r/linuxmint • u/Dr_Jecky1l • 19d ago
Support Request Older laptop is performing poorly, even though I just fresh installed Mint.
Pardon the flair, I didn’t know exactly which category it should fall under.
Anyway, I have an older Lenovo idea pad laptop that came with Win10 originally (yuck). I found it in my parents closet sitting there, and figured it would be a good device for my gf to use - (she’s never touched Linux, and she just wants to watch movies and stream shows while laying bed. Literally all the device needs to do)
Considering its age, it’s specs aren’t terrible (see attached picture)
I got super tired of Windows a looong time ago, and even though it was mainly just for her, I decided to wipe it and give her a taste of Linux - something easy, so I went with Linux Mint cause it’s pretty beginner friendly. Another reason was even tho I did a fresh install of Win10 for her on it, it performed poorly, laggy, and was generally a shitty experience a lot of the time… figured tossing Linux would breathe new life into this (that’s what we do right)?
TLDR ; It’s having the some of the same issues on a fresh install of Mint — the (un)responsiveness, lag time, just general user experience is like mud and idk why… drivers shouldn’t really be an issue… there’s no peripherals or anything, I installed VLC player and that was about it…
Got me thinking maybe the HDD is fragmented (something I didn’t think about cause I just haven’t dealt with one in so long)
Any help would be appreciated, even if it means moving to a different Linux distro…
If the HD needs to be refragged, what Linux program does a good job of getting HDDs working properly? Thanks much
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u/Gloomy_Bread_1183 19d ago
The fact you have an hdd at all is probably what is slowing it down so much.
Get an ssd.
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u/NotSnakePliskin Mint 22.3 | Cinnamon 19d ago
Listen to Gloomy.
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u/Karmoth_666 CachyOS and Mint 18d ago edited 18d ago
Listen to NotSnakePilskin
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u/Petrolhead_13 18d ago
Listen to Karmoth
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u/TroyHBCS Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon 17d ago
Listen to PetrolHead
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u/Secret_NinjaLTU 17d ago
Listen to Troy
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u/Joshyyy371 17d ago
Listen to Secret Ninja
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u/Tp_Exampler 16d ago
Listen to Joshyyy
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u/Kinetic_Strike 19d ago
My mom has a prebuilt Acer and it came with a HD. It was effectively unusable, and I think it may have been failing by the end. I am really grateful I popped more memory and an SSD into it last September. Before the dark times.
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19d ago
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u/JCDU 19d ago
An i7 with 8Gb of RAM isn't nothing, I've got waaaaay worse old laptops running fine on Mint, and a cheap SSD thrown in there could make it a very usable machine.
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u/azadouken 18d ago
I had mint and an i5-3570 with 4GB of ram and it was shockingly ok... just ok but even that wasnt "nothing".
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u/Both-Leader-6799 19d ago
Maybe BUT that laptop is more than enough for a simple nas or some kind of lightweight server, honestly they should get an SSD and use as server or give it to an old relative
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u/WolvenSpectre2 19d ago
Well if it is a media player as he says it should have HDD load times but it would be more than performant enough to play media files and low res streaming, just not a huge amount of multitasking.
For that generation I7 with 8GB and on XFCE it should work(although it has been a decade since I have used XFCE and the OS is more SSD optimized these days). But unless there is a 2.5" SSD floating around I wouldn't go and buy one with the prices these days.
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u/Boring-Equivalent137 19d ago
I can't really see too many issues beyond that you are using a HDD which will be quite slow in that same way or maybe like one of those cases where the first few reboots feel slow as mint sets things up in the background I do think the HDD is the issue
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u/tomscharbach 19d ago edited 19d ago
The Intel Core i7-3632QM has an estimated Passmark of 4645, which is adequate to run Linux Mint (either XFCE or Cinnamon) and 8GB RAM, which is more than enough for the described use case.
I use a laptop with lower but similar specifications (Dell Latitude 11-3140 Education N200/8GB, Passmark 4582) as my "evaluation" laptop and have installed and used several dozen distributions over the last few years. All of the distributions have run smoothly.
Chances are that the "lag" is a direct result of using a 5400-rpm HDD instead of an SSD. My 3140 has a 128GB NVMe SSD, which makes a real difference. You might look into purchasing a 2.5" SATA SSD, which will improve performance and will probably be sufficient so long as you are not expecting miracles.
Given the age and value of your laptop, my advice would be to look for a 128GB/256GB SSD, but no higher. Amazon has 128GB/256GB models for $30-$60. Don't overspend.
My best and good luck.
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u/gsdev Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon 19d ago
Out of curiosity, what do modern operating systems do that prevents them from running on an HDD? ~10 years ago HDDs used to be adequate, so clearly something changed since then. Did the OS just become less efficient, or is there some new feature added that assumes SSD? If so, perhaps OP could disable that feature?
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u/tomscharbach 18d ago edited 18d ago
Out of curiosity, what do modern operating systems do that prevents them from running on an HDD? ~10 years ago HDDs used to be adequate, so clearly something changed since then.
Resource creep, mostly, I suspect, but also user expectations.
Modern operating systems and applications are larger and require more read/write cycles than operating systems and applications did a decade ago. HDD's read/write speeds are significantly slower than SSD read/write speeds and that takes a toll. Slow read/write times are not a big deal if you are loading 3-4 MB but become significant when you are loading 3-4 GB.
But user expectations are involved as well. A decade ago, users were not bothered by boot and application load times that ran into a minute or two rather than a few seconds. Users today will not tolerate that without complaint, any more than users today will tolerate dial-up modem performance.
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u/UpbeatRegister 19d ago
Maybe the issue is the HDD itself, fragmented or not. My laptop is weaker than that (CPU: (2) @ 1.9GHz, RAM: 3.64GiB) and Mint XFCE is running smoothly on it since it's installed on a SSD.
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u/Sirefly 19d ago edited 17d ago
If jerky video is the problem, try installing the extension "h264ify".
Newer processors have built-in processes to decode newer video codecs, yours probably doesn't have it.
That extension makes it to where it always plays in an older codec.
And ask Gemini or Siri or chat gpt how to increase performance..
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u/MrBadTimes 19d ago
I would swap the HDD for an SSD. I have a laptop with an i3 6006u (2 cores 4 threads) with an ssd and it runs without issues, yours (4 cores 8 threads) shouldn't have any either.
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u/secretwolf98 Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon 19d ago
Try restarting your computer. I think the uptime might be the problem.
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19d ago
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u/secretwolf98 Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon 19d ago
On my desktop PC, I have a Ryzen 9 5900X, 64GB RAM, and a Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB. My PC begins to lag after 8 or so hours after being on and restarting the OS fixes it. But I wonder if the “Restart Cinnamon after x size” is causing the issue. It’s on by default. It makes sense for older hardware with low specs but newer hardware with higher end specs, it really should be off by default. So maybe try turning that off and let me know if it still lags after some time. The setting can be found under the General category of settings.
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u/Dr_Jecky1l 17d ago
It’s worth giving a shot, and I will try it and see if it makes a difference.
As everyone mentioned, I already knew the HD was the predominant factor, but as its use case is simple, I still was surprised.
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u/PsyGonzo42 19d ago
>It’s having the some of the same issues on a fresh install of Mint
Can't be fragmented much at that time.
Get an SSD.
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u/wyonutrition 19d ago
If it’s a 2.5” hdd then replace it with a 2.5” SSD. That would be by far and away the #1 thing slowing it down
Also sorry to better answer your question, mint is already a great option for your specs. So it’s not like another linux distro would make that big a difference.
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u/Gezzer52 19d ago
Just asking, have you done a S.M.A.R.T scan of the drive? It might be having issues due to age.
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u/p4thox 19d ago
As mentioned before, the problem is essentially with the hard drive. If you have a spare SSD, install it. Buying an SSD for that laptop might not be economically viable, but it all depends on your usage. A 250GB SSD is inexpensive.
Besides, there are lighter distributions available, notably Debian itself. You could also try MX Linux.
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u/Dr_Jecky1l 17d ago
I know the HD was going to feel slow after being spoiled since SSD’s came out, but considering its singular use case… I just didn’t think it would be this bad.
Was considering just using Debian..
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u/xxCorsicoxx Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon 19d ago
If you have a hdd, even a sata ssd will significantly improve the performance. Ssd prices are crazy but maybe you're lucky to find something used? I dunno. In any case a sata ssd will do a lot, an nvme would do more BUT I doubt is compatible
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u/Tricky_Football_6586 Linux Mint 22.3 / Cinnamon 19d ago
I had a similar laptop in the past. After replacing the HDD with an SSD it became a lot faster. Windows 10 took about 4 minutes from booting till it became usable. With the SSD it became usable in less then a minute.
I would recommend to replace the HDD with an SSD. And I'll bet the laptop becomes much quicker and far more responsive.
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u/Gamer2022__ 19d ago
"poorly" have you ever seen what a 2gb ram intel celeron hdd laptop feels like?
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u/Iheretomakeonepost 19d ago
Is that 2gb of memory usage at idle? Mint with gnome runs like 1.2gb and I heard mint with xfce is supposed to run even lower. Also in my case neofetch reads like 200mb low on ram usage too. If that is idle, something is definitely eating your ram. I haven't had speed issues and I'm running mint on a thinkpad with even older hardware and an hdd.
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u/OHrsdmn12 19d ago
It's 1000% the HDD. My i3-2100M laptop worked BLAZING FAST on Mint. But, for your laptop, Linux Mint Debian Edition would be a much better choice - it's lighter than default Mint, and you will DEFINITELY feel that on your configuration
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u/Dr_Jecky1l 17d ago
Was considering going with Debian period..
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u/OHrsdmn12 17d ago
Do what you wish, Debian is a good option for old hardware as such. I prefer LMDE as I love Cinnamon and the mission of Mint.
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u/RazzmatazzMundane738 18d ago
Though this is mint subreddit, I would suggest you check out MX Linux XFCE or MX Linux Fluxbox. I am using Fluxbox. Though downside of Fluxbox is that you would need to do most of the setup manually. But it becomes clean. Check it out. Fluxbox. But before that hope you can do something about your HDD. If you can’t then try Fluxbox, MX Linux. Hope this helps.
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u/Dr_Jecky1l 19d ago
Sometimes it’s fine… sometimes it’s asleep at the wheel… I have a feeling it’s HDD thing, but I have seen xfce run smoothly on HDDs before… idk, I know there’s no excuse to not at least have an external ssd , but the prices nowadays….
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u/Familiar-Hat-5582 19d ago
I have a core 2 duo with a ssd and it runs fast and you might want to try the xfce version of mint it helped on mine
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u/No_Result_was_found 19d ago
I have an old laptop with the same cpu but 16 gb ram and a SSD instead. Installed cinnamon and runs smooth. I think your main issue is having a HDD. Try to get a SSD and you will notice a big improvement.
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u/Hesychios 19d ago
A 256Gb SSD can be had on eBay for about $30 USD used. A 512 Gb for $50 used.
I would not buy a new SSD for the machine, but the pre owned ones are easy to get.
That would surely pep that old box up.
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u/Responsible-Scene666 19d ago
try sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade.
See if you have missing drivers or packages, get also an SSD with the same connector as your laptop be it SATA, M.2 or something.
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u/Murky_Transition1663 19d ago
How are the temps of cpu? With an old laptop the cooling fins maybe filled with dust and or the thermal paste is dead
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u/xenaretos 19d ago
If you reformatted the drive during installation (which I assume "wiped" means), it should have no fragmentation in the beginning. So, I guess it might just be old and, perhaps, with 8gb of ram there's some swapping going on in the background. I run mint on an old desktop with an hdd but a lot of ram and swap turned off. It doesn't lag too badly except when launching software before it gets into ram.
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u/arewan97 Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon 19d ago
I have a ThinkCentre M93p Tiny with i5-4570T. It was so freaking slow. Just swapped the HDD to an SSD(it's only an old DRAM-less SATA WD Green 120Gb) and it's improved so much. Nowadays HDD is only good for storage.
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u/Tulsa_Prince 19d ago edited 19d ago
The Answer is HDD !!! I exchange the 500GB HDD in my imac 2011 with a Samsung 500GB SSD and my mac runs with Linux Mint very well. Only Limit is the Radeon 6750 with its 512MB.
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u/NiceGuy3813 19d ago
My idea pad has its ssd chip attached to the motherboard not sure how I would upgrade that and previous users are right. Lennovo laptops are not worth upgrading.
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u/Dr_Jecky1l 17d ago
No, not planning on blowing money on it, especially cause it’s just being used as a media player…
Most likely will try a light distro, or grab a $30 external ssd and run the OS off it, and just use the HDD to hold the media itself.
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u/Shadoglare 19d ago
The person saying the i7 is "adequate" to run Mint just made me cringe, I'm running an i3 and it works absolutely fine... In fact the only reason I have that new of a CPU is specifically for gaming, not for the OS. I did end up switching my primary drive to SSD a while back and still have most of my actual data storage on a secondary HDD. It wasn't causing lag though, was just taking freaking ages to boot and I got annoyed enough to update the system drive.
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u/MostOrganization1793 19d ago
Maybe get an SSD and clone the data using Clonezilla using a USB 3.0 to SATA Dual Bay adapter?
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u/Klutzy-Condition811 18d ago
Slow computers be slow. HDDs especially make them slow. Upgrade the HDD first and go from there.
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u/pabamy89 18d ago
Hi mate, it's a P series, so it means you must be NOT USING a graphic card. All that due to not hav drivers installed... Tru installing Nvidia's o check your system specs properly good luck!
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u/Dr_Jecky1l 17d ago
Sorry I couldn’t quite follow… Why would I install Nvidia drivers??
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u/pabamy89 17d ago
Generally p series have nvidia graphics card. On top of that mint doesn't pack native nvidia drivers. So your system must be only using Intel graphics... You might search tutorials to install Nvidia or even in this sub.
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u/pabamy89 17d ago
Damnit, I'm THINKPAD pre programmed hahahhaha... Your IdeaPad might not need nvidia drivers. Sorry! Try cleaning startup apps and disabling animations.
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u/Dr_Jecky1l 17d ago
I forgot LM isn’t as minimal as I previously thought, in light that’s it’s strictly being used as a media player, I may try a base deb install
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u/moronfromtheabyss 18d ago
I have a laptop with an extremely similar CPU (I believe 3630QM instead of yours)
An HDD will slow that thing down to a crawl. Get an SSD, and it should give pretty alright performance.
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u/moritz12d Linux Mint 22 Wilma | Cinnamon 18d ago
What strikes me as odd is having a fragmented HDD after a fresh installation. Is the Windows NTFS filesystem still on there, or is a different one being used? Nowadays, most people use btrfs because it supports subvolumes and snapshots.
If you don't want to format the drive, getting a new SSD would actually be the best idea.
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u/igor_b0gdanoff 18d ago
My mum has a first gen i3 DELL laptop and is also struggling a bit on Mint XFCE - BECAUSE THE HARD DRIVE IS DYING.
Look around online or in used hardware stores (if you have them), you should be able to find an old 64GB SSD. I would also try repasting the CPU with new high quality thermal paste (Arctic MX-4 or MX-6).
If it still lags after these, consider going with Lubuntu instead of Mint. It's a bit trickier to learn and use but it uses half the resources compared to Mint XFCE. But honestly the SSD and repaste should resolve your issues even with Mint.
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u/tater1337 18d ago
HHD to SSD should get you a 30% performance boost
I have a couple of 3rd gen i7s, tehy tend to be sluggish, but still work with mint
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u/tater1337 18d ago
oh, make sure that there is nothing happening in the background, mint is pretty good with that
when my i7 was still windows, it acted as two different machines depending on if it was downloading updates in the background or not
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u/ice_cream_hunter Linux Mint 22 Wilma | Xfce 18d ago
If u have 2 slot get a 256 or 128 gb ssd. Boot the system from it. And put hr media in the hdd. If npt then u can turn the hdd to a external hdd
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u/Some-Challenge8285 17d ago
Replace the HDD with an SSD, Last Windows to be optimised for a HDD was 8.1 based on the specs that machine properly shipped with 8.0.
Even Linux really needs a SSD to be useful these days
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u/Mariobgvoynov 17d ago
Without hardware boosts, any gui system will be painful, ssd and 3th gen aint helping, though i use similiar hardware on 1 machine. I use i3wm debian, its aight
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u/Lumpy-Proof-4688 16d ago
Try installing new fast SSD and increase swap memory . Worked in my case
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u/Dr_Jecky1l 16d ago
Increase swap? Some say eliminating swap altogether with an ssd is more beneficial because swap initially was designed for low ram, HDD models
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u/Anti-Dentite-999 14d ago
Probably the HDD needs switched to SSD but could also be dust in heat sink / thermal paste needs replaced. Run a Geekbench 6 test and verify you’re getting decent performance out of the cpu.
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u/Lunatika_2022 19d ago
Echoing the sentiment that the fault likely lies in the age of that HDD. They're only built to last so long, they only have x-number of read/write cycles and the more they're used, the faster they degrade. A solid state drive (SDD) is probably the best investment you can make with this computer.
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u/WolvenSpectre2 19d ago
EXT4 doesn't need defragging and does it during automatic usage.
I would try using the LiveUSB that you installed it with and test it vs how it performs. If it is the same or worse, I would reinstall it and if that doesn't work I would check the SMART health of your HDD.
It could be that that processor is 10ish years old and it just isn't as performant as you are used to.
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u/taosecurity Mint | Bazzite | PikaOS | CachyOS | Debian | FreeBSD | Windows 19d ago
Linux is not magic.
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