Super Slow Laptop with BIOS included
Super Slow Laptop with BIOS included
I possess an Asus A15 FA506IV from late 2020 equipped with a Ryzen 7 4800H, 16GB RAM, an RTX 2060, and a 1TB Samsung 980 SSD. Over the past few months, it has become extremely sluggish. The performance drops significantly—sometimes to around 5 frames per second or less—not just during the UEFI animations, but also with the mouse cursor. What’s unusual is that the issue isn’t constant; it fluctuates, sometimes improving dramatically for days and then worsening again.
In March, I replaced the CPU and GPU cooling fans, which helped temporarily. However, the problem persisted, and after formatting and reinstalling everything from scratch (Windows 11 each time), it still slowed down. Recently, I swapped out the original SSD for a new NVMe Samsung 980 and reinstalled the system again. Now it’s back to slow performance.
My daughter uses the machine mainly for gaming—primarily Minecraft and Roblox—but also a few other titles. She has her own Microsoft account, which lacks admin privileges, so she can’t resolve the issue herself. I have an admin account that shows the same sluggish behavior. Sometimes it improves overnight after shutdowns or while troubleshooting, but it doesn’t always.
I’ve scanned for malware using MS Defender, but found nothing suspicious. The problem persists across three different Windows installations, and there’s no evidence of a virus affecting the BIOS. I haven’t used any backup solution, so there’s minimal risk of data loss from a virus.
I’m seeking guidance on possible causes and solutions. My daughter is upset because this laptop isn’t even three years old yet, and it wasn’t an expensive purchase.
After months of dealing with this, just minutes after sharing about it, I think I hit on a possible fix. Most of my gaming sessions had the laptop plugged in, but when I checked the BIOS and unplugged it to test USB ports, it suddenly sped up. I’m guessing the power supply isn’t delivering enough power, though more testing is needed to figure out if the issue is with the laptop, the device itself, the cable, or the power strip. If anyone else has ideas, let me know!
I noticed the initial power brick was 230 watts, while the one I used was only 150 watts. That explains it, since I purchased the second one from Amazon... It mentioned it was made for my laptop model, but it didn’t. The replacement I got is 230 watts, and even though the Amazon listing doesn’t reference my laptop model, the power supply’s model number matches the original. TL;DR – Amazon’s product descriptions seem unreliable. Everything works now, just about $40.