Hi all, :)
I’m quite surprised to see how slow QuentinC is running in my new laptop, which is a desktop class replacement; an HP Envy 16 with an I7 12700H CPU and with a discreet GPU. It is slow, takes a while to respond compared to my older laptop, and games like Uno are impossible to play. When I chat, I can feel that difference between pressing enter and hearing the "message sent" sound. Impressively enough, even my screen readers are kind of sluggish in a way… Jaws for example takes slightly more to respond with vocal feedback after pressing a certain key.
Does somebody have any ideas? This laptop is a powerhouse and its strange that on playroom I can’t play like always.
Thanks! in advance

Hello,
from the way it sounds, that type of slowness has nothing to do with the speed or specifications of your device.

If the Playroom is slow only after you press a certain key, for example W or after you send a message, this means that you have more connection lag to the server, so the problem is most likely with your internet rather than with your laptop.
On the other hand, if navigation across menus is slow, that can signal a device issue, for example your device might just be busy installing updates or something similar.

In general, I am running Playroom on 4 GB of RAM and it is as fast as it can be, so probably one of the main things I like about it is that it requires minimal resources to run efficiently.

Thus, I would suggest checking your Internet speed/restarting your router if necessary and that may improve it. Of course, the lag also depends on how far you are from the server (located in France unless I am mistaken), but it should not be very drastic, though of course quite important for Uno.

Thanks Nicola,
I’m sure Playroom doesn’t require powerful CPUs and stuff. I’ve used it with a 2 GB laptop armed with an old Pentium processor. but I mentioned those things to emphasize the possibility of bad resource management by the software or other matters. As you might know the Intel Core I 7 12700H has 14 cores, with six performance cores and 8 efficiency cores. The developers have to adjust to the new approach that Intel is bringing. Even Microsoft had to readjust windows 11 for these kind of CPUs. It’s not a server issue, for certain the issue is of the device. I’m using both laptops in the same place and the difference between the old and the new one is significant by all means. My network speed is about 100MB/s so no problem with that I guess. Also, multithreading is something these kind of computers can do with ease, so It doesn’t seem to be the case. At this point I just hope this is not a hardware issue, and it probably isn’t since the computer mostly works as expected.
I’ll be looking for a solution and I’ll post it for other players who might be in my circumstances.
I’d appreciate any other suggestion you might have as always.
Thanks!

Try change the power mode, like the power plan? sorry my english isn't good. but you can press windows+B Then go to the battery icon, then press applications key there, or try enter, Sorry, the steps are a little different between Windows 10 and 11, but you can also do it from Settings.

Hello,

I have nothing special to say, except that the playroom don't require a lot of power, and don't need to use a lot of multithreading stuff either.

AS far as I know, I'm only aware of one single recurrent sluggyness problem on the playroom currently: Since Jaws 2021 and Windows 11, page up/down to read through the history are slow when the focus is in the chat box. It works normally when being elsewhere than the chat box, with NVDA, or with Windows 10. I haven't yet found the cause.

For all the rest, I'm not aware of a recurrent problem of slowness.

IF your computer is a laptop, additionally to what has been already said, you should also check that it isn't due to a power management setting that can affect everything even when not running on battery, or a crappy useless software installed by default as many constructors do it.

IF you notice that Jaws is sluggish everywhere, it's maybe also due to the graphics card and settings.

Thanks for sharing your ideas guys, I appreciate it!Qase, I thought the same and I'm trying to find the sweet spot of power and performance since a couple days now. I wrestled with the power plans a bit. It has slightly changed on windows 11, because there are 1 billion ways to change them. The laptop is just a few days old. after installing updates ,adjusting power settings in the HP command center, and syncing it with windows power modes, it seems that I at least resolved the sluggishness with JAWS, which no matter how much I consider these last years has been able to do just that, —be sluggish—. When this laptop runs in power efficient modes, the CPU performs way below its base frequency of 2.3GHZ and I believe that does influence JAWS a bit. I also checked for new sound drivers. It might be just me but I believe that the response from the screen reader is more direct when hearing through audio jack.
It is true that the GPU might also play a role. I don’t think JAWS uses video intercept anymore, but yeah… I’m sure they don’t support Intel XE graphics well and I’m more than sure that they don’t support NVIDIA RTX.
It’s also to be seen how well platforms like playroom work with Wi-Fi 6E, because it might play a role as well.
Thanks indeed for the replies and if I find anything else I’ll keep you posted.

@Stenaldo your problem may actually not be related to the CPU, but rather your system audio stack.
You likely already know that some cards / drivers tend to sleep themselves on inactivity, causing a whole sort of issues for screenreader users.
Though, a less mentioned fact is that sometimes, you don't actually get to hear any specific audio issues like cutting out syllables of speech, there are just delays in audio processing, and everything seems like sluggish while it's actually not.
Screenreaders already have built-in solutions for audio stack issues, but from my experience, for some reason, they just... don't use to work.
I recommend installing Silenzio:
https://www.stefankiss.sk/files/programy/Silenzio_2.1_setup.exe

it's a program made by the developer of Eurofly btw. It streams continuous silence into the audio stack, keeping it awake and responsive.

I had a laptop behaving just like your PC, and after installing Silenzio, everything got resolved.

That’s a lovely and considerable reply, Moriarty! It is absolutely true that sleeping audio drivers/devices cause issues for screen reader users. I’ve wrestled with this issue these days. It’s impossible to find solutions online! Plus I’m blessed with computer audio which doesn’t require particular drivers, so installing audio drivers hasn’t helped thus far. Your suggestion is highly appreciated, I’ll install this program most definitely.
All the best!

Same problem I am also facing.
I have I5 10th gen pc, having 8gb ram.
but after win11, Its become bit of slow, the above mention problems same happens with me
My internet having no issues. its very fast in other platforms, but in case of playroom, I fill slowness.
specially in game like uno. it respond one sek delay after we move our cursur from the cards.

Hi,
It’s true. I also do feel that particular delay from, say pressing enter to send a message and the message actually being sent. But it is also visible in other programs while the laptop runs on battery. It’s crazy to discuss matters of speed in a laptop with some of the highest hardware configurations for the time being.
The screen reader users should raise their voice regarding this issue. The fact that most blind people would require a normal, —consumer laptop / desktop — should not act as a justification for screen readers and other third party providers to leave accessibility aside in new and powerful devices. This might be an audio drivers or components issue, this might be the failure of mainstream screen readers to reliably work with discrete graphics or with the new Intel XE graphics, or it might also be related to the CPU, which is scandalous. When I buy the newest laptop, especially with such considerable parameters, I should get the most out of it no matter if I use the screen, or the screen readers!
I’ll try running an external sound card just for checking the implications of audio drivers and devices.