HP Pavilion x360 (14-ba039ns) very slow

[Aluisperezh]

We recently changed an old x360 with an N3050, 4 GB of RAM and an aftermarket SSD for this laptop, and the new computer is much slower than the old one.

There is nothing strange in task manager or resource manager. I mean, CPU consumption is always very low, memory usage never gest to 4 GB and I've never seen disk usage over 15%. But the computer is slow when booting and working with it means waiting, waiting and waiting for everything. Even browsing the Internet is a pain..

Every test in the setup screen (pressing ESC when booting) is OK.

Only thing I've found is that disk speeds are around 100MB/sec. for reading and 80 MB/sec. for writing, when using a disk test software. Is this normal?

I have uninstalled most software (including DriveGuard, that I don't understand why is installed for an SSD) and it's a little faster, but nowhere close to the old x360. Shouldn't it be much faster?

[Huffer]

That disk speed would be fine for a hard drive but is very low for an SSD. You need to run a hardware diagnostic to rule out hardware issues. Tap esc as you power up, the F2 and component test and run the hard drive and memory for sure and post back results. i3 7th gen with 8 gigs RAM ought to be pretty zippy. 

[Aluisperezh]

Thanks for your answer. That's what I thought about the disk speed.

I already ran the BIOS test, and they showed no problem. Today I'll run the tests again when I get back home and compare the speed test results with my EliteBook 820 G3. Mine is an i5, but disk speed shouldn't be very different. I'll come back with the results.

Thanks again.

[Aluisperezh]

Ok, I checked the SDD speed and it looks normal, about the same speed that my EliteBook (which runs really fine).

But what I found is that the CPU NEVER goes beyond 0,38 GHz. I teste it with some utilities (Intel utilities and CPU-Z benchmark) and results are incredible.

I've read somewhere that this could be caused by Intel processor management software. I updated it but without any results. Uninstalled it and the same.

This is happening from day zero. Should I ask HP to repair it or there is anything I am missing?

Thanks for your support and regards.

[Huffer]

Try this patch. Possible the processor got slowed down by an update designed to handle the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4343909/windows-10-update-kb4343909

Also check the BIOS version. If all this fails I think you got a defective unit and the motherboard needs replacement. 

[Aluisperezh]

I'm afraid I'll have to take it for repair. The patch cannot be installed, but Windows was already on that patch level, so it wouldn't have worked.

I don't know if it's a deffective motherboard or something related to software, but by using ThrottleStop from TechPowerUp I can disable something called "BD PROCHOT", that makes the CPU work at full speed. Unfortunately this is a temporal change (until laptop is rebooted) and I'm not sure it won't affect temperature protection, so it's not an option. Besides, as this is not a driver or service, it has to be started manually every time the laptop is turned on, which takes a long time.

At least my wife has been able to see the laptop working as it should. It will need to be repaired, but now we know that it will be fast when it comes back :).

Thanks a lot for your support. Best regards.

[Aluisperezh]

The problem was not in the SSD. If it had been, there is no way in HP BIOS to change this setting (and almost any other setting, by the way).

The problem was in the processor. It kept running at 0,38 GHz whether the system was busy or not. I could disable a signal (PROCHOT, as I said before) with an external utility, and then the system was really fast, running at full speed (2,4 GHz) when needed. But it was  not a permanent soultion and the laptop is new, so we sent it for repair. I think it will come back today, but I'm afraid that, despite having told HP where the problem was, the laptop comes again with the same problem. I'll come back and tell you all.

Thanks for your support.

[iamsterdam1]

Can you tell me what was the problem with your laptop?  I think I have the same problem

[SDHokie]

 I also am having the same problem with slow performance on the HP Pavilion x360.  A good portion of the time I want to use it, it is basically so slow that is unusable.  I do not have an SSD so I figured it was the hard drive.  Very interested to see what a permanent fix for this issue would be.

What is the latest Version of the Bios?

[Aluisperezh]

My problem was the processor. I could see it working at a very low speed (checking with Windows Task Manager).

I think you could check changing the processor flag as I explained before. If that makes your laptop faster (it should be a LOT faster), that's your problem. I couldn't find any other way that getting it repaired. Other solutions only worked temporarily, until next reboot.

Regards.