Best way to restore now slow laptop to it's former glory?

_Whimsical_

I have an old Iqon laptop that has become painfully slow and as good as useless because of it. I've tried defragmenting and every kind of spyware and anti virus on it but nothing Ive done so far has increased the speed.

Is there anyway that I restore it to it's former glory? I'm happy to delete everything on it if necessary and I only really want to use it for web browsing so is there anything I cam do with it that might fit the bill?

If I were to wipe it and reinstall XP will I be stuck searching for drivers etc for it? Is it a difficult process?

Any advice very welcome.Thanks:)

MarkR

If you have the disk, it's easy to format and reinstall. It may be wise to go to the manufacturers website, and see if the drivers for your computer are available for download (assuming you don't have them on a disc)

If you can find them online, save them onto a usb key or cd or something, then wipe the lot.

There are hundreds of step by step guides on reinstalling xp, anyone of them should be accurate.

PogMoThoin

MarkR wrote: »

If you have the disk, it's easy to format and reinstall. It may be wise to go to the manufacturers website, and see if the drivers for your computer are available for download (assuming you don't have them on a disc)

If you can find them online, save them onto a usb key or cd or something, then wipe the lot.

There are hundreds of step by step guides on reinstalling xp, anyone of them should be accurate.

That would be great if they were still around

A reinstall is best, but You'll need to do Your homework about the drivers first

MarkR

Good point. Hadn't considered that. There are also driver backup utilities, or you may find by searching by hardware name that someone else already has the files uploaded.

Main things would be network card drivers (wired and wireless), graphics, shound, chipset

bonzodog2

I think Iqon may not be the best for online driver support. When you boot up, try to identify the motherboard, there is prob a long string of chars displayed for a short time, before Windows starts. You may need a few goes to write this down! Google for this, find the mobo maker, go to their site.

Driver Genius is one driver backup program I've used. You might get lucky and find XP (assumption) may detect and run most things OK, but the graphics card may need the drivers or you won't get the full screen res.

Have a look in Device Manager to check the installed stuff, or Display Properties for the graphics.

ricman

I find drivermax easy to use, its free , backup all drivers to drive c new folder. Then BURN THAT FOLDER TO 2 CDRS. then install windows, reinstall drivermax , then use the import function to import any drivers that windows has missed.From new folder on the hardrive or the cdr disk.
SEE here http://www.innovative-sol.com/drivermax/
Put the cdrs in a case ,because at some point the hardrive may breakdown, or wear out.