Laptop is running so slow

barrymanilow

Hi ,

I have a Dell laptop .

Had it nearly five years now .

Is that about the lifetime to expect before it's time for a new one ? Planned obselescence maybe.

It runs very slow , applications take an age to open .

I have ran a few malware cleaning
programmes , have up to date antivirus and cleaned off loads of movies that took up space , hard drive is half full now .

I also uninstalled anything unnecessary . Just have the bare essentials on it now .

I played with battery settings and turned performance up to a high setting too .

Do they just get sluggish over time or can anything be done ? Maybe a factory reset ?

Thanks for any pointers ,

B

killardkaiser

Laptops becoming sluggish after a few years is nothing new. Your best option is to reinstall the operating system again, if you do not think you can do this yourself then maybe try to locate a restore point or factory reset. If it is still slow after then the older hardware may be an issue when running demanding applications. An easy way to improve loading times and prevent slow downs when running many apps would be to upgrade the ram, which would take about €30-40 and 20 mins time. Before doing any of this I would recommend to back up your data on an external drive or on cloud (or both). Currently on a 9 year old dell laptop which runs well when browsing and using light apps, but essentially locks up when running games.

bonzodog2

Does system properties report the ram size as what its supposed to be?
There should be a memory test section in a dell bios
make sure you only have 1 antivirus installed
check the programs that start automatically at boot time

keyboard_cat

Best thing to do with an old laptop is to install an SSD and a few gigs of ram whats the model number of the laptop?

barrymanilow

Thanks its an inspiron 15 , I cant see any more info on it other than that as serial number sticker is smudged .

I am not the most teccy person so i will have to do some google fu to run the diagnostics and make the changes mentioned above

TheChizler

Run the tool from Crucial and they'll tell you the type of memory you need and the maximum your system can support (DDR2/DDR3, frequency etc.), as it's an old laptop you'd be able to pick up some second hand RAM on eBay or DoneDeal for next to nothing.

http://eu.crucial.com/eur/en/systemscanner

keyboard_cat

How much ram is installed on the machine?
click "My Computer" and down the bottom in the blueish bar it will say "Memory xx.xx GB"
also what processor is in the machine that info will be beside the memory info

barrymanilow

Okay.....we have ;

Intel Celeron CPU 1017U @ 1.60GHZ

RAM ; 4.00 GB (3.88 GB useable)

keyboard_cat

Well the CPU is not too fast but if you wanted to put a 120gb ssd into it and 8gb ram you could get another few years out of it (if you are not using it for anything too intensive)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-PLUS-Sata-2-5-inch-Internal/dp/B07621PNWC/ref=sr_1_1?m=A2OAJ7377F756P&s=warehouse-deals&ie=UTF8&qid=1524051735&sr=8-1&keywords=120gb+ssd

and two of theses
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT51264BF186DJ-PC3-14900-Single-204-Pin/dp/B00KSLPNN0/ref=sr_1_3?m=A2OAJ7377F756P&s=warehouse-deals&ie=UTF8&qid=1524051780&sr=8-3&keywords=ddr3+sodimm

All in just under 100 euro. There should be plenty of videos on YouTube on how to change out the ram and HDD on the laptop

barrymanilow

keyboard_cat wrote: »

Well the CPU is not too fast but if you wanted to put a 120gb ssd into it and 8gb ram you could get another few years out of it (if you are not using it for anything too intensive)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-PLUS-Sata-2-5-inch-Internal/dp/B07621PNWC/ref=sr_1_1?m=A2OAJ7377F756P&s=warehouse-deals&ie=UTF8&qid=1524051735&sr=8-1&keywords=120gb+ssd

and two of theses
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT51264BF186DJ-PC3-14900-Single-204-Pin/dp/B00KSLPNN0/ref=sr_1_3?m=A2OAJ7377F756P&s=warehouse-deals&ie=UTF8&qid=1524051780&sr=8-3&keywords=ddr3+sodimm

All in just under 100 euro. There should be plenty of videos on YouTube on how to change out the ram and HDD on the laptop

Thank you for that , that sounds very reasonable

beauf

A lot of those low end celeron and pentium laptops might have no ram slots.

I think 4GB is fine for a basic machine. Re-install windows and a SDD is what you need. You can alway re-use the SSD in another computer or as an external disk so its not wasted.

Gyck

beauf wrote: »

A lot of those low end celeron and pentium laptops might have no ram slots.

I think 4GB is fine for a basic machine. Re-install windows and a SDD is what you need. You can alway re-use the SSD in another computer or as an external disk so its not wasted.

Can't agree more. Invest in an SSD. Back up anything you want to keep to a different location and reinstall the OS. I had an old laptop a few years back and replaced the original HD with an SSD and did an OS reinstall. I got another few years out of the machine, and its boot time was very quick.

I make a point of doing an OS reinstall on any machine every couple of years, it make a big difference for older versions of Windows.

beauf

The only issue I would mention that browsing the web needs a bit more horsepower than it used to. Websites are more complex these days.

I'm finding my oldest CPU's too slow these days even with a SSD.

barrymanilow

Thanks for these replies folks ,

Im going to go ahead and back up the data , get an ssd and reinstall the OS ,

As for the ram , I took a piece off the bottom of the laptop and took a picture .

Is this the Ram slot ? looks like there is room for one more to fit in over the one already in it .

IMG_20180419_110443 by jambonsambo, on Flickr

barrymanilow

Thanks for these replies folks ,

Im going to go ahead and back up the data , get an ssd and reinstall the OS ,

As for the ram , I took a piece off the bottom of the laptop and took a picture .

Is this the Ram slot ? looks like there is room for one more to fit in over the one already in it . Possibly even two .

IMG_20180419_110443 by jambonsambo, on Flickr

magentis

No it's just one more stick it will take.If you take the battery out,and push those two metal tabs away from the stick that is in it,it will pop up,there will likely be a label on the other side telling you what size and speed it is.Its probably a 4gb stick.Cex is very reasonable for ram,you could bring the laptop in with you to ensure you get one of a size and speed to match the one in it.They would also have a cheap 120/128 GB ssd I reckon.

barrymanilow

One other thing , If I am going to reinstall the OS then will I have to source the windows software on CD ?Will I be able to get a free license from having it on the machine I bought originally . I dont have any of the paperwork that came with it anymore .

If the SSd replaces the hard drive then I should reinstall the OS first before switching the hard drive as the hard drive has windows on it , am I following this correctly ? Major caveman here

magentis

8gb ram and an ssd will make a huge difference to it.The ssd is the more important upgrade.You might pick up a good deal on Amazon or memoryc.ie for a new 256gb.You will also need a usb 2.5"drive enclosure or usb to SATA cable if you want to clone your drive,this will be handy as you can stick your old drive into it to use for additional storage.These can be picked up cheaply on Amazon or adverts.I would recommend a clean install for best results.If it's running Windows 10 with a digital licence,you can download a media creation tool from the Microsoft website and reinstall from a usb.

magentis

If it's got a Windows 7 product key on the back/,under the battery you can download a Windows 7 iso matching the one you have and reinstall from that.Did the laptop come with any disks?

magentis

The alternative would be drive cloning software a fresh install would be a better option though.

magentis

Or using some kind of tool like belarc advisor or similar to retrieve the product key for the existing install if you don't have a Windows 7 key label on it.This can be hit and miss.

magentis

What size hdd has it at the mo?If it's a 500gb and you have a lot on it it may need some trimming if fitting a 256gb ssd.

smuggler.ie

barrymanilow wrote: »

One other thing , If I am going to reinstall the OS then will I have to source the windows software on CD ?Will I be able to get a free license from having it on the machine I bought originally . I dont have any of the paperwork that came with it anymore .

If the SSd replaces the hard drive then I should reinstall the OS first before switching the hard drive as the hard drive has windows on it , am I following this correctly ? Major caveman here

If you go for Samsung SSD, they come with "Data migration" soft and instruction "how To". Once installed(soft) on your current drive , it will allow you to transfer ALL from origin disk to new SSD including Windows as is in current state. God part - no hassle with Windows, bad part - it will transfer all "crap" along.Note: for this transfer you will need USB enclosure.
If willing to go reinstall windows(personally would go for this) and have no OEM key recorded, Nirsoft has good and simple tool to read it . Run tool , take note of you OEM key(record all keys just in case, MS Office key if was installed, etc. ), swap disks, install windows, use key to activate if not activated automagically. Hold on to original disk - it still will work if plased back to machine in case something goes wrong. Note: Windows edition has to be same as original other way key wont work.
Regards SSD size. If go for "transfer", SSD has to be same or more as space currently used on HDD. In any way, I would go for some thing more than 128GB - windows alone will take 20-40GB, top it up with other software and you might find yourself short for storage. When calculating disk capacity beare in mind "over provisioning" - default 10%(out off 256GB actual size you'll get ~230GB)
Regards RAM - check how much max it is supported by laptop, for best results try to outsource matching specs or replace with pair, but in MHO - 4GB is sufficient for this machine. After introducing SSD, the bottleneck will be CPU, not RAM

smuggler.ie

In windows start type System and select "System Information" from list - it will tell you all about your laptop.
Judging by you description and age it could be this one

keyboard_cat

Yeah you have a spare slot buy a 4gb ddr3 ram stick for it and that should help greatly
(Sometimes mismatched ram brands/speeds can cause issues but i wouldn't be too concerned)

https://ie.webuy.com/product-detail?id=smem41280020

Johnboy1951

barrymanilow wrote: »

Hi ,

I have a Dell laptop .

Had it nearly five years now .

Is that about the lifetime to expect before it's time for a new one ? Planned obselescence maybe.

It runs very slow , applications take an age to open .

I have ran a few malware cleaning
programmes , have up to date antivirus and cleaned off loads of movies that took up space , hard drive is half full now .

I also uninstalled anything unnecessary . Just have the bare essentials on it now .

I played with battery settings and turned performance up to a high setting too .

Do they just get sluggish over time or can anything be done ? Maybe a factory reset ?

Thanks for any pointers ,

B

The cause is unlikely due to a hardware 'problem'.
It is more likely to be caused by the increase in media content on web sites (pictures, video etc) that the laptop is now struggling with.

The other likely cause is the OS has become 'clogged' over time, but a new clean install would show if that is the case or not.

You could also test by running a live Linux session from a USB connected flash or SSD drive.
If sites are still slow to load then it would indicate to me that the hardware is struggling with the content.

barrymanilow

Thanks for all the advice folks , picked up 4 gb ram from cex for 12 euro , already noticing a difference , have my data backed up and my product keys sourced so going to get an ssd and reload the OS Thanks again