Improving speed/efficiency of PC/Laptop

katchambers

Hi,

Can someone give me some ways of speeding up my laptop and also the internet on my laptop. For example I have heard of defragging the machine, so I will do that if thats recommended (how often should this be done?) but are there other ways, machine is dragging quite a bit lately.

Also, my firefox browser keeps being really slow and freezing alot recently, can anything be done to improve it as I have to use IE at present its that bad, also when it does freeze it takes like 10 mins for the screen to go away and for me to use a different browser, even though I press the cross, end now and ctrl, alt and del several times!

I was also wondering, if we can get some really good methods of improving the speed and efficiency of our machines then maybe this could be made a sticky as I am sure it would be useful to A LOT of people!

Thanks
Kat x

fiddiwebb

Unless you have it already download ccleaner and let it clear out any rubbish.

What AV are you using?

motorguy

go to https://www.filehippo.com and download autoruns.

Remove anything thats kicking off at startup that you dont absolutely need to - stuff like sidebars, msn, adobe all kick unnecessary stuff off. Also remove any extra stuff you dont need when internet explorer opens.

You could also try tuneup utilities - comes with a 30day free trial from memory.

Also, download and use google chrome - its quite a bit faster than IE.

What version of windows are you running and how much ram have you?

katchambers

pgilc1 wrote: »

go to www.filehippo.com and download autoruns.

Remove anything thats kicking off at startup that you dont absolutely need to - stuff like sidebars, msn, adobe all kick unnecessary stuff off. Also remove any extra stuff you dont need when internet explorer opens.

You could also try tuneup utilities - comes with a 30day free trial from memory.

Also, download and use google chrome - its quite a bit faster than IE.

What version of windows are you running and how much ram have you?

1gb ddr ram and windows xp. I already have chrome but its pretty [EMAIL="cr@@p"]cr@@p[/EMAIL] as it doesn't allow roboform and auctiva won't work in it which I use all the time so chrome is a no go.

thanks for the advice

kat x

Humphrey10

That's a small amount of old memory, that would probably be your problem. If it was a PC you could easily add more memory, I think you can with some laptops too.
What make and model is your laptop? You'll probably be able to find out on the internet if you can add memory to it.

[Deleted User]

katchambers wrote: »

Also, my firefox browser keeps being really slow and freezing alot recently

1. Uninstall all unnecessary programs from Control Panel (especially toolbars like google / yahoo etc.) then restart your computer. If you don't want to uninstall a toolbar or can't then simply untick it i.e. View -> Toolbars.
2. Run Windows Update: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ then restart your computer.
3. Run CCleaner: http://www.ccleaner.com
4. Run an anti-virus scan: http://www.free-av.com/
5. Run an anti-spyware scan: http://www.superantispyware.com/
6, Run an anti-malware scan: http://www.malwarebytes.org/
7. Check the VRAM settings i.e.:

- Click Start, then open the Control Panel.
- Click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.
- Click the Advanced tab.
- Under Performance, click Settings.
- Click the Advanced tab.
- Under Virtual memory, click Change.
- Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file (virtual memory) settings that you want to change. In almost every case, this will be your C: drive.
- Click to select the "System managed size" option, then click Set.
- Click OK three times and restart your computer.

8. Run a defrag: http://www.defraggler.com/

katchambers wrote: »

For example I have heard of defragging the machine, so I will do that if thats recommended (how often should this be done?)

Less than you'd think. If you don't really install / uninstall many programs / games then maybe two - four times a year.

9. Investigate msconfig: http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/
10. Perform disk error checking: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

Other than the above I'd recommend re-installing XP / Vista.