Dell...

And so, this is what caused me to come here and whine again: View attachment 32172
TBH moving 190+ GBs of data of whatever is going to take quite a bit of time imo based on my experience.

Three or fours hours time to move that amount of data isn't bad imo base on my experience.

I don't own new super computers most of my computers are others outdated discarded clunkers rescued from the curb.
 


@CaffeineAddict, based on @Brickwizard's advice, I ordered a quad core processor to replace the existing CPU.

I don't do videos much, not on this computer. Envision this: Boot up the PC. About 2 minutes later, click on the "Thunderbird" or on the "Firefox" icon. After about 5 minutes, seldom faster, the selected application starts. Then, downloading e-mails or opening web pages takes another 5 minutes or more. My old Lenovo E530 does everything I just said in about 3 minutes. And @The Duck, I would agree 100% except that given 16 GB RAM, moving that much data doesn't take all night as it did last night. (The estimated time left on the process remained around 3 hours and 20 minutes, even with the movement of files which should have advanced the clock).

Anyway, waiting for the new CPU to arrive and planning to start over with this computer. Since I'm building another one similar to it using junk parts (glutton for punishment), I may split the RAM so that I have two machines with 12 GB RAM each. If slowness this severe is the characteristic of both of these computers, I'll have learned to avoid these motherboards and CPUs.

So anyway, I've announced the Dell conundrums (without addressing their non-standard hardware issues).
 
for full report its inxi -Fnx
 
root@Jolson:/home/bob# inxi -Fnx
System:
Host: Jolson Kernel: 6.17.0-29-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
v: 13.3.0
Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.6.7 Distro: Linux Mint 22.3 Zena
base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble
Machine:
Type: Desktop System: Dell product: Inspiron 3847 v: N/A serial: N/A
Mobo: Dell model: 088DT1 v: A01 serial: ..CN701635C400GJ. UEFI: Dell
v: A08 date: 06/29/2015
Battery:
Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard
charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: discharging
CPU:
Info: dual core model: Intel Core i3-4170 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Haswell rev: 3 cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 3 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 799 high: 800 min/max: 800/3700 cores: 1: 798 2: 800
3: 800 4: 800 bogomips: 29532
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel 4th Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics
vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-7.5 bus-ID: 00:02.0
Display: server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X:
loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915
resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: crocus,swrast platforms:
active: gbm,x11,surfaceless,device inactive: wayland
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa
v: 25.2.8-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa
Intel HD Graphics 4400 (HSW GT2)
API: Vulkan v: 1.3.275 drivers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib devices: 2
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio vendor: Dell
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0
Device-2: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio vendor: Dell 8
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
API: ALSA v: k6.17.0-29-generic status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: n/a (root, process)
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Dell RTL8111/8168/8411 driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e000
bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: 64:00:6a:43:a0:81
Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter
vendor: Dell driver: ath9k v: kernel bus-ID: 03:00.0
IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: 18:4f:32:68:e7:b7
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 Bluetooth driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
bus-ID: 1-10:9
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: 18:4F:32:68:E7:B8
bt-v: 4.1 lmp-v: 7
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 232.89 GiB used: 55.45 GiB (23.8%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD2500BPVT-22ZEST0
size: 232.89 GiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 227.68 GiB used: 55.44 GiB (24.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) file: /swapfile
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 35.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 498 mobo: 918
Info:
Memory: total: 16 GiB available: 15.54 GiB used: 3.47 GiB (22.4%)
igpu: 32 MiB
Processes: 249 Uptime: 1h 4m Init: systemd target: graphical (5)
Packages: 2022 Compilers: gcc: 13.3.0 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.21 inxi: 3.3.34
 
It shouldn't take no where near to 5 minutes to open anything, even if CPU is max load.
I couldn't agree more. I have an assortment of laptops all running Mint 22.3 (and I LOVE IT), and they all beat this Dell tower easily. The difference is radical enough that I believe something's wrong with the Dell - even if it's a design flaw. The whole story is, the thing was quite slow and running Windows 10 when I received it. Got Windows 10 off of it and installed Mint 22.3. Still quite slow. Upgraded (doubled) the RAM. Still quite slow. Removed a questionable hard drive. No difference. Now I've ordered a CPU upgrade. My gut tells me that the new CPU won't be the silver bullet to fix the problem, but one must try everything before giving up.

Worthy of note: Once an application is started and running, the computer executes commands at a speed comparable to the other computers I have.
 
Try installing htop and running it next time the desktop slows run from the terminal htop [and enter]
 
1780505551478.png
 
Once an application is started and running, the computer executes commands at a speed comparable to the other computers I have.
Based on your htop output and symptoms I'd start checking your drivers, since this is old machine it's possible Mint isn't up to the task to provide proper drivers for your system.

Everything else looks fine to for casual computing (with no physical access to system to se myself to give higher level conclusion).


I highly recomment to run 2-3 live distros and see how they perform.
Try Debian, Fedora and some 3rd distro.

I understand you love Mint but live tests is what I do, if you still get same results with all distros then we can certainly look at what hardware is to blame.
 
you could also try Mint LMDE
 
Thank you, @CaffeineAddict and @Brickwizard....DRIVERS! Thinking of that in the context of Dell's non-standard hardware configuration. Yes, trying different distros might do the trick. (AFTER I install the CPU that's on it's way here.) Anyway, thank you so very much, my friends, for putting so much time and effort into this. It was certainly beyond me.
 
Speed (MHz): avg: 799 high: 800 min/max: 800/3700 cores:

Note my bolded portion. Is your computer set to 'save power'? Have you changed the performance with governors?

Both of those would explain the symptoms I'm seeing.
 
Okay! Prepared an LMDE7 ISO thumb drive, got ready to install.....and discovered a bad hard drive. Tried to repair the filesystem, but the installer can't write to it. Could this have been part of my problem? I doubt it, the drive in question was in use strictly for storage. So, now I'm backing up everything from the good hard drive (10 hours to go), and plan to do the LMDE7 install very soon (but no sooner than 10 hours from now, :LOL:). Fortunately I had some hard drives ordered and already on their way. It's a pity about this bad hard drive - it was a 1 TB drive.
 
Note my bolded portion. Is your computer set to 'save power'? Have you changed the performance with governors?

Both of those would explain the symptoms I'm seeing.

Hello, @KGIII ! Good to "see" you again. No, I didn't set any such thing. And I don't know how to. Ha! Thank you! Where would I set/clear that?
 
bob@Jolson:~$ sudo inxi -c
[sudo] password for bob:
CPU: dual core Intel Core i3-4170 (-MT MCP-) speed/min/max: 798/800/3700 MHz
Kernel: 6.17.0-29-generic x86_64 Up: 30m Mem: 4.12/15.54 GiB (26.5%)
Storage: 1.14 TiB (4.0% used) Procs: 253 Shell: Sudo inxi: 3.3.34
bob@Jolson:~$ inxi -M
Machine:
Type: Desktop System: Dell product: Inspiron 3847 v: N/A
serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Dell model: 088DT1 v: A01 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell
v: A08 date: 06/29/2015
an i3 is pretty old and not very powerful. it is a dual core so likely it is running as fast as it can. No software or OS will change that limit. The only thing you can try is an SSD which somebody already suggested. it will make the drive read and write about 10x faster which is one bottleneck you can eliminate that way. Other than that nothing will make it faster.
Also I never recommend updating a BIOS unless you are seeing an issue. as mentioned, improper or interrupted BIOS update will turn your system into a door stop. When I do BIOS updates in shop the system is on a UPS so even if power goes out, we can finish the update and not turn the system into a paper weight. My advice is DO NOT DO BIOS UPDATE.
 
To set the pc to performance in Linux Mint, click on Menu, type in Power, click on power management, at the bottom of the window that appears it iwll say Extra options....the bottom one will say Power Mode. Click on the drop down and select Performance
 
Hello, @KGIII ! Good to "see" you again. No, I didn't set any such thing. And I don't know how to. Ha! Thank you! Where would I set/clear that?
The value of 799MHz as average for the cpu frequency shouldn't be a problem on the machine. This machine here from which I'm writing runs just that frequency without any issues of latency. To check the current frequency of all the cores of the cpu one can run the following:
Code:
[~]$ grep -iE 'processor| mhz' /proc/cpuinfo
processor    : 0
cpu MHz        : 800.000
processor    : 1
cpu MHz        : 800.000
processor    : 2
cpu MHz        : 800.000
processor    : 3
cpu MHz        : 800.000
processor    : 4
cpu MHz        : 800.000
processor    : 5
cpu MHz        : 800.000
processor    : 6
cpu MHz        : 800.000
processor    : 7
cpu MHz        : 800.000
processor    : 8
cpu MHz        : 800.000
processor    : 9
cpu MHz        : 800.000
processor    : 10
cpu MHz        : 796.627
processor    : 11
cpu MHz        : 800.000
processor    : 12
cpu MHz        : 800.013
processor    : 13
cpu MHz        : 800.000
processor    : 14
cpu MHz        : 800.000
processor    : 15
cpu MHz        : 800.000
processor    : 16
cpu MHz        : 800.000
processor    : 17
cpu MHz        : 799.953
processor    : 18
cpu MHz        : 800.000
processor    : 19
cpu MHz        : 800.000
One cpu, processor 10 in this case, runs less than 800MHz, which would bring the average down to 799MHz. Another, cpu 17 also helps in that respect.

To check the frequency range of the cpu one can run:
Code:
[~]$ cpupower frequency-info
analyzing CPU 13:
  driver: intel_pstate
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 13
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 13
  energy performance preference: balance_performance
  hardware limits: 800 MHz - 3.50 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: performance powersave
  current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 3.50 GHz.
                  The governor "powersave" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
  current CPU frequency: 800 MHz (asserted by call to kernel)
  boost state support:
    Supported: yes
    Active: yes
The range is shown as "hardware limits: 800 MHz - 3.50 GHz", and the current policy allows the full range to be used. If the current policy shows a level of frequency lower than the hardware limit, it's been capped, which restricts its functionality. There are circumstances in which a user may wish to do that, but perhaps not in this case.

If the above details are in order, then the latency may not be cpu related.

On the htop output in post #48, the cpu activity is absent from the top of the htop details. It may have been cropped out. The default for htop is to show the cpu activity, as seen in the following image. To return to the default, one can remove the htop config file at ~/$USER/.config/htop/htoprc, and next time htop is opened it should restore the default config file.

htop-out.png
 
Last edited:


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