Beloved HP 15-xxxxwm

[River Valley Computer]

Well here we go again. We have 2, yes 2, HP 15-g029wm on the laptop bench with identical problems. The infamous lagging cursor. Ben
loaded them first with Win 10 2004. That didn't work. Then he backed it down to 1909 - no star. HE has tried drivers - old and new. Snappy didn't help at all. Cursors work fine in BIOS and with Linux also while loading Windows 10 but after loaded - no go
. With battery and without. We had one like this last year and the customer finally decided to buy a refurb from us. These are owned by a charity here in town and they don't have the money to buy any. We are trying to help them out. One of the no-charge jobs but they are a great organization.

Granted they are 6 years old but you would think they should still work. Any ideas Brainiac's???

 

[nlinecomputers]

How much memory? If it 4GB then you don't have enough for Windows 10. It's not that they are old it's that they are too low spec. Can't expect a Dodge Charger from a Yugo.

 

[Diggs]

How much memory? If it 4GB then you don't have enough for Windows 10. It's not that they are old it's that they are too low spec. Can't expect a Dodge Charger from a Yugo.

Really? I've had a few Core2 Duos around here lately and they ran great on Win10 with an SSD and 4 GB RAM. No lag anywhere.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Core duo is a lot better than the amd crap that system has.

 

[River Valley Computer]

How much memory? If it 4GB then you don't have enough for Windows 10. It's not that they are old it's that they are too low spec. Can't expect a Dodge Charger from a Yugo.

Ben is trying your suggestion. Did you know that you have to remove the system board from that piece of **** to get to the ONE RAM slot? I'm not sure what those words are that is coming out of his area?????????

 

[nlinecomputers]

They are better off buying new PCs. They need to hit up any big supporters and get funds or find a grant writer and get a tech grant for new PCs that are mainstream business class units not those low end POS laptops.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Core duo is a lot better than the amd crap that system has.

+1 Even an SSD upgrade is not recommended (aka waste of money) for these AMD-underpowerd laptops.

 

[nlinecomputers]

+1 Even an SSD upgrade is not recommended (aka waste of money) for these AMD-underpowerd laptops.

Yep

 

[sapphirescales]

Core duo is a lot better than the amd crap that system has.

It's un-freaking-believable to me that manufacturers are installing processors in their low end computers that are worse than a mid-end processor from 15 years ago. I have a few cheapwad clients who I've sold Core2Duo systems with an SSD and they've been very happy compared to the AMD/Celeron crap boxes they got from Walmart. What they don't like is the 2 hour battery, but hey, they've got to make a choice. Do they want it fast with a short battery life or slow with a slightly longer battery life? Oh, they want both? So does everybody. $500+ please.

 

[glennd]

Well here we go again. We have 2, yes 2, HP 15-g029wm on the laptop bench with identical problems. The infamous lagging cursor. Ben
loaded them first with Win 10 2004. That didn't work. Then he backed it down to 1909 - no star. HE has tried drivers - old and new. Snappy didn't help at all. Cursors work fine in BIOS and with Linux also while loading Windows 10 but after loaded - no go
. With battery and without. We had one like this last year and the customer finally decided to buy a refurb from us. These are owned by a charity here in town and they don't have the money to buy any. We are trying to help them out. One of the no-charge jobs but they are a great organization.

Granted they are 6 years old but you would think they should still work. Any ideas Brainiac's???

what's the cpu/disk usage look like? a laggy mouse is often a symptom of the system under pressure. I see that a lot with lower end machines that take ages to perform their startup tasks.

 

[gadgetfixup]

performance monitor, performance monitor, performance monitor

 

[frase]

Just wondering might be a silly question, but have you tried to alter the cursor speed in the mouse options? In regards to RAM 4GB will all but be used in Windows 10 processes about 80% if I recall. 8GB is pretty much standard for Win10 systems.

 

[NviGate Systems]

Those AMD systems were e-waste when they were new in the box.

I've dealt with lots of them. Random problems, glitches etc.

The thing is, it's not the CPU. As weak as the CPU is, it's not the cause of your issue. It's the cheap main board that gets paired with these and firmware that is the issue.

For years and years I always recommend Intel based laptops, and I still do, as I have yet to see any improvements in AMD mainboard designs. But that was a result of evaluation of 3 years worth of failures vs sales.

So, like everyone says, they need to replace those systems. Even if you fix this issue, they will still be e-waste.

 

[Porthos]

Those AMD systems were e-waste when they were new in the box.

Amen

 

[britechguy]

Well, I guess I'll be the contrarian.

I actually own one of this series of laptops, that has an A8 APU, and it's still chugging along reliably many years later, though it's now not my primary machine. I've got two other laptops with A12-9600P APUs and they've been going strong for around 4 years and show no signs of stopping anytime soon.

 

[sapphirescales]

@britechguy I'm afraid that everyone's information is out of date. As technicians, most of us aren't fixing 1-2 year old laptops (I mean, I am, but I'm the exception here). AMD laptops have gotten a lot better in recent years. The Ryzen 3 3200U is a fine processor, as is the A12-9600P. I mean, they're not high end by any means, but they beat the pants off a Core 2 Duo. What people are talking about here are the older AMD systems. I don't have exact processor model numbers, but I'm talking about junk with a Passmark score of 500-1000.

They still make junk systems like this, however. This is one example:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-ideapad-1-14-laptop-amd-a6-series-4gb-memory-amd-radeon-r4-64gb-emmc-flash-memory-platinum-gray/6359222.p?skuId=6359222

The processor is an AMD A6-9220e with a Passmark score of 959. It also has a permanently soldered 64GB eMMC "SSD" which is freaking terrible. If this thing comes into my shop, it's going in the dumpster.

It's the cheap main board that gets paired with these and firmware that is the issue.

I can't say I see very many of these cheap systems, but the ones I have seen have been fine except for the God awful performance and maybe a dead/dying hard drive. In any case, it wouldn't matter if the things were made with military grade quality and were designed to last for 100 years, they'd still be just as unusable thanks to their ridiculously underpowered processors. I wouldn't even recommend one of these to an old granny that only used the computer to check email and play Solitaire. They're just too fricking slow!

 

[NviGate Systems]

Sorry, I was more referring to the glitches and oddities of these systems, which they have plenty of. HP over the years has issued plenty of firmware updates to fix things that should never had an issue in the first place. The classic Nvidia debacle of old, when whole lines of HP Nvidia notebooks melted because of crap motherboards. HP issues firmware to adjust "thermals" trying to fix flawed MB design.

The performance of these should be kept for Thin Clients, not full fledged OS.

Anyways, we know they are bottom of the totem pole, but some add insult to injury.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Well the laptop in the thread has an A4-5000 which passmarks at 1280 IIRC. Which should not be great but not awful but I've never seen one that ran worth a damn. It may be a chipset issue, but they are junk.

 

[Markverhyden]

I'll ask since it wasn't mentioned. How about flashing/reflashing BIOS. If it was upgraded recently try rolling it back. We do know that some OEM's allow M$ to push firmware, including BOS, during updates.

 

[symbatech]

I'm not sure if the same applies to HP's, but I have had several Dell laptops in the past where cursor lag was caused by the power adapter (even some OEM ones). Switch out the AC adapter or run it on battery power and the cursor problem would disappear. Certain adapters I guess were causing a ground loop or something that would mess with the touchpad. Just something you might try.