Help with maintenance of laptop pls

Terry2013

Good morning, and pinch punch

I have this Toshiba laptop, and when I got it a couple of years ago, a techie lad installed Windows 7 on it for me, as it came with Windows 8 and I didn't want that. I dont have contact details for this lad anymore, and now my laptop needs a good clean up.

It's running fairly slow, some days worse than others. It drops connection to the internet, Talk Talk insist its my fauly (hmm) .

There may well be malware on, as I rely on Avast to keep me safe, but I aren't 100% confident in that.

And finally, it seems that there is always something running in the background, making it sluggish.

Can you help me please Thank you in anticipation

Jim431

Your laptop probably needs a good maintenance cleanup.
Some of the usual programs suggested are Malwarebytes, CCleaner.

But to get to the root of your problems I would suggest you download and run Process Hacker (free). This is a more comprehensive version of the built in version of task Manager.

http://processhacker.sourceforge.net/

This will show all the processes running on your machine and the CPU usage. You can then see what is hogging the resource.

If you don't understand what you are seeing, or what to do, then save the results and post them here for advise.

Dropped internet connection is another problem. Do you have noise on your telephone. Do you connect via wifi. Have you fitted a filter to every telephone. Have you tried a different router.

dipsomaniac

if it was my laptop i would back up and do a factory reset and upgrade to win 10. if you can't do that because of win 7 being installed i would upgrade to win 10, make sure win 10 is activated and then download win 10 and do a fresh install

J_B

'Nifty' will want to know the exact make, model, and 'service tag', then he will probably guide you through the complete reinstall ....

Terry2013

Thanks for your replies.. I am not tech savvy, so not sure what is best. I haven't heard good reviews of Win10.. ???

GunJack

Terry2013 wrote: »

Thanks for your replies.. I am not tech savvy, so not sure what is best. I haven't heard good reviews of Win10.. ???

ignore the W10, red herring at the mo....

you've had good starting advice so far (ccleaner and mbam) Do this first, and then try a screenshot of the task manager on the processes tab and pop it up here...

Terry2013

Thanks Gunjack. Do I just google ccleaner and mbam and install those programmes ? Which one first or doesnt it matter?

bod1467

Doesn't matter which order.

MBAM = Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Make sure you install the free version and avoid installing the trial "pro" version. (It's the same install file - make sure you review what options are checked).

Same advice applies generally - don't accept an Express install of anything; be aware of what's being installed.

Norman_Castle

https://www.malwarebytes.org/antimalware/index.html

https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download