laptop very slow

Bob Z

my parents laptop is very and always has been from day one. Is there any way it be speeded up? there is hardly any programs on it because it is almost unuseable

listermint

1) it might be just a slow laptop
2) how handy are you with Windows ?
3) what type of laptop is it

There are pages of things to do in this forum that will show you how to get the most out of an older machine that may have stuff running in the background.


Personally im a big protagonist of just doing a clean install of the OS. It works like a charm pretty much all of the time.

bonzodog2

I would:
Check which things are started automatically, in startup tab of msconfig
Make sure you only have 1 AV program
Does the disk access light flicker a lot? Check RAM usage and availability. Maybe add/change RAM
Does it blow out hot air/have fan on a lot? CPU may be throttling. May need fluff removed/new paste

Bob Z

listermint wrote: »

1) it might be just a slow laptop
2) how handy are you with Windows ?
3) what type of laptop is it

There are pages of things to do in this forum that will show you how to get the most out of an older machine that may have stuff running in the background.


Personally im a big protagonist of just doing a clean install of the OS. It works like a charm pretty much all of the time.

im pretty handy its my parent its a toshiba laptop its so slow its unusable at times

it has always been slow it probably just a slow laptop even before any software was put on it

could i put an older version of windows on it? maybe even xp?

Alanstrainor

Bob Z wrote: »

im pretty handy its my parent its a toshiba laptop its so slow its unusable at times

it has always been slow it probably just a slow laptop even before any software was put on it

could i put an older version of windows on it? maybe even xp?

That we be a very bad idea.

What laptop is it exactly? And how old? (Even how much did it cost initially, it would give an idea of spec at least)

If you were going to go the route of installing a different OS, I think the best bet would be to reinstall the version of Windows already installed on the computer. Being careful to only install the essentials when you do reinstall.

The process for this will be different depending on what version of Windows you are running, (Windows 7, 8 or 10). But it would give you a clean slate to work with and you should get it to a reasonably serviceable level.

mordeith

Older Toshibas came with a ridiculous amount of bloatware. As said check what's launching on boot and disable anything unnecessary. If that had no effect a reinstall of Windows.

TerrorFirmer

Could be just a really low-end laptop as well, there were far too many laptops sold with absolutely garbage processors in the past that struggled with the basics even on day of purchase. Would help if we knew what the actual spec of the laptop is.

Bob Z

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Could be just a really low-end laptop as well, there were far too many laptops sold with absolutely garbage processors in the past that struggled with the basics even on day of purchase. Would help if we knew what the actual spec of the laptop is.

ok ill find out

jimmycrackcorm

If it has a traditional hard disk then replacing with an SSD makes a world of difference.

In any case installing a fresh copy of Windows, instead of upgrading also improved performance.