Laptop has me driven crazy - Help or it goes out the window

muletide

Currently have a four year old Sony VAIO VGN-AR51J

Specs: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2Ghz, 2 Gb RAM, 250 GB HDD
Running Vista

My problem with it is it's dog slow.

Start up is a chore and I usually turn it on and head away for 5 minutes and it still has not got to the log in screen

It stalls regulary especially when using IE - Sometimes I get a high disk usage warning when I am only reading boards.

Even typing this is a struggle with the cusror freezing a couple of times for a second or two

Occasionaly I will get the blue screen and have to reset

I have about 70gb Free so its not full and I defragmented the disk recently to try and solve the problem.

I have always had Norton Anti Virus installed on it and run regular scans.

Can anyone advise me in Laymans terms about how to clean her up or at least improve its speed.

Or can anyone point me towards a reputable tech shop/guy in the Kildare or SCD area who might be able to assist.

All help/suggestions are gratefully received

Alanstrainor

Only way to sort this is to reinstall Vista.

Or check what processes you have on startup. To check, do this.

Click the start button, and then Run. If there is no Run button there, just hold the start button and press the R key at the same time. The will bring up the Run window.
Type "msconfig", without the quotes.
Once in there click on the startup tab. It might be better to take a couple of screenshots to show us what's in there. But the more there, the slower it will make things. You should only have 5 or so boxes ticked.

muletide

Thanks for the quick reply Alan,

Looks like I have 23 boxes selected - slightly more than 5 !!!!!

Attachment not found.

Attachment not found.

Which ones can I deselect ?

Alanstrainor

I'd untick these ones:

DNA
MobileMe
Quicktime
ITunes
Google Talk
Realplayer
ISB Utility
Google Desktop
App monitor
Adobe Acrobat
Groove Monitor
Java

My machine with 5 is a desktop, typically laptops have extra. I think that's a good start.

Also, I'm not a fan of Norton. Microsoft Security Essentials is my weapon of choice at the minute. It's free and its not resource intensive.

If you keep norton, make sure it's not running any scheduled scans at random times this will slow things down a lot.

Also, are you using IE9? If not you should be. Personally I prefer Google Chrome on my laptop, and slower machines since it's faster. That being said IE9 is good too.

Okay, so there's a few things to try, but the one thing that will make this machine like new is to reinstall the operating system. You will need to backup your pictures/music/docs on to some external media before doing this though.

allthedoyles

If it was me , I would disable all in start-up mode ,a s it will always re-activate the ones necessary at start-up.

Have you tried to repair your operating system by putting the your recovery disk and following the steps required ?

Hal Emmerich

OOOOOh.......slow and Blue Screens. You could easily throw 20 hours away trying to get the Laptop right..and it may still not be......4 years old so more than likely has a recovery Partition.....Reinstall I say.

Really easy, just keep pressing F8 or F2 on startup and you'll see the option.......if it's there.

It may take a few hours to download windows updates but that just involves coming back and restarting it a few times.

Jonny7

After you killed those resource hoggers in msconfig go download something called "advanced systemcare"

Its free
http://download.cnet.com/Advanced-SystemCare-Free/3000-2086_4-10407614.html?tag=mncol;1

Sped up many a system for me
(registry defragger, spyware removal, junk file removal, etc, etc)

Allyall

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I'd untick these ones:

DNA
MobileMe
Quicktime
ITunes
Google Talk
Realplayer
ISB Utility
Google Desktop
App monitor
Adobe Acrobat
Groove Monitor
Java

My machine with 5 is a desktop, typically laptops have extra. I think that's a good start.

Also, I'm not a fan of Norton. Microsoft Security Essentials is my weapon of choice at the minute. It's free and its not resource intensive.

If you keep norton, make sure it's not running any scheduled scans at random times this will slow things down a lot.

Also, are you using IE9? If not you should be. Personally I prefer Google Chrome on my laptop, and slower machines since it's faster. That being said IE9 is good too.

Okay, so there's a few things to try, but the one thing that will make this machine like new is to reinstall the operating system. You will need to backup your pictures/music/docs on to some external media before doing this though.

+1

Also run a scan for craplets.. So called because they are the manufacturers software, and aren't really needed.

But the first thing i would do, is remove (In it's entirety) iTunes.
That includes

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I'd untick these ones:
MobileMe
Quicktime
ITunes
Realplayer
ISB Utility
App monitor
Groove Monitor

and i'd download Copytrans manager INSTEAD!

Also Ccleaner Run this first to reduce scanning time on the next two..

Download and Run Malwarebytes and Spybot S&D

It's a nice laptop that you have, and shouldn't be running that slow for a long time, if you keep it "tuned"..

DEFRAG........ DEFRAG......... DEFRAG..........:)

EDIT::::

Update Vista to the newest update.. All the Stick vista got (I gave it loads) has forced them to make some very good improvements in the updates. In my opinion, Vista Up to date is better then windows 7 in it's current form.

jamesd

Backup and restore.