Slow laptop

[rory 0]

I have a laptop someone gave me to check out tonight... okay ive done everything software wise, ive done everything that would normally make this flying .. there is no spyware and no viruses, trust me on that, its what I do best. Ive tweaked it to the heck, hardly any services running at all.

 

Do you think it is bad hardware, and if so, what hardware can it be. The HDD is not making abnormal noises.

 

Only thing I havent done is reformat and reload windows ...

but there is nothing else running now, except windows .. and some new Nortons softare I loaded. Everything (including Nortons) is taken off start up.

 

I dont get any typical memory errors. Its only maybe less than a year old, a Toshiba. Im thinking it might be the onboard video card or even the HDD?

 

Only thing else I can think to do is delete the partition, format, and reload windows XP, short of it being a Hardware issue. What do yall think??

 

Ive run the following checks in addition to manual stuff:

 

Win Doctor - all okay

Virus Scan - all okay

Spybot S&D - all okay

Scan Disk - all okay

Defrag - done the main HDD all okay

 

thanks.

Rory

[eyecu 0]

Try Ad-Aware by Lava soft it tends to get alot more than Spybot. I run both of them. Ad-Aware always finds the stuff Spybot does not.

[VST_Man 1]

CPU? RAM? operating sys?

[UMDRanger 0]

I've found I need to reformat my Toshiba laptop about once every 1-2 years. It just gets too slow. No viruses, spyware, etc. Defrags, lots of HD space still, etc. Dunno the reason. If you find the problem, please post it. Reformatting sucks.

[rory 0]

No guys, nothing to do with Virus or Spyware, Ive manually dealt with areas related to Spyware, its 100% clean. I can only figure either Windows is somehow corupt, or its a hardware issue. It does get very very hot underneath it.

[Thomas 0]

Heat = Slow

 

Could be a bad processor or cooling unit.

[qman 0]

Dude, it's just Windows, Period. Repartition and reformat the damm thing and call it a day. Now, if you have problems after that, then there is the chance of hardware problem.

[Thomas 0]

Could also look for a registry cleaner. That would explain slow windows loading time, probley not general slow proformance. Might want to take a look at the virtrual memory settings.

[scottj 0]

Check the BIOS and see if the previous user has a large portion of the RAM allocated for the VGA memory. Could also be garbage memory.

 

scottj

[jeffreyhel 0]

How fast does it run in SAFE mode--basic drivers only. You could also download Win patrol at http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22728,00.asp I use this alot to see and kill unwanted tasks. If after doing either of these please repost results.

 

 

OOHHHHH what about the CPU fan is it working , CPU excessive heat = slow computer, just like Thomas said. what percentage of CPU are you using no programs? ctrl+alt+del as you probably know.

[rory 0]

All services are stopped, i mean its tweaked like my DVRs, super fast, or at least the software is perfect. No CPU usage, its just slow.

 

Has to be hardware, its not mine so im giving it back to them to take back to whereever they bought it from. Since its a laptop im not going to open it up, no parts here to replace with and might not get it back together .

 

thanks for the posts though guys.

[G22 0]

Get a 7200rpm HD.

 

Or, just send it to me, and I will make good use of it

 

BTW, my Dell Latitude D505 seemed pathetically slow from day one. I added 1GB of Crucial RAM... made no difference. IMO, it is the 5400rpm HD and/or the integrated video card that are the main issues.