Laptop so slow and its still new.

[Mickie Als]

I got an Alienware 17" R3 when it came out. I bought the non-SSD one but I had no idea it would be this slow? Or is something wrong with it? I'm not sure what is up with my laptop I talked to Dell countless times and all they say is that its this slow because it has no SSD in it. I don't think that is the case. my warranty is over and I still have no idea what is wrong with it. The games are so slow, frame rate drops so low, Google chrome takes up to 2 minutes just to open... I hope someone can help me with this issue. 

[mockedarche]

@Mickie Als Open up task manager and then open programs does it hit 100% or near to it. Laptop hdd are almost always 5400 rpm and slow ones at that (to save money). 

[Mickie Als]

On Processes Disk is at 100%.

I looked up the Hard Drive on my laptop and it says its 7200 RPM. Not sure what is going on and Dell won't help me.

[Dryden]

Last week I upgraded my laptop's HDD 5400rpm to SSD, and I don't know why I waited so long.  I upgraded to SSD myself, following how to do youtube videos for my laptop model.

 

Have you considered a clean install Win10?

Have you considered upgrading to SSD? 

[Mickie Als]

@Dryden 

I tried to reinstall windows but I have no idea how to do it. Also, I have considered upgrading to an SSD but I'm worried that its not a hard drive problem. then I would've wasted my money but I might just install an SSD anyway.

[kirashi]

8 minutes ago, Mickie Als said:

On Processes Disk is at 100%.

I looked up the Hard Drive on my laptop and it says its 7200 RPM. Not sure what is going on and Dell won't help me.

That tells you the problem right there. I used to sell computers in a retail store, and dealt with many-a-return of the current ASUS ROG gaming laptops sold at the time. (This was around mid 2015 ish.) The reason for the returns? Slow performance due to 100% disk use. These ASUS ROG laptops had top of the line components. They ran 3rd or 4th gen i7 HQ SKU processors, 8GB to 12GB of RAM at the time, and either an nVidia 940M or 960M mobile graphics card, but still shipped with either dual 500GB 5400rpm drives, or a single 1TB 7200rpm drive if you were lucky.

 

Thing is, they performed like shit compared to prosumer grade / entry level business laptops with i3 U SKU processors, 4GB to 8GB RAM, integrated graphics, and 128GB or 256GB SSDs because SSDs are capable of handling all the tiny low-level API calls that modern versions of Windows 10 and MacOS 10.9 and up make when doing updates and simply maintaining the system.

 

Moral of the story: Upgrade to an SSD, or send the laptop back to Alienware and but a model with an SSD instead. Alternatively, if you get me the Express Service Code / Tag from the sticker on the bottom of the laptop / under the battery, I'd be happy to look up if your laptop can simply have an SSD or NVMe drive added to an existing slot on the motherboard.

[Dryden]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4000735/windows-10-reinstall

 

https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/windows/how-reinstall-windows-3535423/

 

Well worth upgrading from HDD to SSD, especially on a laptop.  Good luck

[Mickie Als]

12 minutes ago, kirashi said:

That tells you the problem right there. I used to sell computers in a retail store, and dealt with many-a-return of the current ASUS ROG gaming laptops sold at the time. (This was around mid 2015 ish.) The reason for the returns? Slow performance due to 100% disk use. These ASUS ROG laptops had top of the line components. They ran 3rd or 4th gen i7 HQ SKU processors, 8GB to 12GB of RAM at the time, and either an nVidia 940M or 960M mobile graphics card, but still shipped with either dual 500GB 5400rpm drives, or a single 1TB 7200rpm drive if you were lucky.

 

Thing is, they performed like shit compared to prosumer grade / entry level business laptops with i3 U SKU processors, 4GB to 8GB RAM, integrated graphics, and 128GB or 256GB SSDs because SSDs are capable of handling all the tiny low-level API calls that modern versions of Windows 10 and MacOS 10.9 and up make when doing updates and simply maintaining the system.

 

Moral of the story: Upgrade to an SSD, or send the laptop back to Alienware and but a model with an SSD instead. Alternatively, if you get me the Express Service Code / Tag from the sticker on the bottom of the laptop / under the battery, I'd be happy to look up if your laptop can simply have an SSD or NVMe drive added to an existing slot on the motherboard.

Thank you so much for the help! Should I replace the Hard drive too or just add an ssd? 

[Mickie Als]

12 minutes ago, Dryden said:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4000735/windows-10-reinstall

 

https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/windows/how-reinstall-windows-3535423/

 

Well worth upgrading from HDD to SSD, especially on a laptop.  Good luck

Thank you for your help! I will buy an SSD!

[kirashi]

10 minutes ago, Mickie Als said:

Thank you so much for the help! Should I replace the Hard drive too or just add an ssd? 

As long as Windows and the games you want running super fast are installed on an SSD, it's going to improve speeds immensely for you.

[Stefan Payne]

52 minutes ago, Mickie Als said:

I got an Alienware 17" R3 when it came out. I bought the non-SSD one 

Yeah, that is the Problem...

7 minutes ago, Mickie Als said:

Thank you so much for the help! Should I replace the Hard drive too or just add an ssd? 

Depends on the Model, what it does and so on,
You need to give more information about that Laptop, if it comes with an optical drive, has a second bay and so on.

[Mickie Als]

Hey guys, I installed a 512 GB m.2 SSD and cloned everything but then my laptop crashed and nothing is working, no windows anything. I got windows installer on a usb tumb drive 16gb but the laptop won't recognised it. I'm not sure what to do. Dell was no help and Microsoft told me to contact dell. Any ideas?