Brand new Samsung laptop... slow and freezes!!

[joeyh51]

Hi all,

I've just got this new Samsung laptop (Samsung 4 Series NP-400B5B-S02UK) and I must say I'm extremely disappointed with it. As soon as I got it out the box I've had issues with it, it runs VERY slow some of the time.
I usually run chrome, outlook, photoshop cs5.5 and adobe bridge at the same time, usually no more than that, and it freezes up occasionally when I'm trying to switch between programs or sometimes doing things within the program already open.

Outlook crashes and freezes ALL the time, like whenever I try and open/write/reply/read or basically do anything with a new email.

I was just wondering if anyone had come across a bad Samsung laptop before and if there are any fixes? I've already completely wiped the system and re-installed windows, but it hasn't seemed to have done a thing, its still just as slow.

Specs are:

i5-2410M Processor - 2.3GHz
4GB RAM
500GB Hard Drive (5400rpm this speed was a worry)
Nvidia GT420M Graphics
Windows 7 Pro (64 Bit)

I just can't get my head round why a decently specced system runs so slow, even on start up, I'll leave it 5 mins to settle down and still it'll take ages to open programs and generally spin out. If I had the option I'd send it straight back and/or scrap it!!

Any help would be massively appreciated!

 

[cyber69]

If I had the option I'd send it straight back and/or scrap it!!

Don't you have the option to send it back? Where did you buy it from?

 

[joeyh51]

I'm querying that at the moment... it's a company laptop so I have to go through the proper authorities (I threatened to throw it out the window so hopefully that should speed things up)

Bought from Misco

 

[Purgatory]

Check your power options in windows 7, Try the High performance setting and make sure all settings are maxed in there first. I know this silly power management windows has added in some cases does not always work well with laptops and can make the systems slow or behave in a strange manner. Just type "Power options" in the start menu and you will see the option there. Also maybe worth doing a fresh install of Windows and setting it all up yourself with all the latest drivers and also a full format may help the hard drive work better, remember to defrag the system too and mayeb clear out the prefetch folder and restart the system so it recreates the prefetch data in a better manner and check in the task scheduler and startup too for anything starting up there that is not needed. You have a decent latop there and should work faster than what you state.

 

[joeyh51]

Check your power options in windows 7, Try the High performance setting and make sure all settings are maxed in there first. I know this silly power management windows has added in some cases does not always work well with laptops and can make the systems slow or behave in a strange manner. Just type "Power options" in the start menu and you will see the option there.

Already done

Also maybe worth doing a fresh install of Windows and setting it all up yourself with all the latest drivers and also a full format may help the hard drive work better

Already done

remember to defrag the system too and mayeb clear out the prefetch folder and restart the system so it recreates the prefetch data in a better manner

Already done

and check in the task scheduler and startup too for anything starting up there that is not needed.

Already done

This is something I really can't figure out, I know my way around a computer system so tried all the usual stuff, formatted and clean install, installed all the drivers myself so didn't get all the generic manufacturer crap that comes with most new laptops these days. Defrag, clean up, registry, as little things at start up as possible etc etc, but it still runs slow and occasionally freezes.

I'm baffled

 

[Purgatory]

You have made sure the intel rapid storage technology drivers are installed and seeing the hard drive at the correct UDMA setting ? If you have done that and it still takes ages to start up and open programs it could be a bad hard drive or a drive that has been set to a quiet mode or eco mode that makes it run slower than the 5400rpm it can do, maybe worth checking the machine with another hard drive or see if you can ask Samsung for a tool to check what the hard drive is set at to run. I'm sure there is some tools that can allow you to check the drive and what it can be set at. Will try remember what tools can check for that later tonight, it looks at the drives firmware and can basically change the UDMA setting, spin speed and noise levels the drive produces. Also make sure in the BIOS the drive is picked up right.


If you try another drive and it still does the same thing I would send it back it sounds faulty that system should run pretty fast for everyday tasks.


You can also try here as Samsung HDD is now part of Seagate and all the Samsung tools are on the link below. Just find out what drive you have in the laptop and use their tools to test it and maybe they have the option to change the spin speed and noise levels to make the drive operate faster. Also running such a tool may show if it has a fault too.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=ef2e2e32b3223310VgnVCM1000001a48090aRCRD