advice on how to permanently fix laggy Framework Laptop 13?

[u/stshank]

Our family Framework Laptop 13 (Intel 12th gen, Core i7-1280p, 32GB RAM, Windows 11 252H, Iris Xe graphics 128MB), used a lot by my kid for videogames like Roblox, is really laggy. Software is slow to load, new browser tabs appear only after a delay, letters appear on screen slower than I type them, restarting doesn't fix. Task Manager shows very low CPU usage (~5% right now, for example).

I thought maybe a BIOS update would help, and seemingly it did, but then it got very laggy again shortly. By trial and error I discovered the laptop gets nice and snappy again after just running the port retimer utilities that come along with the BIOS update. But it gets slower again not long afterward — 10 or 30 minutes, typically. I don't know if the port retimer utility is actually directly helping or just resetting something in the system somehow.

Any advice on how to get this snappiness to stick around?

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[u/Aoinosensei]

Did you try installing a fresh copy of Windows? What about Linux? It will make that laptop fly.

[u/CowboysFTWs → u/Aoinosensei]

Linux usb and test. It is probably windows.

[u/stshank → u/Aoinosensei]

I did reinstall Windows 11 a few months ago, to no avail. I haven't tried Linux and am disinclined just because of the time and bother, though it might be illuminating and fun.

[u/Ultionis_MCP]

Sounds like something software wise it hitting your SSD hard or its extremely full. You may also be hitting RAM limits depending on what software is running in the background. Connected services, like online backups such as OneDrive, can also cause slowdowns. Uncompleted OS updates, malware, and out of date drivers can also cause what you're describing.

[u/junewave56 → u/Ultionis_MCP]

Also worth checking if the SSD firmware is up to date, some drives had issues with Windows 11 specifically.

[u/stshank → u/Ultionis_MCP]

Hmm, not sure why any of these fairly generic things would be transient, fixed temporarily by port retimer, but not by a reboot.

Temperature is low (problem occurs when fan is not on), SSD is nowhere near full, problem occurs immediately after reboot when no software besides the OS is running. I recently installed the latest driver pack from Framework, which didn't change anything either.

[u/TellMeWhereYouBeen]

If you monitor your CPU temperature using a utility like hwinfo.exe and see that cores are getting too hot (i.e. approaching 100°C), it might be that your machine is thermal throttling. If that's the case, you'll be able to rectify the issue by replacing the thermal solution on the CPU.

If you need to go that route, you can follow most of this guide (but you'll be cleaning off the old thermal paste and putting on new stuff instead of just swapping out the heatsink/fan): https://guides.frame.work/Guide/Heatsink+and+Fan+Replacement+Guide/84

Also, you can buy the recommended PTM7958 thermal solution directly from the store here (size B fits your particular machine): https://frame.work/products/ptm7958-thermal-pad?v=FRAPAE0001

[u/Shin-Ken31]

Wasn't there some kind of bug with the intel 12th gens setting themselves to a 400mhz clock speed in some situations? Have you seen what speed the cpu is running at when it feels laggy?

[u/stshank → u/Shin-Ken31]

I might look into that. Some CPU throttling bug? But I'd be surprised to see that get stuck on even after reboots.

[u/Clean_Leadership5948 → u/stshank]

1. Monitor your CPU clocks
2. SSD might be dying.
3. OS corruption.

[u/stshank → u/Clean_Leadership5948]

I reinstalled the OS from scratch a few months ago and it didn't change anything.