Laptop really slow.

M

Molli

Registered User
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Everything about my laptop is going really slow from trying to get internet explorer, getting onto various sites, closing down sites and even trying to type words into google etc, Does that sound like some virus? I'm not technically minded about laptops atall so I don't have a clue about that side of things.
 
hit Ctrl-Alt-Del or right click on your task bar, run task manager, select the performance tab. check CPU usage, if it's really high and you don't seem to be running anything you probably are infected.
 
The CPU is very low. I'm after running the Antispyware on it so it does seem a bit faster.
 
You can sometimes see if its a particular program that is slowing down the PC, to do this hit CTRL ALT DEL, go to Windows task manager and processes. There will be a column for CPU, you might find the program that is causing the delay listed there as using high CPU.

Internet Explorer can get very slow if you have a lot of toolbars installed, you could try to remove any unwanted ones
 
Everything there in the CPU is mainly 00 except for an odd 1 or 2 up and down.
 
Hi Molli,

Hold old is the laptop?
Have you ever cleaned out the browser (e.g. Internet Explorer) temp files?
How big is your hard drive(s) & howe much free space on those drive(s)?
Have you ever run a defragment program?
Install any new software recently?
Have you upgrade your anti-virus software recently?
Is the machine generally slow or just when connected to the web?
What is the speed of your internet connection?
 
The laptop is about 4 years old. No new software installed lately. Its slow in general, very slow starting up. Sorry Jazz I don't know the first thing about the workings of it. I just run anti virus on it and don't do anything else with it. Don't know the speed where do I find that out?
 
Start with ccleaner, everyone's best friend.

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner

click on that link and when it open's over on the top right you will see a Green Icon, click on that to download this to your laptop.


When asked click on save, but make sure you know where it's being saved to, the location will be in the bar at the top, usually it will be downloads/desktop/my documents perhaps.

When you have it downloaded click on the link and choose 'run' and any other options it asks, just choose two, 1 to put short cut on your desktop and 2 for auto updating, untick the rest of the options shown.
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]Then click on the desktop icon and then 'run cleaner' on the bottom right hand corner. First close and web pages that you have open.

see how to go with that.[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
 
Could be a combination of things, so hard to diagnose without the actual machine (running out of space, defragment should be run, large amount of temp files, low RAM, etc. )

Do you know what version of windows you are running (XP? Windows 7? )? If you want, I'll try to get a few things together depending on the system on your laptop that you could possibly try ...
 
Molli said:
Windows Vista
Click to expand...
Vista is a dog. It's hard to say what the problem might be but perhaps try some of the following . .

1. Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Advanced System Settings -> Performance Settings -> select Adjust for best Performance

2. Tidy the Desktop so it isn't full of icons and remove any widgets that might be on the Desktop

3. Click the Start button -> type msconfig on the box and hit Enter -> chose the Selective Startup radio button and then click the Startup Tab -> you can pretty much untick everything in here except things related to antivirus (then reboot)

4. Perhaps the Antivirus is causing a problem, try turning that off as a test to see if there is any difference (if you needed to change AV program then you could uninstall that current one and install Microsoft Security Essentials, which is good and free)

5. You should update the Antivirus protection and run a full system scan. Also install superantispyware and run that, then disable or uninstall it.

6. I would (i always do) turn off System Restore in Control Panel -> System -> System Protection -> Highlight the C: drive -> Configure -> Turn Off . . note: this will delete any restore points

7. Check that there is no shortage of disk space, free some up if things are tight. Do Start -> Computer -> right-click on the C: drive -> Properties . .
I would turn off the option to have 'files indexed' (under General tab) and under the Tools tab I'd do an Error Check and a Defrag
 
Thanks Michaelm very much. Actually I've just done the first thing you said on the list and theres a major improvement. Hope that continues!
 
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