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General discussion

Windows Update affecting Performance (Lenovo G505s)

by rdow1988 Mar 13, 2015 7:07PM PDT

Hi All,

I have a Lenovo G505s...

Processor - AMD A8-4500m APU with Radeon HD Graphics 1.90 GHz
Ram - 8GB (7.19 usable)
64 Bit
Windows 8.1

I have been having problems for a long time with lagging playback of online HD video along with general slow and poor performance. Ive tried a million things but have never solved it. Last night I decided to do a Lenovo Refresh which is basically a wipe to factory settings without removing your documents and files.

This wiped the laptop back to Windows 8 with no installed programs so I set about reinstalling all of my software. I then tested the video playback on http://now.nfl.com/browse/rich-eisen and to my surprise, the performance was brilliant! No Lagging, a smooth reliable playback for the first time in ages! I assumed the wipe had just removed a load of junk and sped the machine up...

Until I did a windows update (189 updates in all), after this, my performance has dropped right off and the laptop is back to being a slow pile of junk that cannot stream video.

Without windows updates I cannot upgrade to Windows 8.1 or keep the system up to date.

Any ideas what it is about Windows update that is compromising performance?

Discussion is locked

6 Posts
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My son has a similar A8 here. No problem.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Mar 14, 2015 12:27PM PDT

HOWEVER he opted out of driver updates.
Bob

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My son has a similar A8 here. No problem.
by rdow1988 Mar 15, 2015 2:29AM PDT

Are you able to tell me how he opted out of the driver updates?

Thanks

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It's opt in, not out.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Mar 15, 2015 2:33AM PDT

So it was easy to avoid.
Bob

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I wonder if
by itsdigger Mar 15, 2015 2:44AM PDT

an Anti Virus program can slow things down too ?

Digger

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It can at first. For example.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Mar 15, 2015 2:58AM PDT

A fresh install of many AVs will be slow as they background scan the entire PC. This can lead to folk yelping about all the above.

Then we have doucheware.

Here's a copy of a recent post:
"You remain the best security."

Not one of the security suites today block doucheware entirely. You can see the effect of these by reading:
http://www.howtogeek.com/198622/heres-what-happens-when-you-install-the-top-10-download.com-apps/

So far the security and anti-virus software houses are not tackling this problem head on. In fact some antivirus companies were sued for blocking such software.

This means you remain the best defense. Maybe you can avoid this by using Ninite. Here's an article and I'd use an antivirus that I installed with Ninite.
-> http://www.howtogeek.com/201354/ninite-is-the-only-safe-place-to-get-windows-freeware/

If you find a positive review on any security/antivirus software, they likely omitted the doucheware issue. Ed Bott said it at https://www.google.com/#q=ed+bott+doucheware

Yes, it's a thing now.
Bob

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Re: driver updates
by Kees_B Forum moderator Mar 15, 2015 2:41AM PDT

As Bob said, driver updates are optional. Often it's not a good idea to do those.

See if you can do a driver rollback from Device Management.

Kees

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