High CPU activity on an old Toshiba laptop (Satellite L755)
High CPU activity on an old Toshiba laptop (Satellite L755)
The laptop is an old Toshiba Satellite L755, owned by my father. It was mainly used for watching movies but performed poorly, showing errors and running very slowly. Since it ran Windows 7, I decided to switch it to Linux Mint. The installation was extremely slow and difficult to manage. Eventually, I moved it to Chrome OS Flex, which also didn’t improve performance much. Now it’s running Windows 10, but the issue persists—CPU usage stays at 100% even when idle, and the hard drive is only about 20%. Despite these problems, the system still seems stable in the Task Manager, though it struggles with tasks like YouTube playback, especially at low resolutions.
It seems the system is applying updates, which will complete the installation. Expect reduced performance afterward. This slower processor means you won’t need much power to reach its full potential.
Likely needs cleaning; could be overheating and thermal throttling. But what you see here is exactly what we call "shit" in our field. It was terrible when it left the factory in 2010.
This CPU is a dual-core, dual-thread unit. It’s impressive it still supports Windows 10. Its PassMark rating is 423. While I don’t claim PassMark is the ultimate measure, a contemporary Ryzen 3 7320U laptop processor reaches about 9,000. This machine is roughly 20 times slower than even a basic $300 laptop. Installing an SSD and adding 16GB of RAM would make it possible to use the device beyond just watching videos.
I understand, though it was similar to Windows 7. You could play movies, but there were many glitches and it couldn't download files. It was surprising that it worked for Linux Mint or Chrome OS flex—it felt unbelievable how it managed to run before. (3 days ago)
Windows 7 was released in 2009 and is now 14 years old. Modern computers aren’t built to last forever, and even the processor from its launch was a poor performer back then. Installing a newer operating system on it will likely make it almost unusable. For context, a high-end laptop chip like the i7-2920XM from that same year scored around 4,300, while the AMD E-350 was slow even when new and has only gotten worse since then.