Very slow HP Pavillion laptop

[truckerDave]

I've got an older HP Pavillion that, when new, was a respectable machine. It was my mother's and over the years it kept getting slower and slower. Taking a good 5 minutes to get to ready state. I finally upgraded her to a desktop since she never used the lappy as a lappy.

I thought the issue was a Windows issue. Fragged hard drive or something. I installed Mint and did away with Windows.

However, this did nothing for speed. A machine that at one time maybe took a minute or minute 30 to get up and running using Windows still takes 4+ minutes to load Mint.

I know it needs a new battery. It tells me so every time and will only operate plugged in to the wall. But I don't want to spend money on the battery if I can't speed it back up.

Is this possibly a hard drive going bad? Maybe RAM going bad? How do I test this thing to find out what needs replaced?

 

[Brickwizard]

on the manufacture's plate find the full model number and post it or for ease if you have mint installed run
inxi -Fnxx and past back the result.

 

[truckerDave]

Thanks for your time @Brickwizard !

Results of inxi -Fnxx

System:
  Host: davelappy Kernel: 5.15.0-133-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 11.4.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 6.0.4 tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin dm: LightDM
    Distro: Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Pavilion 17 Notebook PC
    v: 0975100000405F10000620180 serial: 5CD4522TMY Chassis: type: 10
    serial: N/A
  Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 227F v: 77.35 serial: PEMKL018J7S0IP
    UEFI: Insyde v: F.34 date: 12/19/2014
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 9.0 Wh (100.0%) condition: 9.0/9.0 Wh (100.0%)
    volts: 16.9 min: 14.8 model: Hewlett-Packard Primary serial: N/A
    status: Full
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i3-4030U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Haswell rev: 1 cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1896 min/max: 800/1900 cores: 1: 1896 2: 1896 3: 1896
    4: 1896 bogomips: 15165
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: i915 v: kernel ports: active: eDP-1 empty: HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:0a16
  Device-2: Chicony HP Truevision HD camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo
    bus-ID: 1-1.3:3 chip-ID: 04f2:b40e
  Display: server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1600x900 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: AU Optronics res: 1600x900 dpi: 106
    diag: 438mm (17.2")
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 4400 (HSW GT2)
    v: 4.6 Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.3 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0 chip-ID: 8086:0a0c
  Device-2: Intel 8 Series HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:9c20
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-133-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8188EE Wireless Network Adapter
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: rtl8188ee v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: 4000 bus-ID: 08:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8179
  IF: wlo1 state: down mac: 74:29:af:70:25:03
  Device-2: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: 3000 bus-ID: 09:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8136
  IF: eno1 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: 38:63:bb:ab:00:07
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 18.42 GiB (2.0%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD10JPVX-60JC3T0
    size: 931.51 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: WD-WXD1E845SCU0
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 915.32 GiB used: 18.41 GiB (2.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 39.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 230 Uptime: 6m Memory: 5.71 GiB used: 1.92 GiB (33.7%)
  Init: systemd v: 249 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 alt: 11/12
  Packages: 2327 apt: 2320 flatpak: 7 Shell: Sudo v: 1.9.9
  running-in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.3.13

 

[truckerDave]

No outward facing info other than HP Pavillion, core i3 and the beats audio logo.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

If you're referring to slow boot up time 1 minute is reasonable because this laptop doesn't have SSD.
Also CPU is 4th generation dual core which for modern OS's is not that great.

But HDD is the biggest bottleneck for sure.

 

[truckerDave]

If you're referring to slow boot up time 1 minute is reasonable because this laptop doesn't have SSD.
Also CPU is 4th generation dual core which for modern OS's is not that great.

But HDD is the biggest bottleneck for sure.

Yes. Boot up time. But as I said, this thing, when new was way faster running Windows than it is today running Linux. My old 2005 Toshiba laptop is twice as fast booting the same OS as this thing and it has, by far, worse specs.

 

[Brickwizard]

OK not what I was expecting, not long done an update on Granddaughters its 2 yrs newer, the I3 is not going to set the world on fire but for an entry level CPU its reasonable [2 core 4 threads] it has 8gb ram which is sufficient,
the Plate spinner HDD needs to go and a SSD put in its place that's about as much as you can do, also try something a bit lighter than Mint 21 , I put Mint LMDE on hers, also something I don't often do with other makes, check for a bios update

 

[CaffeineAddict]

when new was way faster running Windows than it is today running Linux.

What I'd recommend is to run 2 tests, one for HDD and one for RAM.

RAM test can be done with memtest86+ (6 passes required at a minimum), the program is available in most distros and should be added to grub when installed, and run from there.

and for HDD test share output of:

sudo smartctl -av /dev/sdX

Where sdX is is your HDD

 

[Brickwizard]

Oh yes almost forgot, if it's not kept clean inside [airways , fan, cpu fins] then they prone to overheating

 

[theLegionWithin]

early i3, no dedicated gpu, and a hdd. it's only been out of warranty for ~9 years so the ram is probably not the issue.

rip out the hdd and toss it, then get a cheap ssd and use that.

get some quality thermal paste (thermal grizzly), disassemble the laptop, reapply thermal paste under the heat spreader.
used canned air while you're in there to clean out dust on the fan(s)

install a distro that's has low resource utilization - antix, etc.

 

[truckerDave]

RAM test can be done with memtest86+ (6 passes required at a minimum), the program is available in most distros and should be added to grub when installed, and run from there.

Well, I had already read something about that prior to reading your reply. And am already into the 2nd loop of "memtester". Not the same one you mention. No issues yet.

 

[truckerDave]

And maybe it's just me.

All my other machines are newer and more powerful than this thing. Maybe I'm just remembering how "fast " it was back in 2015 when it was new compared to the other 2 older machines I had then. That, and my old Toshiba is running a 10+ year old version of Mint. Pretty sure it's Mint. But haven't had it running in a few years.

 

[Brickwizard]

Depending on where in the world you are, you can pick up a second hand 250gb SATA SSD 2.5 " for around £18 UK or $24.50 US
Difference in read write speed will depend on make and bus speed but an average comparison is

Max. Read Speed

HDD 120-210 MB/s

SSD 3500-5000 MB/s

 

[truckerDave]

Depending on where in the world you are, you can pick up a second hand 250gb SATA SSD 2.5 " for around £18 UK or $24.50 US
Difference in read write speed will depend on make and bus speed but an average comparison is

Max. Read Speed

HDD 120-210 MB/s

SSD 3500-5000 MB/s

I see they have SATA I, II and III. Does it matter on a machine this old? As one can tell, I'm not up to date on HD tech.

 

[Brickwizard]

Its SATA 3, If you get a SATA 4 it will still only run at SATA 3 speed check its Linux compatible [The main brands are but some of the cheaper ones may not be].

 

[Brickwizard]

Think about changing the battery at the same time

 

[truckerDave]

Think about changing the battery at the same time

That's the plan. Eyeballing Kingston SATA 3 256GB SSD. Guess they're still a good name.

 

[Brickwizard]

Guess they're still a good name.

one of my preferred and Linux compatible

but do check the connections on the old one first.

 

[truckerDave]

install a distro that's has low resource utilization - antix, etc.

antiX looks promising. Any idea if I'll be able to run FreeCad on it. Looking to take it with me on the road and design parts in my down time for 3d printing.

 

[MikeWalsh]

@truckerDave :-

In all honesty, you could do worse than install Puppy on there. You're not a noob, you have experience with Linux already, so I have no issues with recommending you take a look.

The Debian-based Bookwormpup64 is the current 'flagship' Puppy.....and I know for a fact that FreeCAD runs on there - my 'portable' package based around the AppImage definitely does - because we've proved it.

Bookwormpup64 10.0.10

You can download the ISO from the main thread I've linked to. It won't be so different from what you're used to, since Puppy is now beginning to embrace Synaptic; the biggest difference will be NOT needing to use 'sudo', because Puppy runs-as-root anyway.....and some of the terminal commands will be a bit different.

DON'T try installing with Etcher; it doesn't work with Puppy, because the file-system Etcher expects to find doesn't actually exist until after Puppy has booted.....and the collection of highly-compressed SFS packages it does find, it doesn't know what to do with. The SFS packages get decompressed into a 'virtual' filesystem in RAM, and it's from here that Puppy runs for the session. It's no wonder Etcher gets confused....

UNetbootin - despite being considered 'old-hat' - will work fine for installing Puppy. I've used it myself, on more than one occasion, although I normally perform a quick'n'dirty manual copy along with a manual grub.cfg edit.

(Do be aware that forum access times are a bit slow at present; our Admin, rockedge, is having server "issues" ATM...and the provider is NOT being very helpful!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Speed is ALL relative, mate. Things seemed faster years ago, because the software was considerably lighter to begin with.....and therefore, it didn't take half as much in the way of 'grunt' to run 'em.

The use of far more complex libraries and way more complex software, along with the corresponding need for more powerful hardware to cope with it all, ah, hell; they call this 'progress', y'know?


Mike.