Making laptop perform better

[Digital]

I got this quite new laptop, purchased last year, but it struggles on simply playing HD video from sources such as Netflix or HBO. What are the best ways to get it play videos more smoothly?

 

I have been thinking if installing a lightweight linux such as mint would help, but I'm not sure. Also, I cannot even be sure if the laptop is using its AMD graphics processor in the browser, as I cannot seem to find an simple way to allocate certain programs to the GPU or onboard graphics (kind of what nvidia control panel has).

 

Any suggestions? For a note, I would be using this same way to make a TV multimedia PC out of old'ish parts.

[HPWebcamAble]

What are the specs of the laptop?

[Digital]

I don't have the laptop here right now, and I cannot remember its model name. I found a picture where I can see its print tho; 4GB DDR3 memory and the GPU is AMD Radeon HD8400 (512mb graphics system memory), no info on CPU.

 

It seems like the GPU is integrated, right? Is there a way to manage it, boost it somehow? As I believe that it should be capable of playing HD video on its own 15'is inch screen..

[daniielrp]

If it doesn't have one (and if possible) get an SSD in there. And upgrade the RAM, my work machine frequently struggles using Chrome with 4GB. 

[vorticalbox]

1 hour ago, daniielrp said:

If it doesn't have one (and if possible) get an SSD in there. And upgrade the RAM, my work machine frequently struggles using Chrome with 4GB. 

could switch to a different browser? @Digital disable start up programs that you don't need, defragment and use clean manager to clean out all the junk.

 

you could try ccleaner, used it all the time when I had windows ti clear the junk and fix registry issues. Nothing thing you could check for.

[daniielrp]

10 hours ago, vorticalbox said:

could switch to a different browser?

I wish. Locked down machine - IE8 or Chrome. Which would you pick...

[vorticalbox]

40 minutes ago, daniielrp said:

I wish. Locked down machine - IE8 or Chrome. Which would you pick...

use a portable version of a browser