Overall performance decrease - Nitro 5

Quetzal

I purchased a Nitro 5 about 6 months ago, and the laptop has had an extreme decrease in performance.
Doing a quick Razor Cortex diagnostics report, I found this repeated 6 times.

1201 - Time : 10/23/2020 09:11:25

1202 - Source : disk

1203 - Description : The device, \Device\Harddisk0\DR0, has a bad block.
I'm curious as to whether or not this means a hardware issue, and if I should hand it over to Acer support if so.

JackE

Press WIN+R. Enter 'diskmgmt.msc'. Right click on C : partition. Click Tools tab. Click check drive for errors. Post results here. Jack E/NJ

Quetzal

JackE said:

Press WIN+R. Enter 'diskmgmt.msc'. Right click on C : partition. Click Tools tab. Click check drive for errors. Post results here. Jack E/NJ

These were my options.
A scan of Acer (C:) showed no issues.

JackE

>>>A scan of Acer (C:) showed no issues.>>>

Disable any non-Microsoft virus scanners. Then press Win+R. Enter 'mrt'. Click quick scan.  Jack E/NJ 

ailsa99

1. Please press Windows + R to open the Run box, typing cmd and Run as administrator.
2. Input chkdsk C: /f /r /x and hit Enter to execute. (Change the C: with the drive letter of the partition that contains the bad block)

The CHKDSK will check and repair bad sectors or other errors on C:. 

The /f parameter tells CHKDSK to fix any errors it finds, 

The /r tells it to locate the bad sectors on the drive and recover readable information, 

The /x forces the drive to dismount before the process starts.

Try and check if it solved.

Good Luck

Quetzal

JackE said:

>>>A scan of Acer (C:) showed no issues.>>>

Disable any non-Microsoft virus scanners. Then press Win+R. Enter 'mrt'. Click quick scan.  Jack E/NJ 

Scan showed no signs of malicious software.

JackE

Shut down Windows  normally. Then turn the machine back on again. After it's fully booted, press FN+F3 to turn off wifi (airplane mode). Then open TaskManager processes tab before doing anything else. What's your best guesstimate of the average CPU and Disk percent usage just sitting there doing nothing? Jack E/NJ 

Quetzal

This is what I saw as I booted up.
As of late, checking Task Manager showed around %70 Memory usage and almost nothing else, aside from random Disk spikes to %100.

JackE

I'm looking for estimated averages after the machine settles down after booting and before you start loading programs and applications and using the machine. I'm looking for an average estimate from you, not a screenshot of an instant in time because the percentages wildly jump around until the machine settles down after booting. It may take about 10 minutes for  the machine to settle down. There is no way RAM memory usage should be averaging as high as 70% if you haven't loaded anything yourself.  It should average between 25-35% for a machine with 8GB RAM. Jack E/NJ

Quetzal

JackE said:

I'm looking for estimated averages after the machine settles down after booting and before you start loading programs and applications and using the machine. I'm looking for an average estimate from you, not a screenshot of an instant in time because the percentages wildly jump around until the machine settles down after booting. It may take about 10 minutes for  the machine to settle down. There is no way RAM memory usage should be averaging as high as 70% if you haven't loaded anything yourself.  It should average between 25-35% for a machine with 8GB RAM. Jack E/NJ

Average usage after restart and settling is, I'd estimate:
%35-40 Memory
%2-4 CPU
%5-10 Disk
%1-3 GPU
Results fluctuate after opening apps.
Windows will occasionally increase Disk Usage for things like the System process.

JackE

>>>%35-40 Memory>>>

All look good except RAM if you have 8GB. Do you see any processes or apps using  0.4GB or 400MB or more of RAM? Jack E/NJ

rich1974

how did you detect the decrease? i mean, have you done some sintetic tests before and after? this decrease might be just a perception.

first time do some cinebench 15/20 tests and compare it to others.

second time, if your machine came with a preinstalled windows, it would be a good idea to do a fresh install.

Quetzal

JackE said:

>>>%35-40 Memory>>>

All look good except RAM if you have 8GB. Do you see any processes or apps using  0.4GB or 400MB or more of RAM? Jack E/NJ

With no tabs other than the home screen, chrome uses just around 400 MB. Things like youtube will increase it by 100-200 MB with a single tab.
Steam uses 300MB when open.

Quetzal

rich1974 said:

how did you detect the decrease? i mean, have you done some sintetic tests before and after? this decrease might be just a perception.

first time do some cinebench 15/20 tests and compare it to others.

second time, if your machine came with a preinstalled windows, it would be a good idea to do a fresh install.

It was with gaming. I don't know if the change was an instant change or I had just noticed it, but SCP: Secret Laboratory had started freezing frequently during play.
Going back to games I used to play, like Hitman 2 or Team Fortress 2, I found that they were completely unplayable due to constant freezing.

I'll try out what you've recommended.

JackE

What game-play temps are you seeing? Jack E/NJ

Quetzal

JackE said:

What game-play temps are you seeing? Jack E/NJ

About ten minutes of online Minecraft got me:
CPU: Average 80°, with a maximum of 95°
GPU: Average of 66°, with a maximum of 78°
Measurements in Celsius.

JackE

>>>CPU: Average 80°, with a maximum of 95°>>>

Throttling will happen if temps above 94*C persist for more than 10-20 seconds or repeatedly & quickly cycle above & below this temp. You maight want to try to alternately vacuum the air intake port and blow air into the air exhaust ports a few times to dislodge and dust debris that may have accumulated on the fan blades and heat sink fins. If no improvement, you should consider re-pasting the CPU's heatsink with a better quality paste like Kryonaut or ArcticMX4 since high temps tend to dry the paste. Jack E/NJ