*Really* slow lappy

aliEnRIK

Download HIJACK THIS
http://www.download.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html
SCAN and post the log here so we can see whats going on

John_Gray

Assuming you are talking about Windows XP, I'd do two things - CHKDSK and DEFRAG.

For both of these you need to click on Start then on Run, then

a) in the Run box type CHKDSK C: /F /V /R and press Enter. Reply Y to the message in the Command Prompt Window asking you "Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)". Reply Y, let it reboot, then potentially wait half an hour to 'many hours' while it goes through the whole disk verifying the structure, indexes etc etc.

b) you may already know how to do a DEFRAG, if not do Start and Run again, then in the Run box type DFRG.MSC (yes, this is correctly spelled) and press Enter. This will being up the Defrag GUI window. Select the C: drive and click on the Defragment button. You will see just how badly the disk is defragmented. Click on the Defragment button several times until the defrag takes only a few seconds to complete.

If there are no problems with the CHKDSK, then the hard disk should be OK. The DEFRAG makes it more efficient to read and write files, varying from slightly more efficient to quite a bit (if the disk was horribly badly fragmented before you started).

These two operations should rules out (or demonstrate!) disk problems.

basmic

Idiophreak wrote: »

Ran speedfan - got the following results:
HDD temp: 38 (avg for this kinda hdd is 40, apparently)
Temp1: 77
Core: 70
(was quite surprised, thought it would be hotter than that).

That's your problem in red! :eek:

Most CPUs throttle at around 70c, some 80c. When they throttle, they slow down the clock speed in order to generate less heat - they do this to stop themselves burning out.

Under the laptop, look for a cover with a fan near it - chances are, your processor's heatsink is under this, and full of fluff and dust. Get rid of all the dust and fluff under all the covers.

Out of interest, is the laptop being used on a flat hard surface - ie: hardback book or a table? Or is it on your lap, or on the carpet or something. In other words, can the air flow freely underneath the laptop, as it would on a hard table? If not, then that could cause the laptop to overheat too.

Idiophreak

basmic wrote: »

Most CPUs throttle at around 70c, some 80c. When they throttle, they slow down the clock speed in order to generate less heat - they do this to stop themselves burning out.

I had a look, there did seem to be some fluff in the HSF, so I thought I'd give it a shake out...no flap for access, though - only over the ram and hdd. Thought I could just whip the whole bottom off and get to it, though -man, they really don't want you taking lappies to bits, do they. About 40 screws later I gave up, just wouldn't come to pieces...put it all back together again, switched it on and...nothing. The CD Drive whirrs and clunks, but that's it (the normal eject mechanism doesn't work anymore, either - although the manual one does...). No BIOS, nothing onscreen etc.

Gonna have a fiddle with the RAM later on and see if that was put back safely etc, other than that, I'm thinking this might be the way forward.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149335/show_product_reviews

Any better ideas?

Idiophreak

Swapped the RAM around a bit last night and it's started "working" again, although only as much as before - still takes over 40 mins to power up and a good while to do anything.

It's so weird, it's like it's just not trying. The whole thing seems really quiet, not much in the way of fan noise, only the quietest of mumblings from the hdd...it's just like it's walking when it should be running...

aliEnRIK

I think id strip it back to where you got to last time Idio, then recheck all the fittings and screws

Idiophreak

Is there any software out there that will enable me to pinpoint where the bottleneck is at present - it's clear that something's not working as fast as it should (although it always gets there in the end)...just can't work out what.

Trajet

Have you tried starting the laptop in safe mode? (Only windows components start up)

Idiophreak

Trajet wrote: »

Have you tried starting the laptop in safe mode? (Only windows components start up)

Yeah, I have - it still takes ages to boot and is pathetically slow.

Seems to indicate something going wrong in hardware to me...