Dying laptop?

Si_Clist

We have a 4 year old Toshiba laptop which seems to be getting slower and slower to do anything. It's very slow to open a website, if we're in Firefox and go to open Thunderbird it takes forever and a day for that to open, and if we shut down one or the other, it has to think about that for maybe half a minute before it does anything.

Windows 10 is up to date, the only antivirus is Windows Defender, and a Malwarebytes scan comes up clean. I ran the Dell online PC "health check" thing which found nothing more interesting than a bunch of obsolete files, passwords and whatnot which it kindly offered to clean up for £40 or so. I declined the offer, deleted what I could find myself, then defragged.

No change. Is there any way a non-geek such as I can check if all the hardware's still OK, for instance? Any other online scan type things I could run which might provide a clue?

arciere

You'll get 'buy an SSD drive' recommendations in 3....2.....1...

No seriously, if you don't have it already (I doubt), installing a SSD drive would help enormously.

DoaM

Si_Clist wrote: »

We have a 4 year old Toshiba laptop

Unless it was a poor spec device when purchased then it should be more than enough for day-to-day use. As said above, get an SSD to replace the HDD (backup first, even though you can keep the HDD as a backup device), then clean install Windows 10 on to the SSD using an 8GB+ USB pendrive (guides available) - Windows should activate automatically.

Si_Clist

Thanks guys. Hmmmm. The thought of installing the OS bothers me more than swapping the drive, but no doubt there's how-to guides all over the internets. And the same for how to swop drives.

But can somebody please give me a clue (like a link to a supplier perhaps?) as to what exactly it is I'd need to buy - bearing in mind that (a) we're somewhat hard up and (b) all this particular laptop is ever used for is the web and email?

BigAl94

I recommend here https://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/storage-info?cm_re=top-nav-v2-_-flyout-products-_-storage-infovery reliable, good products and backup if needed. Will scan your PC and provide free cloning software if required.

mksysb

arciere wrote: »

You'll get 'buy an SSD drive' recommendations in 3....2.....1...

No seriously, if you don't have it already (I doubt), installing a SSD drive would help enormously.

Someone will also be along to recommend linux :-)

If you don't want to spend any money and all you do is web browsing and mail, then you could try one of the light linux distros, mint, xubuntu or manjaro for example. It'll make your current machine usable again.

googler

Is your Recycle Bin empty?
Cleared all cookies, temp files etc relating to the browser?

How much RAM memory do you have?

poppellerant

mksysb wrote: »

Someone will also be along to recommend linux :-)

If you don't want to spend any money and all you do is web browsing and mail, then you could try one of the light linux distros, mint, xubuntu or manjaro for example. It'll make your current machine usable again.

Is Linux only good for internet browsing and emails? Surely the OP wants to use their machine without feeling limited.

As has been said many times already, install and SSD and clean install Windows 10. If you can provide us with any details that we might need (such as model and make of the laptop), you are more likely to receive any help you might need.

It really is easy to do with most laptops. Worst case scenarios are disassembling the laptop to install the SSD or that it has a dreaded built-in eMMC solid state drive.

First things first, we know you have a Toshiba laptop. What model is it?

Si_Clist

googler wrote: »

Is your Recycle Bin empty?
Cleared all cookies, temp files etc relating to the browser?

How much RAM memory do you have?

Yes, yes, - and I have no idea! How do I find out?

Si_Clist

poppellerant wrote: »

First things first, we know you have a Toshiba laptop. What model is it?

Sorry, I should have said. It's a Toshiba Satellite C850/1D2.

EveryWhere

You'll need a USB Flash drive of at least 8GB in capacity. The process will erase all on the flash drive.

Creating the Windows 10 USB flash drive:

Visit the Microsoft Media Creation Tool website; https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10
Click Download Tool Now.
Save the Application.
Plug your USB Flash Drive into the PC where you saved the application.
Run the Application.
Accept the EULA
Select Create installation media for another PC and click Next.
Choose the correct settings for your version of Windows 10
Language (Country)
Windows 10
64-bit (x64)
Click Next.
Select USB Flash Drive and click Next.
Select the Flash Drive and click Next.
Allow the application to complete. You will be prompted when it is finished and has successfully created the bootable drive.

Installing Windows 10
:
Press and hold the Power key for five seconds to turn off your computer.
Plug in the USB Drive that contains the Media Creation Tool files.
Power on the system and begin tapping the F12 Key to enter the Boot Menu
Select the USB Flash Drive and press Enter. The Windows Setup environment will launch.
Select your Language, Time and Keyboard, then click Next.
Click Install Now.
Accept the license terms and click Next....

If that doesn't work,
Press and hold the Power key for five seconds to turn off your computer.
Plug in the USB Drive that contains the Media Creation Tool files.
Power on the system and begin tapping the F2 Key to enter the BIOS Setup
Choose to set to Default
Make sure that SecureBoot is ON and FastBoot is OFF
Press the F10 to save the setting and to Exit.

Then repeat the initial instructions.

During the install, don't enter your WiFi password or connect to the Internet until you are offered the option to create a local account;
You can follow this guide from
DO NOT USE THE DEFAULT SETTINGS until LET IT DOWNLOAD ALL THE UPDATES in helping you to decide which choices to make.