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Operating System Specific Discussions => Other Operating Systems => Topic started by: XDelusion on February 26, 2015, 11:04:01 PM
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So I got another laptop sitting here, it's a single core, 2Gb system running Windows 7 64-bit. It had a few virus' which I cleaned out, but that, and removing unnecessary bloatware did not make a difference. I ran every Windows fixing piece of software that I have in my collection (too many to list) and at the end of it all, nothing.
So I did a fresh install of Windows 7, at first it was a tad bit faster, but once you install Avast, Malwarebytes, and Firefox, everything is about as slow as before.
The hard drive has no errors, and the only thing I can think it could be is the mother board?
Mind you, it's an old single core system, but it should not take 5 to 10 minutes for programs to load and the hard drive light should not be lit up all day long.
Any clues? I'm dropping a solid state in it next...
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I would go to Task Manager>Performance and check how much Physical RAM is used and how much if Free.
A lot of disk usage is caused by low RAM and too much SWAP used.
Maybe needs more RAM?
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It is always possible to get a slow PC to work a little faster if you are willing to compromise a little with the stuff it is running at all times. This can be done by turning off stuff that you really don't need to be started upon booting, and by dropping some of the visual "eyecandy" effects.
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What OS originally came on it?
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I would see if it can take 4GB, 2GB is just enough but you will find it will preform better with 4GB.
I would also get an SSD this too will increase speed :-) Lastly I'd install Windows 10 Preview and you notice even better performance :-)
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You also don't mention what spec the CPU is or how old it is?
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I would go to Task Manager>Performance and check how much Physical RAM is used and how much if Free.
And to Processes, which process is using memory and how much; which process is using CPU and how much.
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I'm guessing you're an experienced windows user so guess you had the system running at a good speed previously for comparison. Normally Malware and AV software will do a full system baseline scan in the background. Cold this be the impact? has it been a while since the reinstall?
As a side I gave up on full blown AV / AM software because of performance impacting tasks. Now I just use Defender native and through this control and personal controls haven't yet had an issue. Yet. But if the laptop is to be used for risky stuff, torrenting etc that might not be a good idea.
Finally assuming you formatted you HD and didn't do a reinstall to a new directory.
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Wow, so many good questions unanswered!
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Cant believe noone has mentioned the number one problem with laptops.
If you have pets (or just general dust build up), your slow issues could be down to clogged fan and heat sink.
My sister had same problems and was about to buy a new laptop (CRAZY). So I took a look and dog hair had created a coat across the heatsink fins. This had the effect on causing the speed stepping to kick in and was dropping the CPU down to 20MHz. It would take 30 to 40 mins to do anything on it.
Once cleaned out, the machine was back to as new speed.
I have 8.1 running perfectly fine and fast on my daughters single core 64bit CPU and 2GB RAM. So cant see it being your single core CPU at all. Hell I even had WindowsXP running on a slow machine with only 32MB RAM.