Had my Acer laptop (with Windows Vista) for 3 years, but it seems to be taking more and more time loading up. Anyone know of a programme to make it go quicker, or is it coming to the end of its usage ? Thanks.
usually not much to do with the computer but what is stored on the computer, old files, programs you never use, games, music, any corrupted files all contribute to slowing a computer down. See if there's anything you can remove from the memory and remember to keep everything up to date with the windows update and it should run pretty well for a while yet
Had to buy a new one recently because of this, it went from slow to not running properly at all pretty fast. Don't know of programs but maybe you could try a restore point? As a last resort I reset windows back to original settings (anything you have saved or installed will be gone) and it worked like new for a few days before going wrong again.
Tune up utilities from AVG : http://www.tune-up.com Use it for free the first time, if it does the job for you, buy it, it's not expensive. One of the few pieces of software that I've ever bought and it works really well. Also with Vista, it can take ages to start up. Instead of shutting down, chose hibernate instead and it will start up much quicker.
Unfortunately it happens with windows. Tune ups and everything will help... But if you really want to get it back to its original speed, save everything you need onto disks, the cloud or an external hard drive and then format the laptop and reinstall the OS.
If you're willing to shell out £120 then ditch your laptop's old mechanical hard drive and buy an SSD. Your laptop will seem new again. Also worth putting windows 8 on it
Many thanks for the help/suggestions, TBH I'm not very good when it comes to these things, so not sure how to delete stuff from the memory (not even sure where to find this on the computer). Am Instaling the "tune-up" at the moment, and will "defragment" later. Thank You.
Use CCleaner (google it) to tidy up and repair your registry. Defrag your hard drive, also use the Disk Cleanup utility. All of these should improve it. If your hard drive is getting full you should consider deleting some stuff.
There is no reason why it should not be possible to restore your computer to it's former self. It's not slowing down because it's wearing out.
Mate had a similar problem a while back. Told him to delete all the old programs he doesn't use anymore to clear some space & do a de-frag. The problem was he did delete loads of old programs, rather than un-installing them, which will leave loads of files loitering around, blocking up the system. Personally I avoid laptops like the plague & stick to desktops.
Also, have a look in your task manager to see what you have running (you'll be amazed how many programs are running in the background that don't need to be). And have a look out for something called Twunk.exe. This is a virus that will use up a hell of a load of your memory (neighbour had that very issue & took about 5 mins to open a simple document).
Agree - the problem is likely to be that too much is running at startup and / or searching for updates all at the same time.
I assume that you have a reasonable anti-virus program and anti malware program (AV programs won't always find malware and vice versa) - give these a run. It's also possible that you've got something nasty running behind the scenes.
And, on the basis that prevention is better than cure, I assume you have a firewall running as well - any decent one will ask "are you sure?" before it lets you install a new program.
That having been said, it's not unknown for one anti-virus to decide it really doesn't like a particular firewall or vice versa, or for some anti virus programs to be trying to scan themselves or something that doesn't exist any more. If all else fails, might be worth installing a different anti virus program.
Ccleaner is good for tidying up the registry (this can get full of crud if you've updated / removed / added programs) and generally getting rid of crud.
It also - through "tools - startup" lets you see what's running when you switch on. Some of the things you've never heard of will be essential to your computer's operation, some won't be. Some research may be needed before you disable things.
If you've installed a lot of things that seemed like a good idea at the time (e.g. too many toolbars on your browser) they won't help overall performance and you'd probably do better getting shot of them.
And you don't need every program you might possibly ever use launching itself at startup.
Also, (and I hope I'm stating the bleeding obvious here but it's perhaps worth saying)
Firstly, if you're going to install security programs, you can get perfectly adequate programs as free downloads, but just make sure you install them direct from the genuine website, or from somewhere established and reputable like filehippo.com or download.cnet.com
If you ever get a 'pop up' while you're browsing telling you that you have a virus and that you should click on a button - it's worth being suspicious.
And if you ever get an e-mail or phone call telling you that you have a virus and you should do something, it's almost certainly a scam.
All these 'registry cleaner' and 'tune up utility' programs are bobbins - the computing equivalent of snake oil. They had their place back in the days of Windows 98 and shitty old hardware, but nowadays make almost no difference to the performance of a machine (unless you've had it for six years with the same O/S installation). They're the equivalent of those daft magnetic bracelets you see gullible people wearing to 'improve their performance' in sport. Useless.
You have three options to speed up performace.
1 - Reinstall Windows. Copy all your documents/music etc and make a note of all the programs you've got installed that you actually use. Ensure you have your reinstall media for WIndows and your programs, then reinstall from scratch.
2 - Uninstall all the old shite you never use. Most people have dozens of programs knocking around on their Windows installation that they never use, which take up unecessary space, usually have some old pants that starts up at the same time as Windows and run in the background, starving it of resources that could be used for actual, used programs.
3 - Upgrade. In most situations nowadays, machines come with a powerful enough CPU and more than enough RAM, so moving to an SSD drive rather than a 'traditional' mechanical one (as suggested above) is a sensible upgrade. Although, of course, if you choose this route, you'll also have to go through step 1 as well (you could clone the old drive onto the new one, but you're just transferring a whole load of problems along with it)
There are loads of in-depth things you could do to analyse exactly why performance is so poor, but they probably require a bit more know-how than you have and the time you'll invest in it isn't worth it. Personally, I'd just reinstall Windows. I do that every three months on every machine I work on (laptop, desktop at home, workstation at work) - takes me about a hour and a half to restore a working image - yours will take longer because you won't be imaging/reimaging, but you don't have to do it as often.
Again, thank you all for the advice. Did the AVG : http://www.tune-up.com and the "Defragment" and already the speed has increased. Not too confident about trying some of the others, frightened I may delete or erase something important: not sure what Data, etc....I need to keep. Will see how it goes over the next few days. Cheers.
All these 'registry cleaner' and 'tune up utility' programs are bobbins - the computing equivalent of snake oil. They had their place back in the days of Windows 98 and shitty old hardware, but nowadays make almost no difference to the performance of a machine (unless you've had it for six years with the same O/S installation). They're the equivalent of those daft magnetic bracelets you see gullible people wearing to 'improve their performance' in sport. Useless.
You have three options to speed up performace.
1 - Reinstall Windows. Copy all your documents/music etc and make a note of all the programs you've got installed that you actually use. Ensure you have your reinstall media for WIndows and your programs, then reinstall from scratch.
2 - Uninstall all the old shite you never use. Most people have dozens of programs knocking around on their Windows installation that they never use, which take up unecessary space, usually have some old pants that starts up at the same time as Windows and run in the background, starving it of resources that could be used for actual, used programs.
3 - Upgrade. In most situations nowadays, machines come with a powerful enough CPU and more than enough RAM, so moving to an SSD drive rather than a 'traditional' mechanical one (as suggested above) is a sensible upgrade. Although, of course, if you choose this route, you'll also have to go through step 1 as well (you could clone the old drive onto the new one, but you're just transferring a whole load of problems along with it)
There are loads of in-depth things you could do to analyse exactly why performance is so poor, but they probably require a bit more know-how than you have and the time you'll invest in it isn't worth it. Personally, I'd just reinstall Windows. I do that every three months on every machine I work on (laptop, desktop at home, workstation at work) - takes me about a hour and a half to restore a working image - yours will take longer because you won't be imaging/reimaging, but you don't have to do it as often.
I re-installed windows 3 times on my old one, each time it worked fine for 3-5 days then the same problem arose. Guess I was just unlucky, though it was a shitty slow Advent to start with.
Again, thank you all for the advice. Did the AVG : http://www.tune-up.com and the "Defragment" and already the speed has increased. Not too confident about trying some of the others, frightened I may delete or erase something important: not sure what Data, etc....I need to keep. Will see how it goes over the next few days. Cheers.
MOG, If you click on "Gain disk space" then "Delete Unnecessary Files" you can get rid of a load of junk, such as temp files, that you don't need and create a lot of disk space that will make your computer run faster. You might as well take advantage of the free trial period.
Have you tried plugging it in and giving it a whack? Don't lend it to Dave Mehmet in the future, an innocent email and before you know it he's on Xhamster picking up allsorts of viruses.
Comments
Use it for free the first time, if it does the job for you, buy it, it's not expensive. One of the few pieces of software that I've ever bought and it works really well.
Also with Vista, it can take ages to start up. Instead of shutting down, chose hibernate instead and it will start up much quicker.
There is no reason why it should not be possible to restore your computer to it's former self. It's not slowing down because it's wearing out.
Also, have a look in your task manager to see what you have running (you'll be amazed how many programs are running in the background that don't need to be). And have a look out for something called Twunk.exe. This is a virus that will use up a hell of a load of your memory (neighbour had that very issue & took about 5 mins to open a simple document).
I assume that you have a reasonable anti-virus program and anti malware program (AV programs won't always find malware and vice versa) - give these a run. It's also possible that you've got something nasty running behind the scenes.
And, on the basis that prevention is better than cure, I assume you have a firewall running as well - any decent one will ask "are you sure?" before it lets you install a new program.
That having been said, it's not unknown for one anti-virus to decide it really doesn't like a particular firewall or vice versa, or for some anti virus programs to be trying to scan themselves or something that doesn't exist any more. If all else fails, might be worth installing a different anti virus program.
Ccleaner is good for tidying up the registry (this can get full of crud if you've updated / removed / added programs) and generally getting rid of crud.
It also - through "tools - startup" lets you see what's running when you switch on. Some of the things you've never heard of will be essential to your computer's operation, some won't be. Some research may be needed before you disable things.
If you've installed a lot of things that seemed like a good idea at the time (e.g. too many toolbars on your browser) they won't help overall performance and you'd probably do better getting shot of them.
And you don't need every program you might possibly ever use launching itself at startup.
Also, (and I hope I'm stating the bleeding obvious here but it's perhaps worth saying)
Firstly, if you're going to install security programs, you can get perfectly adequate programs as free downloads, but just make sure you install them direct from the genuine website, or from somewhere established and reputable like filehippo.com or download.cnet.com
If you ever get a 'pop up' while you're browsing telling you that you have a virus and that you should click on a button - it's worth being suspicious.
And if you ever get an e-mail or phone call telling you that you have a virus and you should do something, it's almost certainly a scam.
You have three options to speed up performace.
1 - Reinstall Windows. Copy all your documents/music etc and make a note of all the programs you've got installed that you actually use. Ensure you have your reinstall media for WIndows and your programs, then reinstall from scratch.
2 - Uninstall all the old shite you never use. Most people have dozens of programs knocking around on their Windows installation that they never use, which take up unecessary space, usually have some old pants that starts up at the same time as Windows and run in the background, starving it of resources that could be used for actual, used programs.
3 - Upgrade. In most situations nowadays, machines come with a powerful enough CPU and more than enough RAM, so moving to an SSD drive rather than a 'traditional' mechanical one (as suggested above) is a sensible upgrade. Although, of course, if you choose this route, you'll also have to go through step 1 as well (you could clone the old drive onto the new one, but you're just transferring a whole load of problems along with it)
There are loads of in-depth things you could do to analyse exactly why performance is so poor, but they probably require a bit more know-how than you have and the time you'll invest in it isn't worth it. Personally, I'd just reinstall Windows. I do that every three months on every machine I work on (laptop, desktop at home, workstation at work) - takes me about a hour and a half to restore a working image - yours will take longer because you won't be imaging/reimaging, but you don't have to do it as often.
Did the AVG : http://www.tune-up.com and the "Defragment" and already the speed has increased.
Not too confident about trying some of the others, frightened I may delete or erase something important: not sure what Data, etc....I need to keep. Will see how it goes over the next few days.
Cheers.