Laptop performance drops significantly after delivery, and continues to decline over time with Windows 11.
Laptop performance drops significantly after delivery, and continues to decline over time with Windows 11.
I bought a new laptop from Walmart in December 2022. When I brought it home, it booted up and I selected Windows 11 for installation. Now it takes about 5 to 10 minutes to start, and the CPU throttles to around 80% even when opening basic apps like File Explorer or Device Manager. I mainly chose this model because of the $289 price and the Ryzen processor, though that might have been a mistake. The laptop is HP -AMD Ryzen 3 with a 128GB SSD, running at 2400 MHz and 4GB DDR4 memory (Model 14-fq0033dx). I've already tried various fixes online—disabling Superfetch, tweaking power settings, turning off startup apps, and more. There’s only one app (Cricut) and two photos displayed as default, aside from the usual bloatware I removed. Even before installing new software, the PC was running slowly, with regular updates also causing issues. If anyone has suggestions on resolving this problem, I’d really appreciate it. (If deeper diagnostics are needed, I’m fairly tech-savvy and can run any tool for more details.)
Current 4GB RAM is enough for basic tasks even today. Most people buy laptops that are underpowered, and unless you add more RAM there’s little to gain. Pairing it with a slow CPU and a low-end SSD makes the machine feel quite sluggish. It often struggles to keep up because it has to constantly move data between RAM and the hard drive. You could upgrade the memory since it’s supposed to have one extra slot, which would let you install an 8GB 2400MHz stick—significantly improving performance.
It's running low on RAM. Consider upgrading to 16GB if possible. Reducing the SSD size could also help. Your Ryzen 3 isn't the most powerful chip available, but it should be sufficient for basic tasks.
Installing more RAM might help, but it probably won’t be enough for your wife’s Cricut work. It could be a waste of money if you’re not ready to upgrade your PC.
I own a comparable laptop, an ASUS model featuring the same R3 chipset. It's a solid machine that only needs a few upgrades to perform well. To improve its speed, I plan to boost the RAM to at least 16GB using the available expansion slot. As others suggested, I should also inspect your SSD. It's likely a budget M.2 NVMe drive rather than an expensive one, similar to the model I upgraded with an NVMe SSD. After adding RAM and replacing the SSD with a decent NVMe drive, its performance significantly improved.
RAM plays a crucial role in the performance of that PC. Offering Windows 11 on a 4 GB system would be highly unusual. Such a setup is outdated for modern applications like Chromebooks or mobile devices.