Laptop has been slower for weeks, not hotter
A BIOS or EC firmware bug can set power limits wrongly. CPU clocks low while temperatures are fine, so it does not look like thermal throttling.
Try this first
- 1Install HWInfo64 (Windows) or similar and watch CPU frequency live under load. Staying well below turbo spec at low temperatures means power limiting is the cause.
- 2Check your laptop manufacturer's site (Dell, HP, Lenovo, Framework) for BIOS updates from the last few months. Read release notes for 'performance regression' or 'power profile'.
- 3After the update, reset BIOS settings to defaults. Performance profiles can sit on a conservative value.
- 4Also check if Windows is on a Power Saver profile instead of Best Performance. That feeds straight into max CPU frequency.
When to bring us in
When a whole fleet of Dells or HPs slowed down at once, it is almost always a collective firmware miss. We push a fleet update via WSUS or Intune and monitor the result.
See also
- My laptop is suddenly slowThree main suspects: a runaway background process, near-full disk, or a Windows update in progress.
- One specific application is slow for everyoneIf an app is slow for one person: local. For everyone at once: server side or vendor side.
- Opening files from the file server takes minutesOften the server itself is fine and the issue is network routing or stalling DNS resolution.
None of the above fits?
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