Slow laptop

liammur

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but maybe someone on here can help.

My laptop is after getting very slow. It's about a year old, and I get a message from Norton telling me about High CPU usage.

Any ideas on how I can quicken it up ?

Thanks

Mint Sauce

liammur wrote: »

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but maybe someone on here can help.

My laptop is after getting very slow. It's about a year old, and I get a message from Norton telling me about High CPU usage.

Any ideas on how I can quicken it up ?

Thanks

Maybe a defrag, or clearing unused, old, or temp files. Might be found in the disk clear up, or administratar settings, or control panel depending on your operating system.

sellerbarry

Get rid of norton for a start.;)

Boom_Bap

If you open the Windows Task Manager, what is using the most CPU?

liammur

irish-stew wrote: »

Maybe a defrag, or clearing unused, old, or temp files. Might be found in the disk clear up, or administratar settings, or control panel depending on your operating system.

Thanks, I did that already. Didn't do an awful for it, do laptops slow down if they are left on for a continuous amount of hours say like 10 hours?

liammur

Boom_Bap wrote: »

If you open the Windows Task Manager, what is using the most CPU?

I've 2 explorers open

1 is using 896,234K and the other is using 233,456K. All the others are small.

Boom_Bap

896,234K is quite a large amount of memory for explorer to be using. I assume Windows Explorer? If so, how many tabs do you have open?

irishgeo

2 explorers sounds odd.

I suggest downloading and running malwarebytes incase you have spyware.

liammur

Boom_Bap wrote: »

896,234K is quite a large amount of memory for explorer to be using. I assume Windows Explorer? If so, how many tabs do you have open?

Ya windows, and just the 1 tab - in fact this site here. The other explorer is faster right now. what could be causing that/

BostonB

sellerbarry wrote: »

Get rid of norton for a start.;)

+1

http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/NIS-2012-and-High-CPU-Usage/td-p/533424/page/3

Boom_Bap

liammur wrote: »

Ya windows, and just the 1 tab - in fact this site here. The other explorer is faster right now. what could be causing that/

Do you have loads of toolbars and extra search windows in the browser.
It could be a number of different things, could be a flash plugin crashing repeatedly or something like that.

To be honest, the first thing I would do is stop using Internet Explorer and start using something like Chrome which uses far less memory.

RUSTEDCORE

BostonB wrote: »

+1

http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/NIS-2012-and-High-CPU-Usage/td-p/533424/page/3

make that +2

Simi

liammur wrote: »

I've 2 explorers open

1 is using 896,234K and the other is using 233,456K. All the others are small.

explorer.exe is using 896,234K? That can't be right. It should be a fraction of that. Or do you mean internet explorer? Still insanely high though.

Have you done a full virus/spyware scan recently? That ginormous explorer process could be something else masquerading as a legitimate program (highly unlikely, but possible).

Normally I'd be reluctant to recommend tune up programs, as the free versions primary function is as an advertisement for the full program, but Glary Utilities is fairly unintrusive and has a good level of functionality.

liammur

Then will I close the internet down, it's faster for a while, and gets slower again after a while. Maybe bring it in somewhere ?

BostonB

Seriously un-install Norton. Then install Microsoft Security Essentials.

What have you go to lose. Whats the rush to go into a shop?

liammur

BostonB wrote: »

Seriously un-install Norton. Then install Microsoft Security Essentials.

What have you go to lose. Whats the rush to go into a shop?

No, it's not Norton, I thought I had a virus so I bought Norton to see could it get anything, but it didn't.

yoyo

Get rid of Norton and run a Malwarebytes scan. You can use a free antivirus like Microsoft Security Essentials or Avast to replace it. Two explorer.exe processes does sound suspicious

Nick

Boom_Bap

Which version of Window, is it 7?

If so, in the Task Manager, click on the Performance Tab, then open the Resource Monitor.
Hit the CPU tab and sort by CPU, which tops the list?

BostonB

You're saying the problem was there before Norton.

Still the general rule applies. I would un-install all non essential software. Especially Toolbars in Browser things like that.

TBH you could create a live bootable Linux DVD disk (doesn't install to HD) boot off that and see if its still low. If it is, then its the hardware. If its not then its the software you have installed. Note the Live DVD will be slow to boot, but after that it should be fine.

liammur

yoyo wrote: »

Get rid of Norton and run a Malwarebytes scan. You can use a free antivirus like Microsoft Security Essentials or Avast to replace it. Two explorer.exe processes does sound suspicious

Nick

This is what is says:

explorer: 32,308

iexplorer: 369,280
iexplorer: 302,409
iexplorer: 28,907

I have 2 internet sessions open.

I don't know what else it could be as they are the biggest users

gctest50

Norton Removal Tool - best thing ever


ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/removal_tools/Norton_Removal_Tool.exe

https://www-secure.symantec.com/norton-support/jsp/help-solutions.jsp?lg=english&ct=united+states&docid=kb20080710133834EN_EndUserProfile_en_us&product=home&version=1&pvid=f-home

RUSTEDCORE

what are the pc specs

click start then right click on computer and select properties to find this

liammur

BostonB wrote: »

You're saying the problem was there before Norton.

Still the general rule applies. I would un-install all non essential software. Especially Toolbars in Browser things like that.

TBH you could create a live bootable Linux DVD disk (doesn't install to HD) boot off that and see if its still low. If it is, then its the hardware. If its not then its the software you have installed. Note the Live DVD will be slow to boot, but after that it should be fine.

To be honest with I'm not much good with computers, I wouldn't be able to do half that stuff.

liammur

RUSTEDCORE wrote: »

what are the pc specs

click start then right click on computer and select properties to find this

It's a 4GB, Intel 2.00GHz, Windows Vista Home premium,

yoyo

liammur wrote: »

This is what is says:

explorer: 32,308

iexplorer: 369,280
iexplorer: 302,409
iexplorer: 28,907

I have 2 internet sessions open.

I don't know what else it could be as they are the biggest users

Thats normal, sorry I read it as multiple explorer.exe processes! Uninstall Norton and see if things improve would be my advice.

Nick

liammur

yoyo wrote: »

Thats normal, sorry I read it as multiple explorer.exe processes! Uninstall Norton and see if things improve would be my advice.

Nick

Ok, thanks guys. It's people like yourselves that makes boards a great website.

RUSTEDCORE

liammur wrote: »

It's a 4GB, Intel 2.00GHz, Windows Vista Home premium,

4GB ram is great

A 2 Ghz processer (probably dual core) is not great but good enough for most things, definitely enough for browsing unless you are trying to watch 1080p video online.

Vista is crap xp or seven are far better


My suggestion is that you get a copy of windows vista and reinstall it as you have the product key on the laptop this would be free and would return the laptop to the condition you purchased it as.

NOTE-you should back up your files but windows automatically does that so dont worry
You will need to reinstall your programs that did not come with the pc though and if you use itunes this would delete all music on your ipod the next time you connect it

scarab47

Get rid of norton avg free should be all you need. And vista too if you can get your hands on windows 7 you will notice a huge improvement.

BostonB

liammur wrote: »

To be honest with I'm not much good with computers, I wouldn't be able to do half that stuff.

Its really not hard. It just sounds hard. Its the techno babble.

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/help/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows

Boom_Bap

yoyo wrote: »

Thats normal, sorry I read it as multiple explorer.exe processes! Uninstall Norton and see if things improve would be my advice.

Nick

over 300k for a browser running one tab (boards.ie)......that is quite high.

Before doing any extreme un-installs, try another browser. It might be a short term solution.

yoyo

Boom_Bap wrote: »

over 300k for a browser running one tab (boards.ie)......that is quite high.

Before doing any extreme un-installs, try another browser. It might be a short term solution.

Sorry . Meant that having multiple iexplore.exe processes is normal, not multiple explorer.exe ones

Nick

MrECameraman

RUSTEDCORE wrote: »

4GB ram is great

A 2 Ghz processer (probably dual Remember, the kernelcore) is not great but good enough for most things, definitely enough for browsing unless you are trying to watch 1080p video online.

Vista is crap xp or seven are far better


My suggestion is that you get a copy of windows vista and reinstall it as you have the product key on the laptop this would be free and would return the laptop to the condition you purchased it as.

NOTE-you should back up your files but windows automatically does that so dont worry
You will need to reinstall your programs that did not come with the pc though and if you use itunes this would delete all music on your ipod the next time you connect it

seems a bit drastic. sure Vista can be a touch bloaty, but it's tunable. Remember, the internals, and particularly the kernel, are very similar to 7.

Also a 2GHz core2duo should be fine

OP, the best advice I could give is ask a friend who knows what they're doing. Things like defrag and that won't hurt, but you really want something like procmon or xperf to see exactly what it's doing. Your friendly neighborhood nerd should be able to help. it's not a big job.

hth

liammur

yoyo wrote: »

Sorry . Meant that having multiple iexplore.exe processes is normal, not multiple explorer.exe ones

Nick

What's the difference Nick between iexplorer.exe and explorer.exe ?

yoyo

liammur wrote: »

What's the difference Nick between iexplorer.exe and explorer.exe ?

explorer.exe is the Windows explorer process, there should only be one. Some malware will call itself explorer.exe to try hide from av software and also appear to be genuine. iexplorer.exe is internet explorer, which newer versions make a new precess for every tab I think

Nick

liammur

yoyo wrote: »

explorer.exe is the Windows explorer process, there should only be one. Some malware will call itself explorer.exe to try hide from av software and also appear to be genuine. iexplorer.exe is internet explorer, which newer versions make a new precess for every tab I think

Nick

Thanks Nick. I'll keep an eye on those processes - what type of ones would be suspicious ? I think it's a virus I have and Norton can't get it.

Dey were Sooted

if u feel it is a virus download a free trial of eset nod32 , run an update and full scan . if there is a virus there that is more than 24 hours old , more than likely it will get it ... if there is nothing found, go do the same with malwarebytes if you haven't done so already . i have been in situtations where one of these programs have caught a virus where the other one hasn't ..... you will need to remove norton before you do this

ruling out a virus for sure would be the first step imo

vista can run pretty well with software tweaks

norton - don't know how they have been getting away with it for so long - if a dodgy/slow computer is handed to me and has norton insatlled - first thing i do is remove it ..... norton have been so so bad in the last few years that even if they could ,they still ain't got nothing to improve on......

btw - is it just me, but vista and a year old computer don't add up - where did u get it ?

RUSTEDCORE

MrECameraman wrote: »

seems a bit drastic. sure Vista can be a touch bloaty, but it's tunable. Remember, the internals, and particularly the kernel, are very similar to 7.

Also a 2GHz core2duo should be fine

OP, the best advice I could give is ask a friend who knows what they're doing. Things like defrag and that won't hurt, but you really want something like procmon or xperf to see exactly what it's doing. Your friendly neighborhood nerd should be able to help. it's not a big job.

hth

A procmon tutorial

RUSTEDCORE

If you want a proper check for viruses you need this free softwre

I have run all the top software that you have to pay for and then run spybot search and destroy and it finds stuff the others dont and keeps it simple.

BostonB

RUSTEDCORE wrote: »

If you want a proper check for viruses you need this free softwre

I have run all the top software that you have to pay for and then run spybot search and destroy and it finds stuff the others dont and keeps it simple.

Thats because thats not a Virus checker, its a spyware and adware scanner.

You need to run both a Virus scan AND a spyware and adware scanner.

RUSTEDCORE

BostonB wrote: »

Thats because thats not a Virus checker, its a spyware and adware scanner.

You need to run both a Virus scan AND a spyware and adware scanner.

In my opinion true viruses cannot be found from software so I search manually for that and generally it is adware that slows a pc. Viruses are designed for stealth.

BostonB

You're entitled to your opinion. But that is why they find different things. They scan/fix different things.

Spybot I found quite heavy on resources on an old machine. It also finds a lot of false positives. Its a great tool, but to be aware of that if that if you are finding a machine slow, or it keeps finding things. I generally keep it off an older machine unless theres a problem I need to fix. Then I might install it.

9/10 I fix a slow machine by un-installing all the frills and keeping the essential apps. While you can tweat Vista to run better, its still always slower than XP/W7 or Windows 8. Windows 8 runs especially well on older machines I find. Its a cheap upgrade from Vista too.