Laptop Painfully Slow

davester

Trinitrotoluene wrote: »

The symptoms he describes are not synonymous with "not enough RAM"

True but a 3 yr old laptop it certainly is a possibility. along with a huge list of start up programs all fighting for that small amount of RAM

wuzzypoo

Hi All,

thank you so much for coming up with all of this so soon. I have been trying to do what you have said for a while but computer so slow and wont let me do several things at once, so have put below whats written on computer.

E-Systems 3089 Uk

Intel Celeron M420 1.6GHz
256MB DDRII 533 Ram
Intel 934GM +ICH7-M with up to 128MB shared memeory
40GB S-ATA HDD

When I start up I only try to open Windows (which is XP, By the way) and some times try to iopen outlook for my emails. Dont have tonnes of emails in inbox or folders or anything like that.
When I do CTL-ALT_DELETE to get task manager up to close none responding programmes it does only show the ones I know I have open, but dont know how to find out if computer opening anything else I dont know about (if you know what I mean?).

I'll keep trying to do what you've suggested above and put the reports on here whan it lets me do them

Thanks again

Kamen_Rider_W

Do you run Disk Defragmenter regularly? Do this once you've upgraded your RAM, and it will free up space so your computer runs better.

Trinitrotoluene

Donnie wrote: »

You need more RAM....yesterday.

I feel this would be the equivalent of dropping a bucket of water on a forest fire.

Given the poor specs of the laptop I'd say new laptop time!!!

wuzzypoo

Hi,

Finally got the task manger thing to work, opened as above on performance tab and sorry if this is jargon but this is what it said when I had this website and facebook open:

Totals:
Handles: 24071
Threads: 667
Porcesses: 63

Commit Charge (K)
Total: 832992
Limit: 997076
Peak: 964216

Physical Memory
Total: 252016
Available: 11536
System Cache: 221224

Kernel Memory (K)
Total: 55320
Paged: 38280
Non Paged: 17040

At bottom of page;
Processes 63 - CPU Usage 2% - Commit Charge 815/973M

Some of the numbers above kept moving due to computer being on.

I did run a system clean up and a defrag other day, not made any difference.

Like I said I dont have loads of files and I havent downloaded loades of programmes either.

Will now try Filehippo and post reply when this silly machine lets me.

Also, when I try to close a page it stays open, even when the box which says blagh blagh not responding- Close NOw? I press close now and can still be sat looking at a frozen webpage for 5-10 mins!! I do get the website not responding message alot, even when Im not closing down.

Sorry to keep adding bits but if I try to put everything down it might just be 1 little thing Ive missed off before which is the problem.

Thanks again to everyone, I should hopefully be able to log to to this website and browse quite happily without this thing crashing all of the time!

Donnie

wuzzypoo wrote: »

Hi All,

thank you so much for coming up with all of this so soon. I have been trying to do what you have said for a while but computer so slow and wont let me do several things at once, so have put below whats written on computer.

E-Systems 3089 Uk

Intel Celeron M420 1.6GHz
256MB DDRII 533 Ram
Intel 934GM +ICH7-M with up to 128MB shared memeory
40GB S-ATA HDD

When I start up I only try to open Windows (which is XP, By the way) and some times try to iopen outlook for my emails. Dont have tonnes of emails in inbox or folders or anything like that.
When I do CTL-ALT_DELETE to get task manager up to close none responding programmes it does only show the ones I know I have open, but dont know how to find out if computer opening anything else I dont know about (if you know what I mean?).

I'll keep trying to do what you've suggested above and put the reports on here whan it lets me do them

Thanks again

You need more RAM....yesterday. Here too.

wuzzypoo

Ok, silly question time. Do I have to take this to say PC world and have them install it fo rme? If so might be cheaper to get a new one.

Donnie

Trinitrotoluene wrote: »

I feel this would be the equivalent of dropping a bucket of water on a forest fire.

Given the poor specs of the laptop I'd say new laptop time!!!

No, I think it would be £20 well spent.

closed

You need to cut down startup items, 63 processes is 43 too many, and going against the grain, you don't need more ram, but it will certainly help

Reinstalling windows would cure it, or you could do it the hard way

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2436849

Don't waste your time defragging, cleanup your startup apps.

Donnie

wuzzypoo wrote: »

Ok, silly question time. Do I have to take this to say PC world and have them install it fo rme? If so might be cheaper to get a new one.

Never take it to PC World. The difficulty depends on whether the module fitting is under the keyboard or accessed via a panel at the bottom of the laptop. Hope for the latter...but expect the worst.