Laptap very slow, help needed please?

Millionaire

Hi

I have a Dell Insprion 6000 laptop I bought about October 2005, so i just over 18 months only.

Recently it has been running very very slow.

I run off my hone Wifi zone, as I got the PC on the cable into the modem, but I do not think that makes a difference too much. (I use PC for VOIP calls, and my ASP Database).

Laptop I use for MS Outlook, opening word docs emailed in, and occassional web browsing...(but I ususally do that on PC) see way I work in home office, its handy to have emails on one screen and do other work on the PC, makes for easier working.

Anyway I got Wins XP Pro in there, and McAfree Security.

I must confess I have a very disorganised MS Outlook and I deleted out many emails, but I still have about 7000 in my Inbox. Ok I know I should be more organised, but I got lots of emails and I tend to keep a back log of then in the inbox unto the previous 9 months.

I did a McAfee Scann, and deleted out loads of old files, and also did a disk defragment on McAfee too. and a virus scan of course.

I have alot of files saved in folders on harddrive, but there mostly Word doc,
tough I got a few about 15 Real player max 3 min video clips saved on desktop.

About 6 months ago laptop crashed, and I brough it to an IT guy and he reinstalled everything, and fixed it up.

I takes ages to boot up, and to close down, and I get alot of things like Word Not Responding presss End. and it takes ages for simple applications to close, even Word, if there is no Docs open even.

It is a right pain and I was wonder what I can do to speed it up?

I do suspect the IT Guy (in fact off the record I am sure he did this, but I was not in agreement with it) used Pirated Software when reinstalling everything as I am in Thailand right now, and everything is pirated. in ireland I alsways paid for my licenses. so I am not sure has that something to do with it.

I am looking for quick fixes...any ideas?

anything software I can download or independent programs to speed this up.

Basically I only have MS Outlook open, Word and sometimes Explorer, thats all I use it for!

Thanks

G

Tom Dunne

Sounds like there's a load of crap installed during startup.

Go to Start->Run and enter msconfig

Press enter/return - a window should appear. Have a look through the startup tab and see what is loading when the computer starts. Post the info up here and we will see what is going on.

TBH, this is more a Windows problem that a specific laptop problem, so I'll move it over there.

Millionaire

on start up tab

About 20different applications....some in program files....

I copy not copt and paste them


but i disabled about 7 programs that were set to run on start up like ACT,(which I do not really use) MP3rcoket, Snagit, efax.com etc etc

so maybe that will help???

Tom Dunne

Millionaire wrote:

but i disabled about 7 programs that were set to run on start up like ACT,(which I do not really use) MP3rcoket, Snagit, efax.com etc etc

so maybe that will help???

That's certainly a start.

Personally, I usually disable everything and then re-enable them one-by-one. But if you are not experienced with this kind of stuff, then this may not be the best option.

Millionaire

I could try disenable and and reenable the stuuf like various weird files i case I mess everythign up...then the obvious stuff like Skype disable on start up?

I suppose if I messed all up I could always do a systems restore?

ActorSeeksJob

If you want to I can take a look at your start up entries with HijackThis and tell you which ones are safe to disable, should speed your laptop up a good bit. If you want to do this then :

Please download the self-extracting version of HijackThis from here:

HijackThis_sfx download

Save HijackThis_sfx to your desktop.

Double-click the file then click the Unzip button. Then close the Self-Extractor window.

Using My Computer/Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Program Files\HijackThis and double click on HijackThis.exe to run it. If you would like to make a shortcut for your Desktop so it's more easily accessable, right click HijackThis.exe and choose Send To > Desktop (create shortcut).

Please run the extracted HijackThis.exe from now on. Delete any copies of HijackThis.zip that you have saved.

Open HijackThis and click Do a system scan and save a log file. Copy the entire contents of that log and post it here

Millionaire

Thats for that...I am away over weekend, but will have slow laptop with me, so I might get a chance to do this... before I smash it to bits! :-(

Cheers

G