Can I speed up old laptop?

Discussion in 'Software' started by Davidmouche, Jan 19, 2007.

  1. Davidmouche

    Davidmouche Private E-2

    Hi there!

    I have been having trouble with my laptop being really slow for a while now so I had stopped using it much! For instance when using open office I would start typing a sentence and nothing would appear for half the sentence, the spell check just didn't work, I think it was too much!

    Now I am trying to sort it out! I have done the recommended treatments for malware etc, removed old versions of Java, Adobe and Firefox, I have gotten rid of unnecessary programs at startup and in general. All this has resulted in a slight speed up at startup, now it takes only 2.5 minutes, which isn't bad! I have also downloaded a defragment program and defragmented the drive.

    I am very pleased with the results so far. Is there anything else I could do?

    Cheers guys and gals

    Michelle
     
  2. Natakel

    Natakel Guest

    Hello,

    Most computers, be they laptops or desktops, benefit greatly with an increase in RAM. This is (in my opinion) the easiest upgrade to accomplish, and will show an immediate system speed increase - especially if your system ram is low to begin with. Anymore, anything under 256mbs should be upgraded even on older systems, IMO, and I highly recommend 512 or above if your budget and system support that much.

    Google your particular brand and model of desktop, and see how much RAM the motherboard will support. I recently worked on a friends old Dell, (400MHZ PII) and it only had 32mbs of RAM installed. I checked on-line and determined that his board would support up too 256mbs. He managed to find an upgrade to 256mb, and swears it is like having a new computer.

    You sound like you have done all the right stuff, as far as cleaning up the start-up menu, defragmenting the hard-drive, and checking for and cleaning any spy or mal-ware. Without knowing what OS you are using, I can't really recommend any more steps then what you have already done. But if you happen to be using some version of XP, then this site has some really good tweaking information:

    http://www.tweakguides.com/index.html


    Good luck!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 19, 2007
  3. Davidmouche

    Davidmouche Private E-2

    Cheers for that, I have downloaded the guide! Lots of bed time reading there!
    I have 224MB of RAM so it says anyway!
    The processor is a Mobile AMD Athlon(tm) XP-M
    I am using Windows XP.

    Thanks for the tip!

    Michelle :D
     
  4. Natakel

    Natakel Guest

    Cool. Sounds like you probably have 256mb of ram, but 32mb of it is "shared" ram and in use by your graphics chip. Most on-board graphic solutions use system ram.

    Sounds like a laptop with some good upgrade potential!
     
  5. Davidmouche

    Davidmouche Private E-2

    Thanks Natakel I won't get rid of it just yet then!
     
  6. Davidmouche

    Davidmouche Private E-2

    Cheers zbd21

    Have downloaded these as well! Very easy to use, I like it! Hopefully I won't delete anything important!

    Cheers

    Michelle
     
  7. Wavetar

    Wavetar Sergeant

  8. Davidmouche

    Davidmouche Private E-2

    Thank you again! I will look into getting more RAM! But just working alright would be a start!

    Cheers guys
     

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