We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. See the Community Noticeboard for more info. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

When is it time to get a new laptop?

Options
2

Comments

  • Sea_Shell
    Sea_Shell Posts: 10,003 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    I've just had a look at my Task Manager, and nothing is standing out at me for being an issue, but then I'm not asking it to do much at the moment, other than browse here!!!

    No red flags that I can see...but then I don't really know what i'm looking for!!  ;)

    If it's the "performance" tab that you're looking at, that appears to me, to be a 'live feed' as to what's currently going on, rather than an 'update', so it will be continuous*.   Mine seems to be set for a 60 second window, showing data every second.

    However, I've just noticed that under 'View' and 'Update speed' you can change this window between 30 seconds, 60 seconds and 4 minutes.


    *Hopefully someone will correct me if im wrong!
    How's it going, AKA, Nutwatch? - 12 month spends to date = 2.60% of current retirement "pot" (as at end May 2025)
  • Cisco001
    Cisco001 Posts: 4,130 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    If you already got SSD, you could add some RAM yourself. 
    I won't bother going to local shop and spend £100.

    £200 could buy you a decent used laptop
  • Marvqn1
    Marvqn1 Posts: 641 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 8 August 2023 at 1:42PM
    Your laptop's spec should be sufficient to run Windows 10 properly.

    Is the laptop also slow when its turned on and it starts Windows 10 or is it only slow when using applications?

    Have you ran a scan with Malwarebytes?

    Also, is the laptop running an anti-virus software that could be slowing down the laptop?
  • km1500
    km1500 Posts: 2,790 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    if you want to, and provided you can copy off all your data and have the means to re-install any apps, then you can reset your pc to clean windows install via settings (google how)

    This will give you a clean machine like new. Re-install any apps, copy back your data and you are good to go.
  • KingL2
    KingL2 Posts: 88 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 10 Posts
    Task manager is just a view into what your computer is doing at the moment.  It doesn't 'complete', it is always changing, depending what programs are running.  If you have high values in the CPU, Memory or Disk columns (you can click on the heading/titles to sort each column ascending/descending), then that might point to a shortcoming in your spec.  You can also click on the performance tab, which gives you a trend over time across _all_ tasks.  But you have to look for yourself at the data.  It doesn't 'complete' and publish a report. 
  • Marvqn1 said:
    Your laptop's spec should be sufficient to run Windows 10 properly.

    Is the laptop also slow when its turned on and it starts Windows 10 or is it only slow when using applications?

    Have you ran a scan with Malwarebytes?

    Also, is the laptop running an anti-virus software that could be slowing down the laptop?
    Its quite slow on starting up but I have changed the settings on Startup (all new to me) and it seems quicker.  It seems slow switching between tabs on Edge.
    Not done a scan - do I just google Malwarebytes and run it?
  • DullGreyGuy
    DullGreyGuy Posts: 18,544 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    You say you bought a tablet to use for browsing instead of the laptop and so is the laptop now just once a month to do your finances? If so is the slow boot etc really a problem for a couple of hours a month?

    Many people replace their computers well before they are unrecoverable and often buy something that they will never use half the power of. People buy powerful machines because they think they may one day get into video editing and so buy something capable of doing that and it spends more than 8 hours doing it in a year it's unusual. (I'm the same, could easily have spent half the money and still not use all its power) 

    Updating the RAM and replacing the HD with an SSD would make improvements but is it necessary and how much longer have the other components got left?
  • You say you bought a tablet to use for browsing instead of the laptop and so is the laptop now just once a month to do your finances? If so is the slow boot etc really a problem for a couple of hours a month?

    Many people replace their computers well before they are unrecoverable and often buy something that they will never use half the power of. People buy powerful machines because they think they may one day get into video editing and so buy something capable of doing that and it spends more than 8 hours doing it in a year it's unusual. (I'm the same, could easily have spent half the money and still not use all its power) 

    Updating the RAM and replacing the HD with an SSD would make improvements but is it necessary and how much longer have the other components got left?
    Good point.  I have been trying to convince myself about this for months.  
    I have had some fantastic advice from here which has really helped, so will keep the money in the bank :)
  • facade
    facade Posts: 7,577 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    If you don't keep it switched on for a decent amount of time every week it could just be updating.

    It takes hours on a laptop that hasn't been on for a couple of weeks and slows it down to a crawl, especially if it is running on battery.

    Type "Check for updates" into the search and start the app, then ignore any nonsense about being up to date, and click on the "check for updates" button. It will find loads of updates, let it do it's thing, and restart when it asks, and then do the check for updates thing again and again until it really is up to date.


    I want to go back to The Olden Days, when every single thing that I can think of was better.....

    (except air quality and Medical Science ;))
  • KingL2
    KingL2 Posts: 88 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 10 Posts
    facade said:
     ignore any nonsense about being up to date,}



    ...It depends on your version of Windows, e.g. Win 10 (Home) has no option to opt-out of updates - you get updates whether you like it or not (if you go online). 

    Other versions (e.g. Win Pro) have an opt-out/delay-all-updates option...


Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 350.8K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.5K Spending & Discounts
  • 243.8K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 598.6K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 176.8K Life & Family
  • 257.1K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.