How to tell if a new desktop PC is a dud?

sapper

Hi all - sorry not too technical so hoping for some advice. I bought my son an Acer Aspire XC-1660 desktop pc for Xmas for around EUR450. Ive had good experience with Acer and have 2 of their laptops in my house doing a great job. The new desktop is reaaallly slow to respond/boot up/start anything - once its got the app whatever open it seems ok (still slow) but getting there takes ages - and I mean just opening up Microsoft Edge and opening up a website, nothing fancy.

My son (12) is really disappointed and hardly uses it - he had high hopes

Just timed it there and it took 3mins to get from the log in screen to irishtimes.com. On the Acer laptop (1 year old) it just took 30 secs. Doesnt sound much but a long time when you are sitting there.

Ive already sent it back to Acer and they sent it straight back with a note saying "system is fine, you need to make sure all updates are loaded when you first install windows". Ive done that and its still slow. Running performance monitor I get "High CPU load - 89% - top process group taskhostw.exe"

Ive done most of whats suggested on the web for this - ran and SFC scan etc but its still slow.

Id like to be able to call up Acer and demand a replacement/refund (or Argos where I bought it) but can I say for sure the hardware is the issue? How can I show that?

Thanks for any help....

lawred2

I'd wipe the windows install and reinstall the OS again sans all the bloatware

manonboard

I have personally found ARGOS to be very helpful when it comes to refunds.

Now, if i spent half a thousand euros on a computer and it took 3 minutes to load a browser. I'd be returning it as well. Something seems pretty off with those numbers. The tester person could easily have turned it on, clicked a button, and went for tea. Got back, and seen a browser window was working.

I would return it. Tell ARGOS that the product takes several minutes to open a browser, and ask for a refund. They will likely give it.

Regardless of whether you have a dud or not.. you are unhappy with the level of basic performance, so dont keep it. You can get much better performance for that money.

ei9go

how much memory in the computer?

Usual reason for slow computers is that a lot of the high street stores sell them with insufficient memory.

sapper

Thanks lawred yes I have wiped it and got rid of all the bloatware. Thanks a mill manonboard I actually thought Argos wouldnt give me the time of day as the computer does "work" but I will definitely give that a shot

Retr0gamer

For 450 euros you were probably sold a bottom of the range PC that's years out of date.

Buying a PC is not like buying a Playstation. It all depends on the specs and getting an Acer doesn't mean it will perform as well as every other Acer. For 450 euros you probably got an out of date CPU, crappy ram, integrated graphics that would be useless for games and a physical hard disk when everything is going to SSD storage.

sapper

"Installed Physical Memory (RAM): 4GB"?

What you need to do is type "this pc" into the start menu search bar.

Then select Computer and then system properties.

First of all need the Processor name and installed ram. People here are only speculating about the issue. 4GB ram wouldn't cause the issue OP is experiencing, the processor could.

It's one of these four issues:

Crap processor, failing hard drive, Faulty Ram, CPU overheating with lose cooler.

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118575237#Comment_118575237

That's next to nothing. Do you still have a link to the ad for it?

Daemonic

4GB is low by today's standards. My last desktop was built around 2015 and had 16GB.

The other big bottleneck will be the hard drive. Is it an SSD or standard HD? https://www.techbout.com/check-hard-drive-ssd-or-hdd-56672/

sapper

Heres the ad on Argos

https://www.argos.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10152&catalogId=15051&langId=111&productId=1966548

Installed RAM is 4GB. Processor is Interl(R) Core i3-10105 CPU @ 3.7Ghz, 4 Cores

theteal

I'm not sure you have grounds to return, it's just a weak PC. Extra RAM, a SSD and a clean install of Windows and you'll have a very usable PC. Not much for gaming, mind.

That's a better processor than is in my 8 yr old media PC in the loft and that's still fine to this day.

smuggler.ie

Is that what it is?

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118575237#Comment_118575237

Ouch that means windows 10 will be swapping out to the hardrive all the time. Throw a single stick of 8GB of memory into as it's probably got a single 4GB there already. Later on you can add more.

What size is the HDD ? Anything over 256GB means windows will have to wait for physical movement of the head to where it can wait for the disk to spin round. In which case add an SSD to be the boot drive and for programs and use the HDD as storage. Easiest way would be a clean install.

Wickan3080

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118575422#Comment_118575422

Still should manage to open a website in under 3mins should it not?

Spear

It only has two DIMM slots, which is unfortunate. I have spare RAM I could offer, but it's 4x4GB, which wouldn't fit.

Another 4GB of RAM for it as cheap as €20 or so at least.

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118575237#Comment_118575237

Not enough RAM. With the various bloatware and other programs, it is going to be swapping to harddive quite a bit. The shared graphics will also take some of the RAM. The HD activity LED on the case may show that.

About 8GB is the minimum for Windows. Even though the minimum specification for Windows is 2GB (for a 64 bit version), there is so much junk loaded at bootup in retail PCs that it would struggle. Most of the PCs available through chains like Argos are good value for the low end of the market but they are often about two years behind the market.

Regards...jmcc

Processor is perfect. Let's rule that out.

4gb of ram wont cause that slowness but you do need to upgrade it to at least 8gb,.

.The main culprit here Is m the mechanical hard drive. Easily replaced with a 30 euro SSD

If I were you though in all honesty I'd return it and her a better deal online

CalamariFritti

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118575237#Comment_118575237

That's the problem right there. I assume it has Windows 10 or 11 and with that kind of RAM you just boot the thing up into the naked OS and its probably near to maxed out already.

Windows is a hungry beast and once you add a few things like virus scanner etc there isn't much air left in the balloon to get any apps off the ground. If you google Windows minimum requirements you will see that its 4GB and minimum is never going to be satisfactory.

You'd be fine with somer other operating systems but knowing that is no good to you either.

I'd try and return it and get something with 8GB at least. Or upgrade to 8GB. RAM is the thing you can never have enough of, but your kid should be ok with 8GB. Until he wants to play games (which will be like .... tomorrow)

sapper

Oh games is all he wants to do (!) but the price of gaming pcs are out of Santas range...Now he has a confirmation coming up so maybe combine the two...

Thanks all - I really dont want to be opening up the back of this thing when its brand new, so Ive brought it back to Argos and they are going to get it inspected.

It sounds like to might be performing to spec (in which case theyll knock me back) but Ive flagged the 3 minutes to open up a website so fingers crossed...

Otherwise if its ours to keep there are some good suggestions above...thanks all

deravarra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118576065#Comment_118576065

far far underpowered for anything gaming, am afraid.

I would return that PC, leave the young chap without a PC for a bit, and then spend with the confo money to buy something decent. Or better still, if you know someone who could do a build for you, you would get more bang for your buck.

Just a word of caution: GPU's are nigh on impossible to get at the moment - and if they can be got, silly prices are being charged for them.

Supply chain, crypto mining have a part to play in the issue

smuggler.ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118575477#Comment_118575477

yeah, just about in that time :D

When you see 450 pricetag its already "fishy", when its argos....

Sympathy to OP.

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118575535#Comment_118575535

Better off adding an 8GB as this means you end up with 12GB now. And can keep using it until you decide to go to from 24GB (8+16) to 32GB.

Buying a 4GB now means taking it out if you want to go to 12GB later.

CalamariFritti

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118576065#Comment_118576065

If gaming is all he wants I'd forget about PC altogether. Get a 2nd hand playstation. For well under €450 you'll get a good PS4 with enough hard disc space, a couple of controllers and a few games on top.

Something like this: https://www.adverts.ie/playstation/ps4-1tb-ssd/25996232

You'll know the games will run fine cos a playstation is a playstation and the games are written for it whereas gaming PCs can be put together in any number of combinations. Like this screen, that much RAM, thisthatortheother graphics card, windows version etc. Too many variables.

With a playstation you know the games will run smoothly with no fiddling with settings and drivers and whatnots and there are no follow on costs.

You need deep pockets for gaming PCs and you need to know what you're at to some degree. Too much can go wrong especially with a kid having his hands on the keyboard. Whereas playstation is comparably cheap and designed to be used by kids. UI is easy you just a press a button and you're off and controllers are virtually unbreakable.

Its what I replaced my PC with a few years back and I never looked back. For my actual PC needs I have a laptop but my gaming is done on the PS4 alone.

deravarra

I'm sorry folks, but advising the OP to upgrade this system is not the way to go.

Also, advising to get the child a console instead of a PC is also not the way to go.

I am sure that the child specified a PC for gaming, as it's what their friends are most likely gaming with at the moment.

The unfortunate thing for the OP is that for a number of reasons, getting the system needed to play the games their child wants to play could end up costing far more than the OP would like to pay.

But adding a few gb of ram to an i3 for gaming? not the best idea.

OP, could you at least tell us what kind of gaming your child would like to do on a PC? That way, we can offer advice on what kind of system is needed.

I recently built a system with an i9, 64 GB ram, RTX2070 super, kraken aio, and phanteks evolv enthoo case, and the whole lot must have cost near enough to 2.5k... i had a decent mobo, 2 TB M2, and a 6TB HD.

The only bottleneck on my system is the GPU. It'll still pull decent fps and play any game I want to, but there are bigger, better and faster PC's out there than mine.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118576675#Comment_118576675

What is your fascination thinking Ram is the answer to all problems.

Why would the OP ever need 32GB Ram in that system?

Op you just need another 8gb stick of ram that costs like 30 euro and a SSD that costs 30 euro and the PC will be as fast as lightning..

Since it's SFF as well I doubt that it will take a graphics card.

For a decent gaming PC probably looking at 1200 euro.

Flinty997

A decent gaming PC is €1200-€2500

More RAM and SSD well make the OP computer a decent office PC. It will never be a gaming PC. It's that what they want?

sapper

ok as is often the case in Boards its gone off the original question..... which was how can I tell (and then evidence) the PC I bought is faulty as it appears to be by taking 3 minutes to open a browser and access a website. Remember we havent gotten past opening www.irishtimes.com yet - which it should be able to do easily. Im now worried the guy in Argos is going to say the PC is fine and I wont really be able to argue...oh well

I probably should have come here before forking out...

Hes hoping to primarily play Minecraft and first person shooters like Overwatch but hes already got an xbox so Im hoping to steer him to using it as an office PC and get into coding etc. What we have now couldnt even do that so if were stuck with it we'll go with the extra RAM. He wont be delighted but with an xbox and an office PC at 12 years old hes doing alright

Spear

It's not faulty and Argos will send it back to you saying the same. It's badly underspecced in terms of its RAM, this leads to large levels of disk access as it swaps to the hard drive, which in turn exacerbates the slowness due to being an old fashioned spinning rust disk.

You can either keep it, and attempt to address the shortcomings, which may be a false economy.

Or you can return it, if that's still possible, and opt for something more powerful, which means paying out more in the short term.

sapper

ok - feeling I might have a case with the Advertising Standards people then - this from the listing on Argos.ie

"The sleek and powerful XC-1660 is compact on or under your desk making it the ideal home office PC. You can glide between tasks effortlessly with the powerful Intel Core i3 processor and 4GB of RAM, allowing you to run demanding programs and multitask with ease.

The XC-1660 allows you to connect to the internet faster than before with its built in Wi-Fi 6, plus the 5.1 audio and HDMI port mean it can handle all your multimedia needs."

Anyway I can always write to the Irish Times if they knock me back....

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118577058#Comment_118577058

Like I said one 8GB is what it needs., You can keep using it unless you go up to 32GB.

OP just make sure you don't get an 8GB kit that contains a pair of 4GB's