Performance Issues with My HP Laptop

[Milozs]

I recently purchased an HP laptop, but it runs much slower than expected. Even though it has better hardware than my previous Lenovo notebook, performance is poor. For example, I tried playing Counter-Strike 2: my laptop struggles to reach 30 FPS on the lowest settings, while I’ve seen videos of other laptops with the same specifications running the game at 70 FPS on high settings, with no additional software installed.

I have tried optimizing the laptop using Windows’ built-in functions, but performance remains slow. I also noticed that I cannot change the power plan—could you clarify if this is expected behavior on this model?

Additionally, I have a question unrelated to performance: I am from Poland, and the letter “Ł” does not respond when I press Alt + L. Is there a way to check if any keybinds might be overriding this action?

I would greatly appreciate your guidance on resolving these performance issues and answers to my questions regarding power settings and keybinds.

[Hawks_Eye]

Hi @Milozs 

Welcome to the HP Support Community! We're here to help you get back up and running.

Thanks for laying this out so clearly  — you’ve actually spotted a few important clues here. Let me break it into parts.

1. Performance Issues (slow despite good specs)

Why it happens

Many new HP consumer laptops ship with HP Command Center or Windows Modern Standby mode enabled, which locks the system to “Balanced” or “Recommended” power plan. That’s why you can’t change to “High Performance.”

Some models also ship with NVIDIA/AMD GPUs running in “power saving” mode (integrated graphics active instead of discrete GPU).

Background HP software / bloatware (HP Support Assistant, McAfee trial, etc.) eats resources.

If it’s using a low-power CPU (U-series), it may throttle aggressively without telling you.

 

Fixes you can try

Enable full performance power plan

Press Win + R → powercfg.cpl.

If you don’t see “High Performance,” run this in Command Prompt (admin):

• powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

That unlocks the hidden Ultimate Performance plan.

Check GPU usage

In Task Manager → Performance → GPU.

Run Counter-Strike 2 and confirm whether the NVIDIA/AMD GPU is being used, not just Intel integrated.

If not:

Right-click desktop → NVIDIA Control Panel / AMD Adrenalin → Manage 3D settings → set CS2 to High-performance GPU.

Update drivers

Don’t rely on Windows Update. Get the latest GPU driver directly from NVIDIA / AMD.

Install the latest Intel chipset + Wi-Fi drivers from Intel’s site (not HP’s older versions).

Remove bloatware

Uninstall HP Support Assistant, McAfee, and unnecessary background apps.

They hog CPU cycles.

Thermal throttling

Some HP laptops aggressively throttle when hot. Check temps with HWMonitor or HWInfo64.

If CPU is dropping to ~1 GHz under load, it’s thermal or power-limiting.

With these steps, you should be able to get closer to the 70 FPS you’ve seen in videos.

2. Power Plan Locked

Yes — on many new HPs with Modern Standby (S0), Microsoft/HP intentionally removed the ability to switch power plans from the Control Panel.

Expected behavior.

The workaround is the powercfg command I gave above, or adjusting sliders in Settings → System → Power & Battery → Performance Mode.

3. Polish “Ł” Character (Alt + L not working)

By default, Windows doesn’t map Alt+L to “Ł.”

Common Polish shortcuts are:

Right Alt (AltGr) + L → ł

Shift + AltGr + L → Ł

If this isn’t working:

Make sure you have Polish (Programmers) keyboard layout enabled.

Settings → Time & Language → Language & region → Polish → Options → Add keyboard → Polish (Programmers).

To check if another program is overriding it:

Press Win + G (Game Bar), see if Xbox overlay has hotkeys bound.

Or check background apps (some keyboard/macro utilities hijack Alt shortcuts).

The slow performance is almost certainly power plan + GPU not being used properly.

Not being able to change power plans is normal on new HPs, but you can unlock “Ultimate Performance” manually.

For “Ł,” use AltGr + L with the Polish (Programmers) layout.

If my response helped, please mark it as an Accepted Solution! ✅ It helps others and spreads support. 💙 Also, tapping "Yes" on "Was this reply helpful?" makes a big difference! Thanks! 😊

Take care, and have an amazing day!

Regards, 

Hawks_Eye

[Milozs]

Hi,

Thanks for your response. Let’s now just focus on the power plan issue. I have tried enabling the Ultimate Performance plan through Command Prompt, but it doesn’t appear as one of the available battery plans. I believe HP may have locked it.

Is there any way to bypass this limitation, or could you please guide me on how to enable it?

Thank you for your help!

[Hawks_Eye]

We sincerely thank you for your patience and co-operation during this troubleshooting process.

I'm sending you a private message to guide you on the next steps.

To access it, click the private message icon in the upper-right corner of your HP Support Community profile, next to your name.

If this resolves your issue, kindly mark this post as "Accepted Solution" and click "Yes" if it was helpful.

Take care and have a great day!

Regards,

Hawks_Eye