Lafite IV problems

[windkid]

Hi guys,

Until now my main laptop was UltraNote: 15.6 (i5-4210M (2.60GHz) 3MB, 8GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz, 120GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD), but it was time to upgrade and after serious consideration, I decided to go for 15.6" LAFITÉ IV. My full specs can be found below.

A few days ago finally received my new shiny and beautifully looking laptop and started testing it. Straight away was facing problems. I kept getting a blue screen of death regularly. Because laptop came with an installed test version of Win 10 I decided to wipe everything out and start with a fresh install. After the new install and all updates, I kept getting a blue screen, and only with the help of chkdsk and other commands I managed to stop this issue. At least for now. However, now I'm facing something different.

My laptop is slow. All the apps load slowly, switching between them is slow as well, constantly see mouse freezing for a second or two, multitasking almost impossible. My laptop is normally used for browsing (2 browsers), Word and Excel normally running all the time. Sometimes light photoshop work and I might play some old games like CS 1.6. And I was able to do it this with my old laptop without any problems.

Funny thing. My old (4 years old) Ultranote (with the worse spec) still handles everything much faster than my new laptop. For example, I have performed a stress test, using some dedicated software. With my Ultranote I was able to work with no problem, with a test software running in the background. However, my Lafite basically stopped and it was even impossible to move my mouse cursor. And this happened every time I performed the same test.

Another interesting moment. My new Lafite has 1TB INTEL® 760p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD installed and I was expecting much faster performance than from my Samsung 850 EVO SSD. But that's not the case. Every time I was trying to shut down, restart or switch on both of my laptops, Ultranote outperformed my new Laptop by a good margin.

One more thins that more thing that bothers me - battery life. On a PS website says that it will last up to 6 hours and I can hardly squeeze 2 (using Battery saver mode).

I've tried everything I know. Uninstalled and installed new drivers, installed all the updates, reinstalled a fresh copy of Windows...

So my main questions:

1. How come that my new laptop is so slow and sometimes it's even impossible to work with it. Is the problem CPU? I have done some research before buying it and all the online tests show that the new CPU should perform much better. I have contacted PS before my purchase and they confirmed, that this new unit should be much faster.
2. Can this be a compatibility problem?
3. Windows recently installed loads big of updates on my Lafite, can this be related to windows and not to the machine itself?
4. Is such a short battery life normal?

At the moment I'm seriously considering returning this laptop and would appreciate any advice.

My Lafite IV specs

Chassis & Display
Lafité Series: Aluminium Chassis: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED (1920 x 1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Quad Core Processor i5-10210U (1.6GHz, 4.2GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
INTEL® HD GRAPHICS (CPU Dependant) - 1.7GB Max DDR4 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 760p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 3230MB/sR | 1625MB/sW)
Battery
1 x Lafité Battery 54WH
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x THUNDERBOLT PORT (USB-C) + 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

 

[Oussebon]

When you say you did a "fresh install", how did you do that? Specifically, did you delete all existing partitions on the SSD during the process?

What does the error message / BSOD you keep getting say?

Have you phoned PCS's tech support people yet? Bearing in mind lines are open to 8pm on weekdays

 

[windkid]

So first I formated my C partition during installation and installed Windows from USB. Used my new serial code to activate it. After some time, because I kept having problems, I did download another Windows 10 from the official MS website and upgraded everything using the media creation tool.

I was getting all sorts of BSOD - System Service Exception, Reference by pointer, IRQL Not Les or Equal, Kernel security failure, memory management.

I decided to speak to smart people on this forum first because. My experience with PS tech support wasn't great in the past.

 

[SpyderTracks]

So first I formated my C partition during installation and installed Windows from USB. Used my new serial code to activate it. After some time, because I kept having problems, I did download another Windows 10 from the official MS website and upgraded everything using the media creation tool.

I was getting all sorts of BSOD - System Service Exception, Reference by pointer, IRQL Not Les or Equal, Kernel security failure, memory management.

I decided to speak to smart people on this forum first because. My experience with PS tech support wasn't great in the past.

When you were going through the initial installation, did you completely remove all existing partitions?

 

[windkid]

No, I only formatted my system partition. Where was as well some recovery partition which I left untouched

 

[SpyderTracks]

No, I only formatted my system partition. Where was as well some recovery partition which I left untouched

So you need to reinstall, and delete ALL partitions from the installation drive, leave it completely blank, then create a new partition using all the space and windows will sort out the relevant partitions required for UEFI.

 

[windkid]

Ok I will do it (would try anything , but may I ask why? PS they asked me if I want this to be partitioned....so to why to ask this if this might cause problems....

 

[SpyderTracks]

Ok I will do it (would try anything , but may I ask why? PS they asked me if I want this to be partitioned....so to why to ask this if this might cause problems....

So did you ask for it to be partitioned?

When creating a UEFI C drive, it will create 5 partitions for the UEFI boot. That's completely normal.

If you asked for the c drive to be partitioned by PCS, for what reason was that? It's quite unusual these days to have partitions on SSD's, there's not really the requirement as there was on HDD's.

 

[windkid]

Ok I will try to remove all the partitions and will see if there is any positive changes. Will post my update.

 

[windkid]

So my quick update.

Deleted all my partitions and installed a fresh copy of Windows 10. It looks like that this resolved problems with my laptop speed. However, I still experience regular BSOD. On top of that windows memory diagnostic tool shows that I have problems with my hardware....so contacting PS to see if they can come up with some reasonable solution.

 

[ubuysa]

windows memory diagnostic tool shows that I have problems

If that tool shows a RAM problem then that will be the cause of your issues. Contact PCS and arrange to RMA it - unless you feel confident replacing the RAM sticks yourself.