Curse This Laptop...

[Squirrel]

Hey, anyone have any tips on speeding up a painfully slow laptop? Nothing seems to work! Tried de-fragmenting (that was confusing...) and tried uninstalling some stuff but it's not really helped, anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advanced..

 

[Mr. X]

More ram and take it in and have the heatsinks cleaned.

Anyway, how old is the laptop and what are its specs?

 

[Kaean]

Without more info no recommendations can really be made. Defragging can help but it actually doesn't help very much on more recent hard drives and does more damage then anything else to an ssd.

 

[Cordelia]

After a bit, Windows systems just do this... Windows gets huge and bloated due to all of the updates... if I were you, I'd google "making the jump to Linux" to see if that's something you're interested in to keep this laptop running at tiptop shape.

 

[SpeedyGeek]

1. Clean out useless crap. CCleaner is good.

2. Clean the registry. There are several good registry cleaners out there. CCleaner does have a registry cleaner but it's not the best.

3. Defrag the hard drive. Defraggler is a good example. If you used the windows defragmenter that wouldn't really do much. It's pathetic.

4. Clean out your startup programs. Use the startup editor under CCleaner, for example.

These are just some of the basic stuff you can do to make your computer run better. Obviously more could be done but on really slow computers even simple things like this can make a world of difference.

 

[Meganium]

^^What SpeedyGeek mentioned. First thing I would do is clean out your startup programs, if you do have tons of programs starting up when you start windows. I would also check the RAM, which is the most common.

 

[NaistoNub]

Hmm, I had a similar problem. My computer ran Minecraft at 10 - 15 FPS even though I have Dual core 2.24 GHZ and 4 GB of RAM

I then re-installed and slowly over the week updated to windows vista service pack 2, The same problem came back.

So I Re-installed it yet again. And this time i'm going to wait to get windows 7 :D

 

[twocows]

Backup your data
Format your hard drive
Reinstall Windows

 

[funrush]

Have you ever considered the fact that there could possibly be malware on your laptop? Here are two programs that are for free that are pretty good. Try running some scans with them and see if that's the problem.
Malwarebytes: https://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_pro
Microsoft Security Essentials: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security_essentials/default.aspx

 

[Brane]

Go start > run > %temp% > delete all files, skip the ones you cant.
Go start > run > prefetch > same as above.
Next clear out your rubbish bin, then do a disk cleanup and defrag (found in accessories > system tools)
Depending on what OS you have, get more RAM.

Final step is to then get a PC.

 

[Archer]

I'd probably do a cursory scan with Malwarebytes to check for any nasties on the system. Provided that comes up clean, do exactly what SpeedyGeek said. Probably in 4,1,2,3 order. If that doesn't work, follow twocows' suggestion of a fresh install.

 

[Squirrel]

Thanks a lot for the advice, managed to get it up to a decent speed after carrying out a range of the suggested methods, but it still has moments in which it slows to a halt and CPU usage reads 90-100%... Ah well, can't have everything.

 

[SpeedyGeek]

Post a screenshot of your task manager?

 

[Archer]

Post a screenshot of your task manager?

And make sure you tick "show processes from all users". Sort by the CPU usage column.

 

[0089]

Download Revo Uninstaller (Freeware).

Install and run it.

Go to the autorun manager, and check your startup entries.

Take a screenshot of the startup entries. You can take a screenshot by going pressing the prt sc/print screen button on your keyboard, then open Paint, paste your screenshot into paint by pressing Ctrl V at the same time.

Upload your screenshot here, we'll tell you which startup entries to disable.

Also, cleanup your computer by removing unwanted/unnecessary programs with Revo Uninstaller.

Also, download Smart Defrag from iobit.com

It's better than the default Windows defrag tool, so I recommend you always defrag with Smart Defrag 2​

 

[Hybrid Trainer]

Download Revo Uninstaller (Freeware).

Install and run it.

Go to the autorun manager, and check your startup entries.
​

Do you really need to install that? Can't you just use the System Configuration tool thats already installed?
Search in the start menu for it.

 

[0089]

Do you really need to install that? Can't you just use the System Configuration tool thats already installed?
Search in the start menu for it.

No, but I'd recommend it since Revo Uninstaller simplifies the uninstall process by removing the software's leftover registry entries and leftover files and folders.
​

 

[eternityMMO]

The best way to keep a computer fast is to install only trusted programs in it. Also you can disable useless services and program that comes up at startup, running 'msconfig' in the search windows bar.