One of my laptop, Toshiba satellite A200 duo core is getting slow. The HD light is on alot but not all the time and I can hear the Drive working away. I have avast so no virus and register mechanic installed. What can I do before I start over fresh, format HD and reinstall vista?
Slow laptop
- Thread starter Tony321
- Start date
For starters...
How old is the laptop?
Do you have a lot of apps running on startup with a lot of icons on the lower right taskbar next to the clock? A buddy had 12 icons down there and they slowed his PC down badly. After they were all eliminated his PC was much faster.
Do you have and run frequently CCleaner to clean out the crap that accumulates running Windows? If not Google and get it, it's free. CCleaner will also clean up your registry.
With M$ you have to do routine PM regularly to keep it running like new.
If you don't it slows down.
How old is the laptop?
Do you have a lot of apps running on startup with a lot of icons on the lower right taskbar next to the clock? A buddy had 12 icons down there and they slowed his PC down badly. After they were all eliminated his PC was much faster.
Do you have and run frequently CCleaner to clean out the crap that accumulates running Windows? If not Google and get it, it's free. CCleaner will also clean up your registry.
With M$ you have to do routine PM regularly to keep it running like new.
If you don't it slows down.
PM = Preventive Maintenance, something you have to do with Windows.
My Toshiba laptop satellite A215 is almost 2 yrs old to and runs like new and fast because I do all the PM Vista requires. Vista with SP1 is solid the times used but have to admit Linux is used more on the dual boot setup I have.
Does it have CCleaner?
If not get, install and run it, it's free.
My Toshiba laptop satellite A215 is almost 2 yrs old to and runs like new and fast because I do all the PM Vista requires. Vista with SP1 is solid the times used but have to admit Linux is used more on the dual boot setup I have.
Does it have CCleaner?
If not get, install and run it, it's free.
I have Avast for AV.
My Vista PM:
Ran CCleaner a couple times a day.....it's a quick scan.
Once a week I ran the CCleaner 'registry scan' to clean up the registry.
Once a week I ran Ad-Aware by Lavasoft and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.
If I suspected something 'funny going on' they would be run more often.
All are free downloads at www.Download.com
I would De-frag 'C' Drive if Vista recommended it.
Doing this the laptop runs like new and hasn't had to be formatted yet but then again I use Linux more than Vista which requires NONE OF THE ABOVE!
That's a reason I prefer Linux over M$....
I did the same above PM for XP Pro and XP Pro still runs like new also.
My Vista PM:
Ran CCleaner a couple times a day.....it's a quick scan.
Once a week I ran the CCleaner 'registry scan' to clean up the registry.
Once a week I ran Ad-Aware by Lavasoft and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.
If I suspected something 'funny going on' they would be run more often.
All are free downloads at www.Download.com
I would De-frag 'C' Drive if Vista recommended it.
Doing this the laptop runs like new and hasn't had to be formatted yet but then again I use Linux more than Vista which requires NONE OF THE ABOVE!
That's a reason I prefer Linux over M$....
I did the same above PM for XP Pro and XP Pro still runs like new also.
Download this CCleaner I ran on my PC and it does not ask for any registration.
If your hard drive light is constantly flickering can also mean that you are low in memory or disk space. Check Both as vista needs atleast 10% disk space free to run efficiently.
Also Download Codestuff Starter program and remove items from startup that do not need to be there. if you are unsure whether you absolutely need a start up program or not, take the name of the file running at startup and put it into the search for google and see what other people have to say about the file.
Click the about button to see how much free memory you have. For Vista, you should have atleast 3/4 to 1 GB free memory at startup to run 1-2 programs without going to swap disk file.
LadiesMan69 gave a great link, www.filehippo.com which I also use for all the future CCleaner updates you will be getting.
I was running into the same problem with a HP laptop, it was taking forever to do anything. I did all of the above, I ended up going to the max for memory on my unit, 4GB. What a difference that made!
If you are running Vista home premium, the upgrade to Windows 7 if $39.95 if you have a valid student email addy.. I used my daughter's from sheridan with no issues.. It's an upgrade, so you keep everything.. settings, email, the works... My HP DV9700 now screams along and boots in less than two minutes..
Maxing out your RAM is this easiest and cheapest way to boost PC performance.
Vista ran OK on my new laptop with 2GB RAM.
When I maxed it to 4GB RAM it was noticeably quicker.
Ubuntu on the other hand was also much more snappy with 4GB RAM.
Maybe too many apps are starting up when you boot up.
This slows down things.
You can easily shut down many apps in XP Pro by going to,
Start > Run, type MSCONFIG in the box, click OK, click startup tab,
then uncheck ALL, except for your Anti Virus program.
I did that and XP Pro boots up faster since all that other stuff no longer auto starts. I'd rather start and run apps when needed, not have them running in the background all the time wasting system resources.
Pretty much the same applies to Vista and most likely Win 7.
You are quite right woodpeckr. Although the method you mention works just as well, it is a bit more cumbersome for newbies than to just download Codestuff starter as I mention in post #9.
The general rule of thumb I found using different O/S is XP happy running on 1GB RAM as long as you control start up memory usage and disk space usage.
Vista happy with 2 GB and Win 7 with dual core processor and 3 GB RAM as long as you control start up memory usage and disk space usage.
I have set up many computers in Africa where technology is more expensive than in North America and just buying RAM and new hard drive is not as easily affordable as M$ would like you to do. Many PC users there are still running on windows 95 and even if I go back 10 yrs from now, I am sure there will be a lot of PC running windows XP. Although I agree that just adding RAM will make a big difference I believe Knowing how to do proper maintenance on your PC is the real cheapest way to keep your PC running smoothly everyday.
Are you sure you did not have 2 different A/V running on the same PC? This type of problem I encounter on PCs when a user has accidentaly installed 2 different anti-virus and they battle each other for control to check files. Once you un-install 1, everything runs real smoothly.
Never used Codestuff.
It sounds like it's similar to PC Decrapifier which I use to clean 'freeware', 'trialware', etc., off new PCs to help optimize them.
Can Codestuff also be used like PC Decrapifier to clean all that bloated crap off new PCs?
