even on a desktop unless you run ms flight sim or do serieous modeling super computer like stuff.
i love the B575 as it very quiet more so then the G575 and there alot of hidden extras in it i seen plus a msata that can make use of rapid boot.
you could do that add a intel ssd on the msata port and keep the disk and there now selling at near 100.
dont buy the ocz sandforce model they use too much power.sandforce is buggy and designed for enterprize use.desktops and alike.
samsung and intel are really low power use great for a laptop and the M4 as well now with it new firm but remeber it wont hit 500 reads it just do the 270-280 max like my samsung dose or the sandforce sata 2 did.
i get around 26 secs boot time and i not fully tweeked mine yet i still testing the samsung out.
best ssd out there right now.

[pagroundhog]

Hello original poster,

Did you ever get the answer you were looking for and/or get your issue resolved?

Please let us know.

Your feedback is important to the community.

[bill2948]

I bought my B575 in December.  Slow is the best word I could use for its' performance.  Tried removing most of the Lenovo software, being careful not to screw up the works as per your posting.  Tried contacting support to see about getting the rescue CDs since they were not included.

Speed and performance improved, especially without McAfee (am now using Bitdefender).  Support hosed me for 50-dollars to get an extension to my warranty which includes the CDs.

I feel a little raw over the 50-dollars.  The crapware from both Lenovo and Best Buy really slowed up the machine to the point where I hated it.

Now it's a pretty decent laptop. 

Thanks for the tips.

[neilbill]

Hi ,is there a possibility to do some kind of an upgrade on the cpu for the B575 maybe by buying a new one and installing it or any other way. 

thank you in advance

Bill