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I have 3 year old Dell 5520 Mobile Workstation; with 16GB RAM i7-7820HQ Processor. 256 SSD. Windows 10 Pro.

It is getting old (I've had it for three years, getting it as a refurbished model from a reliable source). It has been used heavily. However, it is starting to slow down, as if it cannot manage day-to-day activities, even just surfing the web. I have since had to move to a more recent model in the Mobile Workstation range. Regularly, I do return to this laptop for other tasks. I was surprised at its slowing down.

I have deleted 95% of stored information from the SSD. I have deleted several apps that are no longer required on the laptop. I frequently run Dell's optimization processes/ Dell SupportAssist. Am just surprised that it feels this slow. I know there will be questions as to what I mean by slow, but I feel there is a lag that shouldn't be there, given memory isn't stacked out and that I have 16GB to play with and a fairly recent i7 processor.

Is it just getting 'old'? (as said, I've had it for three years, but I got it refurbished, so perhaps this item is upwards of 4 years old?)? Has the Laptop/ the parts reached the end of their life?

Just to add, I think the Laptop could be of value to others (if I sell on/ give it away), as its slowness is prohibitive for me, as I work quickly, moving through tasks and activities rapidly and so it won't do for me but may be of value to others who are not using it in high work volume contexts.

Ramhound
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James T C
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1 Answers1

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Your laptop spec is good and should last you another 3 years once the performance issue is resolved.

in my experience this usually happens when the dell charger goes bad. Modern chargers communicate their power, current, voltage ratings to the laptop. if the charger is faulty and is not communicating that information to the laptop then the laptop will throttle the CPU to a very slow speed.

if this is the case then you will have seen a "AC adapter unknown" boot up message at some point. you should be able check by following these steps:

  1. Reboot the laptop
  2. When the Dell logo appears, tap F2 key until the message Entering Setup appears
  3. Under "POST Behaviour" ensure the "enable adapter errors" option is checked.
  4. Save your settings and restart with the AC adapter plugged in.

if you get an "AC adapter unknown" message on start up this will be the reason the laptop is running slow.

if not then the other most likely reason is as mentioned by Mokubai in the comments that the heatsink thermal paste needs to be replaced.

SR3142
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