Restoring my laptops performance

[VrWagz1]

Got an oldish acer 5740 thats slowing up alot lately. I do understand its a base model acer and restoring its speed is going to be a limited experiance, but it is becoming painfully slow!

Its, 2GHz, 2Gram, I3, I also have over 2/3rds free HDD space.
Running Win7 64bit, plus a internet security suite.

I got a feeling the scuity suite is the biggest problem in the laptops performance, but i dont know what to do with it to speed it back up. Problem is basically on bootup it takes ages for the HDD to settle and be ok to be able to open a browser window or start a movie or somthing. Also if i attempt to multi task(even just a few browser tabs can do it) it slows right up.
In days gone by (back when 98 an XP were all the rage) i would have simply formatted the laptop and re-loaded what i wanted and all would be good, but its very difficult to get a hold of windows these days as not many people have CD's cause(like my laptop) it all comes pre-loaded.

So anywho, unless someone can suggest where i can find a Win7 64bit version, how can i restore the laptops general performance??

[dijm8]

depending on the age? (u say its old but how old?) i would just replace the HDD after a year or so they tend to slow right down, a simple new hdd and fresh install u will be as fast again the day you bought it..

open up your task manager see whats chewing up ur performance, and open "run" type msconfig click on startup services and uncheck all the things u dont need running...this will speed up the loadup on windows

[Ozzie]

norton chews a hell of alot of recources. clean install would be the go if you want the speed, open services.msc and stop unnessacery services from starting. just be careful.

[87RB30VL]

I went on a website, I'll try to find it, and it showed me alot of ways to stop programs opening on startup, such as Comrade, Alcohol 120%, certain other programs etc because these programs begin to open when your laptop/pc is turned on so it instantly slows the machine down. Also, turning off various effects, such as the preview that comes up when you roll your mouse over an open application on your taskbar, also the "see through" task bar slows performance, even the effect of opening a folder (the sort of "pop up" effect folders do) slows it, there's heaps of sh-t to turn off, mine's fast as ever now though it's still fairly new

[50LTRv8]

As above, see what services you don't need, just google each one, uninstall any crap and give it a defrag too, it might help a little.

[F l a k]

I'd defrag, uninstall programs you don't need, run CCleaner (free) and ditch the Internet security suite for Common Sense 2011 and MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials).

[Astranomical]

depending on the age? (u say its old but how old?) i would just replace the HDD after a year or so they tend to slow right down, a simple new hdd and fresh install u will be as fast again the day you bought it..

How exactly do they "slow down"? As long as the HDD is in good shape (which can be checked by verifying its SMART status), the drive itself should be just as fast as it was the day it was made. However, yes - doing a reformat and reinstall will definitely improve performance, especially if the machine is used daily, and your Windows install is over a year old.

You say you only have 2GB of RAM, and that it really bogs down when you're trying to multi-task. 2GB is SFA these days, if I were you I'd bump that up to 4GB. More is always better, though 4GB is sufficient for most users.

It'd also be handy to know what internet security suite you're running, most of the all-in-one internet security suites chew up a lot of system resources, as Ozzie said Norton is especially bad. Really, so long as you don't download shit off P2P services, look at porn, download all kinds of software from god-knows-where, click on ads, etc, you really don't need much more than a free AV solution, I personally use Microsoft Security Essentials and swear by it. Light on system resources, picks up anything that comes in, and gets out of the way. I also run a scan with Malwarebytes every couple of weeks, I find thats pretty much all I need. As for a firewall, the Windows Firewall copped a lot of (well deserved) crap in the past, but its actually pretty decent these days.

[bogan_vk]

just run ccleaner over it (free) ,defrag with auslogics disc defrag (free),use the startup section of ccleaner to kill any startup entries not needed,use ccleaners registry cleaner to clean up obsolete registry entries,get rid of norton use the norton removal tool or there will be alot of leftovers,run revo uninstaller to remove any unnessesary programs,use revos junk file cleaner,and get avg free or mse for virus protection you will notice a big difference in speed, remember with computers less clutter on the hard drive is best if you want it to run fast.dont throw out your hdd if you want it as new just format it and do a fresh reinstall or just clean it up as above and you will notice a difference.

[50LTRv8]

depending on the age? (u say its old but how old?) i would just replace the HDD after a year or so they tend to slow right down, a simple new hdd and fresh install u will be as fast again the day you bought it..

open up your task manager see whats chewing up ur performance, and open "run" type msconfig click on startup services and uncheck all the things u dont need running...this will speed up the loadup on windows

That comment shows you know nothing about hard drives, they do not slow down, Windows slows down over time due to fragmentation, applications being installed an uninstalled and extra processes starting up in the background.

[NV-MY-VT]

You say you only have 2GB of RAM, and that it really bogs down when you're trying to multi-task. 2GB is SFA these days, if I were you I'd bump that up to 4GB. More is always better, though 4GB is sufficient for most users.

Upgrading the RAM will only cost you around $100 and it the surest bet to getting a big performance boost.

Aside from that, the other users are right when they say clean the crap off your system. When I do professional PC maintenance, I use PCDeCrapifier, CCleaner and Defraggler in that order.

Usually they alone are enough to get a really noticeable boost out of any system.

Last but not least, I also agree with the other posters in that:

most of the all-in-one internet security suites chew up a lot of system resources, as Ozzie said Norton is especially bad.

ditch the Internet security suite for Common Sense 2011 and MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials).

I use Symantec Endpoint at my workplace, it's the big brother to Norton. It's quiet good at what it does, I hate to admit, but it's also very expensive. Norton on the other hand, is a resource hog with a horrible detection rate that will probably end up increasing your chances of getting a virus by lulling you into a false sense of security. Ditch it, as soon as possible.

Instead, look into something like a simple anti-virus. I personally use AVG Free Edition, and combine that with a quick CCleaner scan every day or two to clear out advertising cookies.

I hear fantastic things about MSE and have used it on a few clients computers, with varying degrees of success. It uses less resources than AVG, and it does, what I can tell, a similar job.

If you want something a little more heavyweight, get Kapersky products over Symantec. They are usually leaps and bounds better.

Any other questions, PM me.

EDIT:

i would just replace the HDD after a year or so they tend to slow right down

I had to edit my post just to tell you that you are an idiot. That is all.

[MikeCuzzy]

Yeah mate the slowing of your PC is due to damage in the registry. Over time your registry will develop faults, these can be patched and repaired with a Registry Mechanic (TuneUp Utilities is pretty good). Beyond that, defrag it.
And a security suite will slow you down. For a general home user, AVG Free (or similar) is sufficient, I've never had any problems with it.

There's only so much you can do to a system, eventually you need to backup and do a clean install of the OS, that can bring a PC back to life easily. Also 2GB extra RAM wouldn't go astray either.

[wraith]

Oh dear. Registry mechanic. Mate take it to a computer shop spend the 100 bucks for them to do a virus scan and whatever else. Usually will find that it will run heaps better. Every one on the internet is a computer guru because mum's mates with the guy who cut's the local computer guy's hair.

[MikeCuzzy]

Funny you mention that, I am the local computer guy whom had his hair cut, it was then I installed the hairdressers PVR lol.

I will point out 2 things: If you're not confident, go to a repair shop.
b) You will likely get overcharged.

[GothicKidd]

Normally reformating your whole computer will bring back most of the perfomance.. Getting a External HDD and using that to install programs will save your computer from slowing down? I do believe..

Diskcleanup and Disk defrag is prob the best bet if you dont want to reformat..

Computers are getting outdated every week.. I bought my Computer for $1500 1-2 years ago, For $1500 today I could get double of what I have now..
My computers spec is now normal on cheap computers today.. so maybe it might be time for a update?

Also computers collect dust.. And run hotter if alot of dust builds up inside... Air compresser fixes that..

[wraith]

I don't know about every one else but I would prefer to pay a little more to have something fixed then potentially screw it playing around with things I don't understand. But that's just me.

[MikeCuzzy]

Also computers collect dust.. And run hotter if alot of dust builds up inside... Air compresser fixes that..

Compressed air cans are ok to use on fans, keyboards, and such. But NOT on the motherboard and such, you can force dust in between connections on the board.

I don't know about every one else but I would prefer to pay a little more to have something fixed then potentially screw it playing around with things I don't understand. But that's just me.

It's true, if you're really not sure, it's best to send it to a techie. But a defrag and registry mechanic aren't difficult tasks, and you could walk anyone through the installation of a registry repair program and set it off. Lets face it, your not mucking around with RegiEdit. I'd be happy to write up a little how-to for the OP. Tune Up is very simple and easy to use!

[50LTRv8]

Getting a External HDD and using that to install programs will save your computer from slowing down? I do believe..

nope, it won't, hard drive speed is consistent until failure of the drive itself, fragmentation with cause read speeds to slow down over time due to data getting separated onto different sectors, what a defrag does is put all the data into contiguous blocs on the disk so the heads don't have to go searching for data from different areas of the hard drive to retrieve a file.

[MikeCuzzy]

nope, it won't, hard drive speed is consistent until failure of the drive itself, fragmentation with cause read speeds to slow down over time due to data getting separated onto different sectors, what a defrag does is put all the data into contiguous blocs on the disk so the heads don't have to go searching for data from different areas of the hard drive to retrieve a file.

You're right mate, HDD read speed is constant (i.e. 7200rpm), if it's 90% full it's just reading more stuff, hence the "slowing".

Getting a External HDD and using that to install programs will save your computer from slowing down? I do believe..

An external HDD will be even slower than just about any internal HDD. As it is using USB 2.0 or 3.0, neither of which is as fast as SATA. Externals are like a Mazda 121 and the internal is like an Monaro CV8 as far as speed... if that helps.

[VrWagz1]

Well this thread has gone ahead in leaps and bounds! I tried some of the earlier suggestions and has made some significant inroads to restoring a bit of the original performance of the laptop(defrag, startup cleanup). I will do a registy clean, was hoping Win7 mighten need all that sort of attention like Xp did, but clearly it does:/ I will try some more of your suggestions above and i will re-consider my choice of security suite also. Prob is im paid-up for another 8months so i dont really wanna throw that away.
Im sure the older a security suites get, the worse they perform causing alot of performance lagging, possibly to do with the 10's of MB a day it takes to upate and would imagine its to do with the ever expanding malware data base. Can anyone confirm/deny that, or am i talking out my arse.

[50LTRv8]

You're right mate, HDD read speed is constant (i.e. 7200rpm), if it's 90% full it's just reading more stuff, hence the "slowing".

No it won't, just because the disk has more data on it does not change the fact that it only reads data that is requested of it.

[MikeCuzzy]

Im sure the older a security suites get, the worse they perform causing alot of performance lagging, possibly to do with the 10's of MB a day it takes to upate and would imagine its to do with the ever expanding malware data base. Can anyone confirm/deny that, or am i talking out my arse.

A defrag will speed it up there is a large amount of info on the hdd slowing it down, as it is an active program, this has more to do with your RAM. If there isn't enough, it can slow your computer to a crawl if you open too many programs at the same time, 4GB of RAM would be enough for most systems.

No it won't, just because the disk has more data on it does not change the fact that it only reads data that is requested of it.

I'm sorry mate, I wasn't clear, when a hdd is fragmented it's pulling information from all over the disk which takes longer than if bits of info were next to each other. What you wrote was entirely correct, was just trying to back you up so the OP had more people backing up the correct information.

[wraith]

Windows 7 defrags on the fly....

[NV-MY-VT]

Windows 7 defrags on the fly....

Yeah, na, if it did that like it was supposed to, I'de be out of the job.

Shit, if windows did ANYTHING like it was supposed do, I'de be out of the job.

[wraith]

I can make stories up and get more money off my customers too. Haven't had many dramas with Windows 7 it's mainly all the extra programs and toolbars that come with everything now that slows computers down in my experience.

[NV-MY-VT]

Windows 7 does not defrag on the fly. Period.

Instead, it allows for automatic scheduled defragging, which is set up to run in the background by default. Alot of the time, this system is insufficient to keep a hard drive below a reasonable level of fragmentation. When it DOES defrag at the right time, and manage to complete the job, the inbuilt Windows utility isn't nearly as good as some of the after market utilities available. Priority location of of the MBR is just one feature that programs like Auslogic's Disk Defrag support.

I too, have not had many drama's with windows 7. The only issues that I have noticed with it are it suddenly decides to drop itself off the domain and deactivate it's machine account in AD. Also, it hates playing ball with a 32-bit print server. That said however, it is still an operating system like any other, and it still needs the routine maintenance that all Windows machines require. It DOES need to have it's temporary files and folders cleared. It DOES need to have dead and redundant entries in the registry cleared. It DOES need to have it's startup list cleared.