Slow laptop

[goooba769]

Iv got an Acer laptop which is only 1 year old and takes few minutes to start up and is slow when going. When I first had it and for few months it was fine but has slowed up over the last few months.
I dont use it much. I dont have loads of files on it and only few programs have been down loaded.
Anyone have any ideas on why this is happening and how I can check or resolve it????

 

[gentoo]

Have you defraged it latly? If not and you've got XP do this

Defragment a Disk Volume
1. If the Disk Defragmenter tool is not already running, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.
2. Click the volume that you want to defragment.
3. Click Defragment to begin the operation.
4. Review the progress of the operation in the Defragmentation Display window. Fragmented files on the disk appear in red, contiguous files are blue, and system files are green. The goal is to eliminate most of the red in the window.

 

[goooba769]

Iv tried that few times but only slightly improves it

 

[Igorian]

There is also disk cleanup, which is on the same menu as disk defragment. Check all the boxes except "compress old files".

What anti-virus or Internet security software do you use?

How much disk space is remaining?

The more descriptive you are, however irrelevant the information might seem, the better the chance of a solution.

 

[suffolklad]

what is your security like you might have some spyware programs working in background . spyware is everywhere these days my internet security spends all its time blocking programs . what spec is your acer laptop?

 

[Hysteresis]

If Disc Clean and Defragmenting are not having much effect, I would suggest you have a registery problem which can be easily cured.
Vist www.RegCure.com and that site offers a Free Scan which will identify registery problems, my laptop had over 700 which had to be deleted. The delete software costs around £20 but it helped my laptop.
Another problem area can be Spyware which can be cured by visiting www.XoftSpySE.com. Again this software identified 70 problems on my laptop, the deleting of which helped my PC performance. Unfortunatly they again charge for the software.
My Laptop is now back to 'as new' speeds and the software is avaiable to me now for I think it is eighteen months so I regularly run the programs to clear Spyware and registery problems.

 

[goooba769]

iv got 45G and 32G is free.
Iv got Norton installed

 

[Stozzer]

norton wont protect against spyware, only viruses.

two programs i swear by are Lavasofts Adaware personal http://www.lavasoft.com/

and Spyboty search and destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

one will find what the other will not.

please also bear in mind that allot of anti-spyware programs actully come with spyware!!!!!!!!
AFAIK these do not. i have them on 7 pcs in my house and have been using the programs for 5 years +

Something you can do to generally speed up your pc is turn down winxp's fancy graphics. (fading windows etc)
System propterties ( click system in control panel), click on the Advanced tab, in the performance area click "Settings", then click "Adjust for best performance".

It will make XP look allot more spartan, but speed it up no end!

 

[Hysteresis]

Hi Stozzer,
That was a fantastic tip to adjust the settings to best performance.
My Laptop now appears turbo charged. Dosen't look as good but Who Cares.
Fantastic tip - Thanks

 

[Stozzer]

no problem. i set that settings to all my machines, as i want them to work well, not look pretty while doing it.

 

[goooba769]

Right then I'v finaly got round to trying the Regcure but its still slow.
Anyone have any ideas????????

 

[Igorian]

Right then I'v finaly got round to trying the Regcure but its still slow.
Anyone have any ideas????????

What else have you done so far?

 

[goooba769]

Tried all mentioned above - Regcure, defrag, diskcleanup, XP graphics turned down spyware installed.
At the stage I want to throw i

 

[Igorian]

How much memory and which version of Norton is installed? What other a/v antispyware apps are installed?

The difficulty is not being able to see it, unless you want me to take a remote session and have look?

 

[suffolklad]

my brother in law had norton on his pc and his pc was slow to so we removed it and he uses a good firewall plus runs antispyware and virus programmes when he needs them he doesnt always run them in background