Laptop slows down!!!

Vikinghar

Hi there, I have a 5 year old laptop, Samsung P28 with Windows XP. I have followed all the advice about speeding up my computer but it still slows down after approx. 15-20 mins. I completed the following tasks;
1)Backed-up
2)Disk Clean-up
3)Used msconfig to disable programmes on start-up
4)Defragged
5)Removed temporary Internet files.
6)Removed downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets)
7)Empty the Recycle Bin
8)Removed Windows temporary files such as error reports
9)Scanned and fixed Spyware and Malware
10)Downloaded IE8, but this was too slow at times so,
11)Downloaded Google Chrome
The 1 big ommission is the registry cleaning. I downloaded a programme that, quel surprise, suddenly wanted money off me to continue. I can't see registry being the issue. I'm at the end of my list and nearly my tether. Any advice gratefully recieved, barr the suggestion of a new computer!!! - V

bhickey

Ccleaner will clean the registry for you but I doubt it'll make a huge difference to performance after you've done all the other things. How much RAM do you have in the laptop?

ED E

Five years? Reinstall XP most definitely. Also, it may be too low a spec at this point. Remember that even the OS gets heavier over time with updates etc.

Vikinghar

bhickey wrote: »

Ccleaner will clean the registry for you but I doubt it'll make a huge difference to performance after you've done all the other things. How much RAM do you have in the laptop?

I have 448 MB of RAM. The problem happens most when I'm on-line. That could be because I'm on-line a lot, but the browser slows to nothing and clicking on Start does nothing either. I resort to pressing the button until it dies!!!!!

Vikinghar

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

Five years? Reinstall XP most definitely. Also, it may be too low a spec at this point. Remember that even the OS gets heavier over time with updates etc.

How will that affect my data files and installed programmes? PS - It was pre-loaded and I don't have disks.

PogMoThoin

448MB of ram is barely enough for XP with service pack 3, never mind all the other stuff You got goin on, antivirus etc. The pc was fine with XP when You bought it, but XP got heavier with each update and service pack. Add more ram, bring it upto 1GB minimum.

bhickey

Vikinghar wrote: »

I have 448 MB of RAM.

That's just not enough to run XP for long before the RAM runs out. Ideally you'd have about 1GB for Windows XP to keep it moving along nicely. Throw out whatever RAM you can from it and get one of these instead.

chin_grin

bhickey wrote: »

That's just not enough to run XP for long before the RAM runs out. Ideally you'd have about 1GB for Windows XP to keep it moving along nicely.

Seriously?

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sysreqs/pro.mspx

Here's What You Need to Use Windows XP Professional
•

PC with 300 megahertz or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233 MHz minimum required (single or dual processor system);* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, or AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended
•

128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)
•

1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space*
•

Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor
•

CD-ROM or DVD drive
•

Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

I'd also suggest a re-install. And yeah you're going to lose all programs you've installed so might want to fetch any installation disks and driver cd's you have.

bhickey

chin_grin wrote: »

Seriously?

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sysreqs/pro.mspx

Yes seriously. Let you just work away on your PC with 233 MHz processor, your 64 MB RAM and your 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space

Meanwhile the rest of us will just get on with our lives

chin_grin

bhickey wrote: »

Yes seriously. Let you just work away on your PC with 233 MHz processor, your 64 MB RAM and your 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space

Meanwhile the rest of us will just get on with our lives

I'm just jealous my machine is a pile of crap too. Yeah, didn't really factor in all the MS Updates. Ah well!

ED E

Time for a new laptop:)

demonspawn

Planned obsolescence. Welcome to the age of consumerism. Years ago they used to make things to last, but they figured out that cut into their profits. Now they make things to break or be incompatible after a few years. My laptop is coming on 5 years and simply using Firefox for more than a couple hours will slow it down to a crawl.

ikeano29

Sounds like over heating to me maybe. You should try cleaning your fans and also not have anything blocking your fans while using your computer. As someone said already, Ccleaner is a great registry cleaner and it can delete temporary internet files too. I was cleaning a freinds computer on friday which was about 10 years old and Ccleaner freed up 16gigs of space after it finsihed cleaning. So thats deffinetly worth a shot.