Several Solutions to Laptop

Slowdowns
The Situation: A Slowdown
Perhaps you measure your laptops speed with a stopwatch before drawing a
conclusion. More likely, you notice that photos or websites which used to open instantly
and flawlessly now take too much time.
If youre telling yourself, This didnt take so long before, your laptop may, in fact, be
slowing down.

Whats Your Next Move As a User?

What to do when this happens? Throwing away your old PC laptop and buying a new
one doesnt have to be your only choice. And if youre like many users, no matter how
inexpensive computers become, immediate replacement is not on your list of choices at
all.
Fortunately, a slow computer is often not a death sentence for it: there are many
reasons for the possible slowdown. Using easy-to-follow methods and software tools
easily available, these problems are also easy to fix.

The Accidental, The Suspicious, The Incidental

Theres an equal chance that slow response is the result of something youve done, or it
may be the result of something Windows has done. You should account for the
possibility that something innocuous, something circumstantial, or something malicious
happened to make your laptop slow down.
The following guide might help you distill a few of the most common causes, and their
most common remedies.
Among accidental causes:
Hardware slowdown or breakdown: No, you dont have to open up your laptop, but its
important to get possible hardware maladies out of the way first. This is especially true if
your laptop, being a portable unit, has recently suffered a drop or a knock of nearly any
kind.

Give the laptops fan a listen and judge if its buzzing or not flowing air
overheating can slow down a system.
Listen for the hard drive making any clicking noises (many contemporary drives,
especially laptop solid-state drives, are essentially silent).

Ensure that all your memory is running. Right-click on your taskbar and
click Task Manager. Click the Performance tab. Look in the lower left hand corner
atPhysical Memory. If the amount of memory 4,007 is equivalent to 4GB, for
example doesnt match what you remember as your laptops specification, you
may have had a replaceable memory module stop working.

Check the Performance tab in Control Panel to see if your memory has stopped working.

Among suspicious causes:

Malware or Spyware: While the news is filled with them, yours doesnt necessarily have
to be the horror story. However, this is another possibility to get out of the way first.

Look back in your email and see if there are documents you have downloaded
that may have been suspicious.
Rely on your existing antivirus software, or consider upgrading to another
product. Applications from Norton and ESET include firewall protection in addition to
that offered by Windows, and will scan your files individually.

Among the incidental causes:

Malfunctioning updates, including Windows Updates: Think back to the first moment you
noticed your laptop running slowly. Was it after a particular update, either from thirdparty software that asked your permission, or from a series of recent Windows
Updates?

Uninstall third-party software and reinstall: alternatively, especially if the software

is a couple of years old, see if there is an updated version thats designed for
Windows 7 or 8.
Undo recent installations of Java, Flash or Adobe: these applications, because
they are almost always running in the background, and are sometimes interrupted
by shutdowns, can cause problems. They will flexibly reinstall later, often without
further incident.

Have Windows diagnose it for you: From your Start Menu or Start Screen, enter
the Control Panel, and click Troubleshooting. This will lead you to a window with
various options to find and fix issues with software.

The Windows Control Panel offers a variety of troubleshooting solutions.

Too little memory for the cache: If your computer has 2GB or less of memory and
runs Windows XP or above, its going to heavily rely on a hard drive cache to
stretch performance. A cache means that Windows uses extra hard drive space as
memory.
Eliminate unnecessary add-ons: These are applications that run in the
background of your browser, and can significantly impede performance. Within
Internet Explorer, click Tools (gear), click Internet Options, and go to
the Programs tab. Clear any add-ons that you dont actively use, or all of them at
once your browser will still work.
Clearing your browsing history is sometimes the simplest fix to a slow laptop.
Within Internet Explorers menu bar, click Tools (gear) and Delete Browsing
History.

Delete your browsers Internet history for a speed boost.

Conclusion: Dont Panic, But Take Action

In the end, there is something to be said for the latest and greatest. But theres also
nothing inevitable about obsolescence generally, if your computer is less than five
years old, you should be able to run most any current software.
If you make sure that you are methodical and organized about your fixes if one
method doesnt work, moving on to the next then youre sure to eventually hit upon a
solution. Good luck and happy hunting!

Rehttp://www.reviversoft.com/blog/2013/09/sev
eral-solutions-to-laptop-slowdowns/

How to Fix a Slow Laptop

by Erin McManaway, Demand Media

You can speed up your slow laptop to improve productivity.

Related Articles

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Over time, you laptop begins to accumulate more files and programs as a result of regular
use. Eventually, this can slow down your laptops response time, making daily processes
take longer to execute and lowering your productivity. You can fix a slow laptop by
conducting normal maintenance on your machine, such as freeing up hard drive space and
running the Windows hard drive utilities. You can also prevent unneeded programs from
launching when your laptop starts and add more RAM memory to increase performance.

Step 1
Update and run your laptops virus scanner to remove viruses and spyware. Malware can use
up your laptops CPU resources and slow down your laptops performance.

Step 2
Click the Start button, type msconfig and press the Enter key to launch the System
Configuration screen. Navigate to the Start Up tab and remove the check in the box next
to every item you dont need running on your laptop. When you reboot your laptop, only the
selected programs will start up, freeing up resources on your machine.
Related Reading: AVG Free is Slow to Start Up

Step 3
Click the Start button, type add or remove programs and press the Enter key to launch
the Add or Remove Programs screen. Click unneeded programs and then click Uninstall to
free up space on your laptops hard drive.

Step 4
Click the Start button, type disk cleanup and press the Enter key to launch the Disk
Cleanup utility. Place a checkmark in the box next to items you want to delete, and then
click OK to clean up your laptops hard drive.

Step 5
Click the Start button, type disk defragmenter and press the Enter key to launch the
Windows defragmenter utility. Select your laptops hard drive and click Defragment disk to
consolidate files, which helps speed up the hard drive response time.

Step 6
Add more RAM memory to your laptop. This will provide more overall memory that allows
your laptop to run multiple programs at once with more speed.

Tip

Back up important files and folders to prevent data loss, especially if your laptop is
older or experiences crashes and Windows errors.

References (1)
About the Author
Erin McManaway holds a B.A. in professional writing from Francis Marion University, where
she earned the Richard B. Larsen Memorial Award for Business and Technical Writing. She
has worked in materials development, media and information technology in the nonprofit
sector since 2006. McManaway has also been a writer and editor since 2008.

Photo Credits

Hemera Technologies/AbleStock.com/Getty Images

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7 Ways to Speed Up Your PC

By Alex Jenkins
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There are many items that can slow down your computer or laptop such as spyware, malware and
viruses, which your computer will pick up. You should also consider the fact that if your computer is
getting old and software is getting outdated, this too will inhibit your PC from doing what it is
supposed to. Even new, out-of-the-box computers come with a load of programs on them.
Manufacturers think you need them all, and you almost always do not. Some of these will continually
run in the background and, in turn, slow down your system.
While keeping your computer hardware up to date and your anti-virus software current can help
mitigate some of the problems your computer will encounter, what else can you do to speed up your
system? We break down a few tips to help boost the performance of your PC.

Remove Spyware
We can't stress enough how important it is to rid yourself of these nasty bugs that can slip into the
cracks of your virtual life. Spyware can cause pop-ups as well as collect personal information without
letting you know or asking for permission. This puts your computer and your information at risk.
Spyware also can also instruct your home computer to send harmful emails to your friends and
family. These are just a few of spyware's tricks. Make sure you use a reputable spyware remover to
take care of the problem.
Free Up Disk Space
The Disk Cleanup tool is a great way to help free up space on your hard disk and improve
performance. A few things Dick Cleanup can do are:

Remove temporary internet files (which generally take up the most space).

Empty the Recycle Bin.

Delete programs you never use.

Remove Windows Temporary files, such as error reports.

Backup files you never access.

Defrag
Disk fragmentation slows the overall efficiency of your computer. As you install and uninstall
programs and save and delete files over the years, these actions create small empty gaps among
the other data on your hard drive. After a while, new information is no longer stored in blocks, but in
the nooks and corners of your hard drive. As a result, your computer must work harder to piece
certain parts of the data together by scouring the hard drive. Disk Defragmenter consolidates these
files and folders so that they occupy one single space on the disk. Run this when:

You add a large number of files

Your free space totals 15 percent or less.

You install new, large programs or a new OS.

Use ReadyBoost
ReadyBoost was introduced with Windows XP, and there are multiple videos on Microsoft's website
that instruct you on how to use ReadyBoost. This tool basically uses a USB flash drive or memory
card to introduce a level of memory that functions somewhere between RAM and your hard drive
disk for storing non-volatile memory. ReadyBoost works better on systems that struggle to open and
maintain the speed of certain programs. It will enhance your computer, but only if you have a hard
drive that is at capacity or a system that is several years old. Otherwise, you are not going to notice
much of a difference.
Repair Disk Errors
In addition to Defragmentation and Disk Cleanup, repairing disk errors can optimize the performance
of your hard drive and your system. As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors, making it
hard or impossible to save files and write data to your hard drive. By running the Error Checking
utility, you can scan and repair bad sectors. To run this utility, follow these steps:

1. Close all open files and programs.

2. Click Start, and then click Computer.
3. In the Computer window (My Computer), right-click the hard disk you want to search for
bad sectors, and then click Properties.
4. In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab.
5. Click the Check Now button.
6. In the Check Disk dialog box (called Error-checking in Windows 7), select the Scan for
and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.
7. If you find bad sectors, choose to fix them.
Remove Start-up Fluff
Using MSCONFIG allows you to shut down all programs that automatically start when your computer
boots up. Many of these programs, like anti-virus applications, legitimately need to run in the
background. Others, such as MSN Messenger, only think they do but they just make start up time
longer. To shut down the programs you don't need to run, take the following steps:
1. Click start and go to Run.
2. Type in MSCONFIG in the box.
3. Click the Startup tab.
4. You will then be shown a list of all the startup items that run when the computer boots up.
Select the programs you want to shut down.
Always double check to see if you need a program before stopping it. In most cases, if you don't
recognize it, it doesn't need to be there.
Add RAM
More RAM means a faster feel to opening files and easier multitasking. For every program you open,
your computer uses RAM; if you have multiple programs open at once and lack sufficient memory,
everything will slow down. Upgrading RAM is fairly inexpensive these days, and it can drastically
help your computer. There are help videos on the web to show you how install additional memory, or
you can take it into the shop and have them do it there. Be warned: It's much more expensive that
way.
Regular maintenance, like running the Defrag and Disk Cleanup utilities, as well as running spyware
removers, should ideally be done once or twice a month, depending on how often you use your
computer. All these tips can come together to help your computer be more efficient and give you an
optimized computer experience without severe lag times.
At TopTenREVIEWS We Do the Research So You Dont Have To.

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