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General discussion

Acer Aspire problems

Dec 31, 2014 2:36PM PST

Ok, so I bought a used Acer Aspire 7650G laptop pretty good overall condition.
The specs on this laptop 17.3" screen, 6GB DDR3 RAM, AMD A8 - 3250M 1.6Ghz, dual graphics card AMD radeon 7670M+6620G with 1GB dedicated VRAM with the possibility to add another HDD
The problem I have encountered is that the CPU is going extremely slow, its taking me way longer than a my other laptop with an i5 4210u, I have no clue why this laptop is extremely slow but has no reason to be there is no internal damage at all. I'm thinking of overclocking it to around 2.0-2.2Ghz. Any help is beneficial, or any tips on the AMD A8 processor.

Discussion is locked

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Re: slow
Dec 31, 2014 5:27PM PST

How did you measure the speed of the CPU, and how slow was it exactly doing what?

Kees

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CPU Speed
Jan 1, 2015 12:13AM PST

Seeing that its a quad core AMD A8 I went and looked in the bios, but even in the system properties it said it was 1.6Ghz however didn't expect the laptop to experience a long duration in opening windows, long duration of updating certain softwares.

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Re: slow
Jan 1, 2015 1:02AM PST

Opening Windows and updating softwares use a lot of disk IO. On the usual 5400 rpm disk in a laptop that's not too fast. Use that second disk slot for 120 GB SSD and install Windows and Program Files on that.

Kees

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And ...
Jan 1, 2015 1:10AM PST

I find a long duration in opening Windows to be quite effectively solved by using hibernate (in stead of shutdown), so it stays open.

Updating programs isn't done often. So the speed is rather a minor issue.

Kees

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And ...
Dec 31, 2014 5:41PM PST

since you never know what malware is present on a second hand machine, it makes sense to go back to factory conditions before starting to use it. Then you know that not only the hardware is fine, but the software also is in the original excellent conditions.
It takes some time to get Windows up to date, usually, but it's worth the trouble.

Kees

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Format
Jan 1, 2015 12:18AM PST

Yep, did all that formatted it to Win 7 home premium as it already had an authentication code for it, but after installing all the drivers and updating everything the processing is still having a struggle processing certain softwares at high speeds

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Re: certain softwares
Jan 1, 2015 1:07AM PST

The CPU is only relevant for a programs speed if it uses a lot of CPU. Booting and updating, mentioned in your other posts, are limited in speed by disk-IO primarily.

And a quad-core CPU isn't that fast if the certain softwares only use one thread. You'll see the CPU-usage in task manager than at 25%.

Task manager and resource monitor might tell you more.

Kees

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hyperthreading
Jan 1, 2015 2:03AM PST

Is it true that since the A8 doesn't have hyperthreading its deficient in handling more than one task at one time, explaining why the processor is running slow when multiple softwares are open. Also now I have experienced some times where the computer freezes a lot, could it be that somehow there might have been previous internal damage causing all this?
Pung

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True.
Jan 1, 2015 12:23AM PST

You can compare this CPU to the i5 and see for yourself. I used CPUBOSS.com but all that work to install Windows seems like a lot of unnecessary work.
Bob

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CROSS POSTED.
Jan 1, 2015 2:28AM PST
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Uninstall the unnecessary applications
Jan 9, 2015 4:51AM PST

1. Uninstall the unnecessary applications.
2. Clean the temporary files.
3. Use CCleaner software.