extremely inefficient when installed on laptop

I installed audaciity 2.4.2 on a new laptop
HP, windows 10 home.
HP Laptop 14s-dk0xxx
AMD ryzen 5 3500U 2.1Ghz
8GB RAM 5.92 usable
64 bit operating system x64 based processor

when using it on this laptop , it usually goes into a (not responding) state after a single click of the play button and takes several minutes to start playing at all. sometimes, itwill only reply with a message telling me to try a new device or change the sample rate or something like that. I really need help with this, as it makes my work almost impossible to complete unless i switch back to an older laptop with a bad battery.

What security apps are running? It’s possible that a security app may be repeatedly scanning, or sandboxing Audacity.

What other apps are running (of any kind)?

are you sure security apps are disrupting it? i dont have much other installed anyway, other than mcafee, GOG, and a few webbrowsers. it also does not seem to make a difference if i access the files from a portable hard drive or on the laptops harddrive.

No I’m not sure, but it certainly sounds like something on that laptop is interfering with Audacity.

McAfee can be quite aggressive, and in the past we have heard reports of it interfering with Audacity.
I’d suggest that you try:

  1. Reboot the computer
  2. Disconnect from the Internet.
  3. Turn off McAfee
  4. Try running Audacity.

After testing, re-enable McAffee before re-enabling your internet connection.

Any difference?

I’ve had McAfee running on all the various PCs and the one Mac that I have, or have had, over the past 15 years of using Audacity and it has never “interfered”.

Peter.

Did you say what device it is that you are using :question:

yes, all the hardware specifics are listed in the first post. This problem might be something to do with soundcard drivers since it also seems to affect wavepad

That sounds possible.

If you’re using the HP’s built-in sound card, check on the HP website that you have the latest drivers for Windows 10.
(See: https://support.hp.com/gb-en/drivers)

you were absolutely right about the soundcard drivers! after directly accessing the system tools and right clicking to have them update all drivers, it suddenly works like a charm. there were also other problems such as youtube videos pausing for a very long time and other applications that use sound malfunctioning.