very very slow laptop

gymchick

hi can anyone help me to sort out my daughters laptop its a ASUS with windows vista about about 3 years old kaspersky internet security 2011 i just did a virus scan with this that took about 12 hours!!!
and said no threats detected. please could you put any help in the most basic terms as i havnt got a clue but as she cant afford a new laptop need to do something
Thanks

Hammyman

Firstly, make sure the heatsink isn't blocked up with fluff. If the laptop runs hot and the fan is on all the time, thats the cause. It also means the CPU lowers its speed to try and save itself from burning out. In my experience most home laptops over 12 months old suffer from this partially or fully. This article gives a good overview.

So now we've taken care of the hardware side, then onto the software.

Download, install and run Malwarebytes Antimalware. Do a full scan and remove what it finds. It will take a couple of hours to do a full scan

Secondly, download install and run CCleaner. Once you've got rid of all the old temp files, click on Tools then System Restore and delete all the old restore points.

Finally, install IOBit Smartdefrag and run that to defragment files and speed up file access. You can click on options and get it to start with Windows and it'll just run in the background. It may take a few hours to do it the first time.

gymchick

thank you i will try that