Aspire 5 515-56 So slow it's almost unusable. Only 18 months old.

Hi all.
Hope someone can help as I'm getting ready to throw this out of the window!
This might be a long post, sorry.
Problem:
2 weeks ago, this normally very fast laptop ground to a halt. No extra apps, etc downloaded just came out of the blue.
Boot time went from seconds to minutes, (1-5 mins).
Sign in to get to desktop became 1-2 mins, (and then an extra 45sec - 1 Min to get the taskbar to appear).
Clicking any button is very laggy, (sometimes 20-30 secs before it registers), and then sometimes minutes before link is opened up. Same for local folders or web apps!!
Wifi speed has dropped through the floor. Makes watching any video whether through YT, NetFlix etc impossible.
Conducted a test earlier. Cell phone can get DL speed of 420 Mbps, the above laptop 50Mbps despite being on the same network. Normal speed for the laptop is 750-900Mbps.

Attempted solutions:
Everything I could find here and YT to start for speeding up, (nothing worked)
Tested drives, ram, processer etc. No problems found through Speccy Pro, crystaldiskinfo etc.(all came up as good, (99% for C and 100% for D)
Tested both drives in another laptop, (no issues)
Did a clean reset to drive C (didn't stop the problems) Wiped drive D and still problems persist.

The only thing I can think of is there were a number, (5) of very sort power cuts one evening a few week ago, (I'm talking secs each time), whilst the laptop was on charge. It now will only show that it is charged to 96%. If I now unplug it, the laptop turns off immediatley. Still so slow on mains charge though!
Could it be that? Could the battery be fried?? Would getting another battery possibly resolve this issue?

Specs:
Acer Aspire 5 515-56 Running Windows 11 Home
Processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz 2.42 GHz
Installed RAM 20.0 GB (19.8 GB usable)

Edition Windows 11 Home
Version 22H2
Installed on ‎22/‎07/‎2023
OS build 22621.1992
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22644.1000.0

If anyone has any clues on how to resolve this I would be very appreciative.

Thanks in advance.

Pete

Accepted answers

All comments

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/689068/aspire-5-515-56-so-slow-its-almost-unusable-only-18-months-old

Check your Sata HDD, if you have one, and replace it for a 2.5" SSD if the HDD is slowing down (HW issues). Build 2070 is the latest Windows11 Home 22H2 version, Check for updates.

Your RAM 20.0 GB: It has a soldered 4Gb and a 16GB DDR4 module in the removable RAM slot. This combination is not running in Dual Channel mode. Check Task Manager, Performance tab>Memory what your speed is, should be 2667MHz. To get Dual Channel mode replace your 16GB DDR4 with a 4GB DDR4 identical to the soldered 4GB DDR4 module. To find the part number of the soldered module, run CPU-Z or WMIC in the Command prompt: wmic memorychip list full and Google the part number, if it is a MICRON chip make sure that the last 4 digits match with what you buy as that is the CL (timing) of the module and very important for Dual Channel mode.

8GB RAM is sufficient for Windows11 Home, I have the 515-54G (2020) model with many programs (Office, Adobe) and never use more than 4GB. System management is also very important, get rid of junk files and bloatware, uninstall 3rd party AV like Norton, Avast, etc. Only use Defender. Set Edge as your default browser.

Puraw

I am unable to reply to your question, so I sent you a message instead.

Puraw

@ChuckMacaber
Check your Sata HDD, if you have one, and replace it for a 2.5" SSD if the HDD is slowing down (HW issues). Build 2070 is the latest Windows11 Home 22H2 version, Check for updates.

Your RAM 20.0 GB: It has a soldered 4Gb and a 16GB DDR4 module in the removable RAM slot. This combination is not running in Dual Channel mode. Check Task Manager, Performance tab>Memory what your speed is, should be 2667MHz. To get Dual Channel mode replace your 16GB DDR4 with a 4GB DDR4 identical to the soldered 4GB DDR4 module. To find the part number of the soldered module, run CPU-Z or WMIC in the Command prompt: wmic memorychip list full and Google the part number, if it is a MICRON chip make sure that the last 4 digits match with what you buy as that is the CL (timing) of the module and very important for Dual Channel mode.

8GB RAM is sufficient for Windows11 Home, I have the 515-54G (2020) model with many programs (Office, Adobe) and never use more than 4GB. System management is also very important, get rid of junk files and bloatware, uninstall 3rd party AV like Norton, Avast, etc. Only use Defender. Set Edge as your default browser.

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/689068/aspire-5-515-56-so-slow-its-almost-unusable-only-18-months-old

I've got the exact same laptop and have had it for the same period of time, its just bad luck but you should always have aany PC plugged into a power surge proacted power board as that is crucial for all electronic circuitries, its too late now, as telling you this won't solve your problem😁

Trey this first:

Do a Hard Reset by undoing the back cover, take the main battery out, disconnect the rtc/bios battery and short this batteries mainboard plugs red + & black - plug pins to reset the CMOS and take the ram out, leave everything disconnected for 15 min so that the Super IO, bios and chipset chips are reset, after this time reconnect all the components except the ram if you have 2x ram modules only connect one and see if the laptop reboots and resets, if it doesn't then take the 1st ram module out and try the 2nd ram module.

This is what commonly happens with a power surge, so this is what could have happened with your Aspire A515-56:

Power surge can affect a laptop that is charging, and the adapter is plugged in. Power surges occur when an electrical charge is sent suddenly through the lines. These cause spikes in the typical power flowing through an outlet: power and phone outlets1. When a laptop is the victim of a power surge, the effects range from no damage to inoperable1. The charger is what supplies power to your laptop and is the first thing to be hit. If you notice your battery no longer charges or takes much longer to charge, your charger is probably damaged. In addition to the charger, your battery can be damaged as well. It may run down quicker or not hold a charge at all1. Unfortunately, a power surge can render your charger and/or your battery fairly useless. If your laptop is not charging due to a power surge, you can try the following:

Try plugging the power cord into a different outlet to see if you’ve got a short or a blown fuse.
If it’s plugged into a surge protector or power strip, take it out and plug it directly into the wall.
Check the integrity of the battery. If you are using a laptop that comes with a removable battery, then take the battery out and hold down the power button for around 30 seconds in order to drain any extra power from the machine. Then, plug in the power supply cable and switch on your laptop.
Unfortunately, a power surge can render your charger and/or your battery fairly useless. Your battery may no longer take a charge, may require substantially more time to charge fully, or may exhaust its battery charge more quickly. These problems could be attributed to failures within the charger or within the battery itself.

If all the above doesn't work then you need to take your laptop to either Acer Support in your country or to an experienced technician that can test and analyze what happened to your laptop from these power outages, as it could have affected the ram, vcore or at worse the gpu or cpu performance which could be critical.

ChuckMacaber

Hi Steven Gen.

Many thanks for info. I've tried your suggestions to the letter but alas, no success I'm afraid.

Forgot to mention in my original post that laptop was plugged into a surge protector. It does however appear to be a battery issue as I cannot now replace the back cover after removing and then replacing the battery.. It appears to have swelled slightly. I've removed and replaced the back a number of times in the past to add ram, ssd etc so not a noob there.

Also, 4gb ram is soldered into the MB so I can't remove that to take it out of the equation. So removing the extra16gb and replacing it with the original 4gb stick (making a total of 8gb) also made no difference to performance.

Thanks for the

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/689068/aspire-5-515-56-so-slow-its-almost-unusable-only-18-months-old

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1218755#Comment_1218755

@ChuckMacaber
But did you get exactly the same 4GB DDR4 as soldered on the MOBO or just any 4GB module. It needs to an identical module (kit) to run in Dual Channel mode 2667 MHz.

ChuckMacaber

Hi Puraw

Yes I did. I replaced the 16gb stick with the original removable 4gb stick that came with the laptop.

Both the 16gb and the 4gb were running at 2667Mhz.

Made certain the original 4gb stick was in dual channel mode too but no improvement unfortunately.

As I mentioned, I had no issues with the laptop for around 18 months using the 16gb stick and running the 1tb ssd m.2 drive that was installed and the 2tb 2.5 Sata ssd that I added.

All the issues began around 2 weeks ago

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1218949#Comment_1218949

Check your Sata HDD, if you have one, and replace it for a 2.5" SSD if the HDD is slowing down (HW issues). Build 2070 is the latest Windows11 Home 22H2 version, Check for updates.

Your RAM 20.0 GB: It has a soldered 4Gb and a 16GB DDR4 module in the removable RAM slot. This combination is not running in Dual Channel mode. Check Task Manager, Performance tab>Memory what your speed is, should be 2667MHz. To get Dual Channel mode replace your 16GB DDR4 with a 4GB DDR4 identical to the soldered 4GB DDR4 module. To find the part number of the soldered module, run CPU-Z or WMIC in the Command prompt: wmic memorychip list full and Google the part number, if it is a MICRON chip make sure that the last 4 digits match with what you buy as that is the CL (timing) of the module and very important for Dual Channel mode.

8GB RAM is sufficient for Windows11 Home, I have the 515-54G (2020) model with many programs (Office, Adobe) and never use more than 4GB. System management is also very important, get rid of junk files and bloatware, uninstall 3rd party AV like Norton, Avast, etc. Only use Defender. Set Edge as your default browser.

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1218949#Comment_1218949

You have to replicate the specs of the DDR4 that is soldered, not the specs of the 16GB DDR4 in the slot. Run this WMIC line in the Command Prompt: wmic memorychip list full and note the part number of the 4GB soldered DDR4 (probably a Micron) or run CPU-Z and get the part number there. Google that part number and buy exactly the same module, it is not just the MHz frequency that counts but Brand, CL, Rank and a lot of other items that need to match to qualify for Dual Channel mode. What speed is Task Manager, Performance, Memory indicating: 1300 or 2667 MHz?

Puraw

@ChuckMacaber

You need to get the part number of the DDR soldered not the specs. of the 16GB in the removable slot. Run CPU-Z to find the part number or paste this in the Command Prompt: wmic memorychip list full
Google that part number and buy exactly the same, it is not just the frequency that matters but lots of other items need to match for Dual Channel mode. What speed is listed in Task Manager, Performance tab, Memory? 1300 or 2667 MHz?

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