My 3 year old laptop is having performance issues. What can I do about it?

JasonNode · Jul 20, 2015

I have an Asus u36sg, Intel i5 Dual Core, NVIDIA Geforce 610m (1GB) and 4GB of RAM.

In the last couple of months, 60fps videos started lagging and running in slow motion (while the audio played just fine) and today it got even worse: I can't even watch a 1080p and (sometimes) 720p video FULLSCREEN because it starts lagging very hard.

I only have this problem while watching videos ONLINE. I can watch without problems downloaded videos.

I've noticed that CPU usage is extremely high while playing 1080p videos (sometimes even 90%-100%) and it makes no difference whether I play the video in Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Mozilla Firefox.

I wiped my hard drive and reinstalled Windows but I still have these problems.
I installed Ubuntu but still can't play 1080p, 720p or 60fps videos.

I think there's a problem with my CPU (or maybe video card?) is there any way to fix this problem without replacing any components?

Thank you!

vesp3r · Jul 21, 2015

Complete improvement of your laptop would be this:
1. Disassemble it and clean the dust, reapply thermal paste, use cooling pad to help its venting
2. Disable unnecessary programs that start with windows or run in background and you dont use them often
3. Try different sets of drivers - the ones that came with the laptop, newest and older
4. See if there is a BIOS update for your model. Now this is a bit risky so you will have to find Asus forum to doublecheck if you will have issues doing that
5. Add more RAM (atleast 4GB more)
6. Check your hard drive for faults/bad sectors and if needed replace it
7. If you feeling like it you can give a chance to SSD

UPDATE: Since you mentioned the problem is only when watching online i would suggest you try connecting with cable and see if it still does it

JasonNode · Jul 21, 2015

Thank you very much for the help, vesp3r!

1. I'm going to try this
2, 3, 4. The problem is also present in Ubuntu, so it's not a driver or Windows specific problem.
5. Maybe I'll try this, but Memory usage is quite low so I don't see the point in adding more RAM.
6, 7. Already have an SSD that (I think) works just fine.

Using AIDA64 Extreme I can see that while watching a 1080p 60fps youtube video the CPU temperatures are skyrocketing to 80 celsius (176 F) so again, I should probably clean the laptop and apply new thermal paste, right?

velo3100 · Jul 21, 2015

There are lots of things you can do to improve this.

Hardware
1. Clean the laptop out. The main cause for most laptops slowing down is due to dust build up in the components which slow the fans which then causes the laptop to overheat.
2. Reapply the thermal paste. As your laptop is 3 years old, it could be that the thermal resistance has reduced a lot due to the paste being worn out.
3. Replace any faulty fans or other components that look damaged.
4. Buy a cooling pad for the laptop to keep temps as low as possible.
5. Make sure that the room is well ventilated. This will make the temps low as possible which makes it less likely that the laptop will overheat
6. Remove the battery if this is possible. I have noticed that ever since I took mine out, which was 2 weeks ago, temps have reduced by 5 - 15 degrees c.

Software
1. Throttle the cpu to about 40%. This is enough for normal tasks and should keep the cpu and temps usage low while youtube video.
2. Make sure that the browser uses the html 5 player while watching videos. This made a huge difference in watching videos for the cpu useage
3. Make sure that hardware acceleration is off. This reduces the cpu usage by quite a bit.
4. Make sure that the browser is in the same bit as your os. For example if you have a 64 bit version of windows, make sure you download the 64 bit version of chrome.
5. If you have win 8 or higher make your account local. For some reason, my laptop runs much faster when it is local than a microsoft account.
6. Get rid of onedrive if you don't use it or have it. This really slows down the system.
7. Scan for any faults in the hdd for bad sectors

Try these and let me know if it helps

JasonNode · Jul 22, 2015

Thank you velo3100!

I bought thermal compound and opened up my laptop but I can't figure out where the heck is is the processor?!

I know I probably sound like the biggest idiot ever, but where is my processor? Here's an image with the insides of my ultrabook:

Also, while just browsing this forum and without doing anything else, processor temperature is extremely high (70-80 degrees celsius)

velo3100 · Jul 22, 2015

I think the cpu is soldered underneath those 2 black square boxes near the asus logo. Also let me know when you have done everything I have listed originally.

JasonNode · Jul 22, 2015

Here's an update: removed the battery, using Ethernet cable instead of Wifi and cleaned the inside of the laptop (and the fan) as much as I could + I tried everything you advised but no results. Videos still lag and temperatures are ridiculous.

I'll look at the 2 black squares near the logo more carefully. But are you sure that's where the CPU is located? There are no screws around the squares. How am I supposed to remove them? I'm sorry for being such a pain in the ass, but I couldn't find one single video or tutorial where the CPU is as weirdly positioned as mine.

EDIT: it makes sense for the CPU to be under one of those black squares. And under the 2nd one is the GPU?

vesp3r · Jul 23, 2015

Well in case you still havent done that - you need to pull the motherboard out of the case, you will probably see heatsink pipes which are usually used to cool off CPU and GPU. When you remove those you will see the chips. There will probably be some leftovers of the old compound - clean it carefully and apply the new one. Make sure not to put too much so when you install the pipes back it wont go all over your motherboard

velo3100 · Jul 23, 2015

I wouldn't mess with the cpu and gpu as this could damage the laptop more. You could try and use a lightweight anti virus software. What anti virus software do you use? Another thing you could do is replace the hdd with an ssd if you don't have much data on it. This should make it feel more quick.

JasonNode :

vesp3r · Jul 23, 2015

velo3100 :

Well lightweight AV wont help much with reducing the 80C
Since he went all the way to disassemble the laptop he might aswell just finish the job

Few tips if you decide to repaste it yourself:
check this guide... its a mandatory if you never done this ----> http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/333968-28-thermal-paste-removal-installation-guide

Other than that you can just give it to local tech shop and ask for paste replacement
after that really make sure you always put it on a cooling pad. It helps more than people would think

JasonNode · Jul 23, 2015

Thanks guys. Like I said in my previous posts, the problem is definitely hardware related since I am now running a clean install of Windows 8 without any heavy programs installed (and I've tried a clean install of Ubuntu as well) and the temperatures are still high as hell.

I've applied thermal compound in the past on a custom-made PC but I don't think I can do it again since the hardware architecture of my laptop is definitely weird and I don't want to risk destroying my motherboard.

So I'll take it to a shop. Will come back with updates. (hope they'll just have to clean the inside thoroughly and apply the thermal compound).

JasonNode · Jul 23, 2015

So I just came back from the shop and basically no improvements. The guy said he cleaned it and applied thermal paste and found nothing wrong with any of the components. Normally I'd take the laptop back and ask for a free revision but I've never had any problems with those guys (everytime I brought them my laptop, they've done an excellent job).

Picture of my temperatures with 4 tabs of chrome opened, one of them 1080p 60fps video:

Should I just look for another laptop?

velo3100 · Jul 23, 2015

I think it is time for you to get a new laptop as you have done everything you can in terms of hardware and software to improve it. It is most likely acting like this because it is old.

s3mmy · Jul 31, 2015

Hi,
I have the exact same laptop model as you, also with HDD replaced by SSD, but with 4gb of extra ram. The problem you are describing is the same one I an encountering for 2-3 weeks (after fine usage of about 2.5-3 years).
Idle temperature is aprox 55C with cpu load of 0-5%; with a downloaded 1080p video running (VLC) stays at about 65C and 20-30% load.
However when I try to watch a video on any browser (mostly youtube or hbogo), all hell breaks loose and temperature constantly stays above 80C, reaching sometimes 95C (and cpu varies between 60 and 100%). Fan starts running at full power and only stops after 5-6 minutes after I close the video.

I have tried everything you did from the software point of view but the problem persists. Haven't yet tried to reapply paste on CPU yet, but hve ventilated and cleaned all fans the best I could at home with basic tools. I am thinking of sending it to a shop for replacing cpu paste and cpu fan, but it seems that for you this wasn't a good solution.
Any updates on your situation?
I would really appreciate an answer as I really have no idea what do to.
Thanks

Search

My 3 year old laptop is having performance issues. What can I do about it?

JasonNode

Reputable

velo3100

vesp3r

Distinguished

JasonNode

Reputable

velo3100

Judicious

JasonNode

Reputable

velo3100

Judicious

JasonNode

Reputable

vesp3r

Distinguished

velo3100

Judicious

vesp3r

Distinguished

JasonNode

Reputable

JasonNode

Reputable

velo3100

Judicious

s3mmy

Reputable

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page