lap top gone slow

overthenest

hey folks, my lap top has started to get extremely slow and is freezing when i go into my gmail etc, what would be wrong here and how can i sort it? any help is much appreciated thank you

bonzodog2

Post the laptop model, CPU speed, Ram size and OS
Check the TaskManager, see if something is using all the CPU
Is an antivirus scanning or updating?

Also:
clear browser caches and other temp files
run ccleaner
defrag
check what programs are starting up when you boot
do a full virus scan
try another browser

overthenest

hey, its a HP compaq, how do i check the cpu speed ram size and os? and how do i check the task manager to see what is using up the cpu?
also how do i clear browser caches and other temp files
run ccleaner
defrag
check what programs are starting up when you boot
do a full virus scan, i have been using chrome and firefox
sorry im not very tech, thanks for your help, much appreciated

RodgersLFC

A simple thing you can do to speed it up is to go to Start >> Run and type MSConfig and press Enter. Go to the Startup tab, and disable any unneccessary startup programs - the Startup tab will show you all the programs that start up automatically when you power on the computer. Disabling things such as MSN, Adobe Reader etc will improve performance.

Just be careful what you disable - if you're not sure what something is, google it before disabling.

Also run virus and spyware scans (Malwarebytes is a good free spyware detection program).

RodgersLFC

overthenest wrote: »

hey, its a HP compaq, how do i check the cpu speed ram size and os? and how do i check the task manager to see what is using up the cpu?
also how do i clear browser caches and other temp files
run ccleaner
defrag
check what programs are starting up when you boot
do a full virus scan, i have been using chrome and firefox
sorry im not very tech, thanks for your help, much appreciated

You can download CCleaner from www.filehippo.com. Run it once a month and it clears the internet browser cache and temp files for you.

Freddy Smelly

download malwarebytes its free

install it, run as administrator, update it, then run a scan to clean your laptop from spyware programs

overthenest

thank you so much folks, hopefully it will work

riclad

Windows needs about 5 gig free drive space,to work properly.MY friends pc,had a program, it made a 25 gig backup file,took up all the free space on drive c.PC was freezing,crashing ,when i deleted the backup files,the os stopping crashing , just ran normally.
The antivirus program,seemed to be setup to backup up files everyday
for some reason , it filled up drive c. 80 gig drive after 9 months.
I went to settings,antivirus, set ,backup files =off.
GO to my computer, right click drive c, click propertys, see how much free space you have.

overthenest

riclad wrote: »

Windows needs about 5 gig free drive space,to work properly.MY friends pc,had a program, it made a 25 gig backup file,took up all the free space on drive c.PC was freezing,crashing ,when i deleted the backup files,the os stopping crashing , just ran normally.
The antivirus program,seemed to be setup to backup up files everyday
for some reason , it filled up drive c. 80 gig drive after 9 months.
I went to settings,antivirus, set ,backup files =off.
GO to my computer, right click drive c, click propertys, see how much free space you have.

where do i find settings on my pc? thank you

riclad

JUST right click drive c,click propertys, see is there at least 5 gig free space.
Run ccleaner,
The settings i refer to were in antivirus,menu,settings, backup= on, off.
i,ve no idea why a antivirus would be set to backup 20gig of random files.IT seems pointless to me ,the drive was only 60gig in size in total.

http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/16545-where-my-disk-space-going.html

The antivirus itself on that pc, seems to take up 500meg space.
Do a virus scan, a virus can take up ram, which slows down windows,and even takes up bandwidth.

overthenest

thanks riclad, ive done that seems to be a bit better now today

riclad

Download ccleaner ,it gets rid of old temp files,frees up at least 1gig,
usually,old cpys of files,temp browser files,
see
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download,
Click ,tick box, dont erase cookies, as some sites use cookies for login purposes for users.Before you click,ok,cleanup.

RodgersLFC

Also try Start > Run and MSConfig, click on the Startup tab, and disable stuff like Adobe Reader and MSN Messenger. Should help a little too, but make sure not to disable something if you dont know what it is. If in doubt, look it up on Google, and if its a program you dont use or need, untick the box.

Torqay

RodgersLFC wrote: »

Also try Start > Run and MSConfig

Have you ever tried to nuke the likes of Google or iTunes update checkers with MSConfig... good luck.

MSConfig only shows a tiny fraction of what's going on. Better use Microsoft's Autoruns.

RodgersLFC

Torqay wrote: »

Have you ever tried to nuke the likes of Google or iTunes update checkers with MSConfig... good luck.

MSConfig only shows a tiny fraction of what's going on. Better use Microsoft's Autoruns.

I was trying to keep it to an understandable level for the OP, who said previously they werent very technical. Autoruns is a dangerous tool if you dont know what you're doing.