Help - Desperate!

ash.c

Hi all,

Looking for some help/a miracle.

Have a Dell inspiron 1501 the last 2 years or so, grand for what I need mainly just the internet & microsoft. Have always had a problem with the battery, battery would last about 30 mins without being plugged in and the odd time the AC adapter couldnt be connected so the battery wouldnt charge and would constantly have to be left plugged in. The plug where the charger goes in is also quite loose and once it falls out the laptop goes off because it's not charging and battery is low.

It takes ages to load up when I turn it on but once it gets going it's fine and then again after about 1-2 hours it slows down again.

Yesterday it was coming up that there was no battery but it was still working.

Im looking for some help to solve these problems but also seriously considering just buying a new laptop.

Any genius' out there to help be I would greatly appreciate it!

Also, if you think it's better to buy a new laptop can anyone recommend a cheap but decent laptop, mainly for internet, microsoft, nothing special.

Sorry for long post but im desperate at this stage!

Yesterday

Alanstrainor

No need for a new laptop. Your battery is just kaput, if you need it to work away from the plug, the only solution is a new battery.

As for system slowness, what anti-virus are you running?

Dale Parish

Ah the slowness can easily be explained (I'm using Inspiron 1501 too). The processors are just desperate and they limited the max amount of RAM to 2GB...


Then shipped Vista with it...

I never use the battery, bar one time which I did, I got an hour out of it.

hearny

Sounds like bad news im afraid. The batteries in those models dont last that long and I have dealt with lots of them with the same problems.

The loose connection may be the toughest to fix although if you replaced the battery it wouldn't cut out when the cable comes loose.

If you can afford it I would replace it. Pretty much any new laptop would suit your requirements.

As far as the performance goes we can try and help you out, firstly run a couple of anti spyware scans.

Download malwarebytes and superantispyware, install and update and then scan the hard drives (dont run both scans together).

duckysauce

reinstall the os , backup your data before doing this

ash.c

Thanks for the replies.

Mixed reactions so still in two minds what to do!!

Can someone explain how to do all that recommended stuff please? Also, how do i back my stuff up, pictures etc. I dont know much about laptops, litrealy just how to use internet!!

As for anti-virus I have norton installed.

Would the amount of pictures I have contribute to the slowness??

ash.c

Another thing, how can i delete the icons in the bottom right hand corner where the time is. I have limewire and Java update icons which i want to delete.

Thanks

Alanstrainor

ash.c wrote: »

Another thing, how can i delete the icons in the bottom right hand corner where the time is. I have limewire and Java update icons which i want to delete.

Thanks

That explains why it's so slow!

And uninstall norton and install this instead LINK.

hearny

They are the programs that are running, and are more than likely contributing to the performance.

You can right click on the icons and click exit for most of them but they will only start again when you restart.

To disable them you can click start type msconfig and click run.

Click on the startup tab and you can uncheck the programs you dont want to run on startup.

hearny

+1 On the norton, make sure to uninstall properly before installing MSE or it will only make it worse.