Had a "brief" gander at a developers copy of Windows 10 the other day. Much better effort than 8 but then again they couldn't feck it up more could they?
Had a "brief" gander at a developers copy of Windows 10 the other day. Much better effort than 8 but then again they couldn't feck it up more could they?
Quickest and normally most affordable upgrade for a laptop is more memory (RAM). Go to the crucial memory checker and run their memory checker software at http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/systemscanner It will tell you if any additional memory can be fitted and how much it will cost to buy. Normally there is a panel on the underside of the laptop which unscrews to allow you to fit extra memory.
However, be aware that PC/Laptop speed problems are not always just to do with hardware. Have you scanned the PC with a malware checker (MalwareBytes is good and free).
Quickest and normally most affordable upgrade for a laptop is more memory (RAM). Go to the crucial memory checker and run their memory checker software at http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/systemscanner It will tell you if any additional memory can be fitted and how much it will cost to buy. Normally there is a panel on the underside of the laptop which unscrews to allow you to fit extra memory.
However, be aware that PC/Laptop speed problems are not always just to do with hardware. Have you scanned the PC with a malware checker (MalwareBytes is good and free).
Thanks for the advice. I Haven't done that. Will do that now I think.
The ultimate answer is to replace the harddrive with an SSD. Whereas your slow laptop HDD will currently read at about 40mb/s, an SSD will allow for read speeds of 260mb/s (assuming your 4-5 year old laptop uses a SATA2 interface). Prices of SSDs have fallen significantly lately.
I'd say this is the priority. Tallboy's suggestion of increasing the ram would also help but definitely change your slow harddrive for a solid state one.
Edit: You will need to reinstall windows after this has happened though. Ignoring other ignorant comments in this thread, windows 8.1 is a very good OS and runs very efficiently on aging hardware.
Quickest and normally most affordable upgrade for a laptop is more memory (RAM). Go to the crucial memory checker and run their memory checker software at http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/systemscanner It will tell you if any additional memory can be fitted and how much it will cost to buy. Normally there is a panel on the underside of the laptop which unscrews to allow you to fit extra memory.
However, be aware that PC/Laptop speed problems are not always just to do with hardware. Have you scanned the PC with a malware checker (MalwareBytes is good and free).
More RAM will only help if that's your problem. By far the biggest bottleneck in any PC is the hard drive. If you're confident enough to reinstall Windows and your applications, or can get help to do that, go get an SSD drive. They're like lightning and will transform your laptop's performance.
The ultimate answer is to replace the harddrive with an SSD. Whereas your slow laptop HDD will currently read at about 40mb/s, an SSD will allow for read speeds of 260mb/s (assuming your 4-5 year old laptop uses a SATA2 interface). Prices of SSDs have fallen significantly lately.
I'd say this is the priority. Tallboy's suggestion of increasing the ram would also help but definitely change your slow harddrive for a solid state one.
Edit: You will need to reinstall windows after this has happened though. Ignoring other ignorant comments in this thread, windows 8.1 is a very good OS and runs very efficiently on aging hardware.
Anyone have any experiance upgrading theirs? My dell is getting a little slow but ideally don't want to get a brand new one.
If anyone can also recommend anyone id also appreciate that..
Thanks.
I'd take it into a shop and have it serviced. About 6 months ago my Sony, which is well over 5 years old, slowed to an almost impossible working pace. I decided to spend £35 having it looked at and now I am certain it works faster than it did when I first bought it. Can you upgrade your Dell by increasing the Ram, most laptops do this?
Anyone have any experiance upgrading theirs? My dell is getting a little slow but ideally don't want to get a brand new one.
If anyone can also recommend anyone id also appreciate that..
Thanks.
I'd take it into a shop and have it serviced. About 6 months ago my Sony, which is well over 5 years old, slowed to an almost impossible working pace. I decided to spend £35 having it looked at and now I am certain it works faster than it did when I first bought it. Can you upgrade your Dell by increasing the Ram, most laptops do this?
Trouble is mate, I don't really know much about computers... So I would know.
Where did you get yours serviced?
I've just started the Malaware thing as suggested above.
Anyone have any experiance upgrading theirs? My dell is getting a little slow but ideally don't want to get a brand new one.
If anyone can also recommend anyone id also appreciate that..
Thanks.
I'd take it into a shop and have it serviced. About 6 months ago my Sony, which is well over 5 years old, slowed to an almost impossible working pace. I decided to spend £35 having it looked at and now I am certain it works faster than it did when I first bought it. Can you upgrade your Dell by increasing the Ram, most laptops do this?
Wouldn't be surprised. They probably uninstalled all the shiteware that came bundled with the O/S installation at purchase
Definitely upgrade to SSD. By far the best upgrade to any laptop still running an old 'traditional' hard disk. However, be advised you will need to buy a new copy of Windows, as you won't be able to transfer the license to the new installation
Anyone have any experiance upgrading theirs? My dell is getting a little slow but ideally don't want to get a brand new one.
If anyone can also recommend anyone id also appreciate that..
Thanks.
I'd take it into a shop and have it serviced. About 6 months ago my Sony, which is well over 5 years old, slowed to an almost impossible working pace. I decided to spend £35 having it looked at and now I am certain it works faster than it did when I first bought it. Can you upgrade your Dell by increasing the Ram, most laptops do this?
Wouldn't be surprised. They probably uninstalled all the shiteware that came bundled with the O/S installation at purchase
Definitely upgrade to SSD. By far the best upgrade to any laptop still running an old 'traditional' hard disk. However, be advised you will need to buy a new copy of Windows, as you won't be able to transfer the license to the new installation
Do you know any decent places that could do that? Apart from PC World!
Anyone have any experiance upgrading theirs? My dell is getting a little slow but ideally don't want to get a brand new one.
If anyone can also recommend anyone id also appreciate that..
Thanks.
I'd take it into a shop and have it serviced. About 6 months ago my Sony, which is well over 5 years old, slowed to an almost impossible working pace. I decided to spend £35 having it looked at and now I am certain it works faster than it did when I first bought it. Can you upgrade your Dell by increasing the Ram, most laptops do this?
Trouble is mate, I don't really know much about computers... So I would know.
Where did you get yours serviced?
I've just started the Malaware thing as suggested above.
MalwareBytes is a good tool and will clear any malware and adware, which can be a cause for slowing up PCs. tallboy's post above explains about changing or increasing the RAM. I am no computer geek either but what I do know is that if you were happy with your laptop before it started slowing up then there might be a way of getting back to that working order again. I got mine serviced in Wolverhampton, I l don't live too far away but you can do searches on the internet for your local IT techs. If you want to save money I recommend getting an IT expert to do this for you and would avoid PC world or Currys unless you want to pay through the nose.
Anyone have any experiance upgrading theirs? My dell is getting a little slow but ideally don't want to get a brand new one.
If anyone can also recommend anyone id also appreciate that..
Thanks.
I'd take it into a shop and have it serviced. About 6 months ago my Sony, which is well over 5 years old, slowed to an almost impossible working pace. I decided to spend £35 having it looked at and now I am certain it works faster than it did when I first bought it. Can you upgrade your Dell by increasing the Ram, most laptops do this?
Trouble is mate, I don't really know much about computers... So I would know.
Where did you get yours serviced?
I've just started the Malaware thing as suggested above.
MalwareBytes is a good tool and will clear any malware and adware, which can be a cause for slowing up PCs. tallboy's post above explains about changing or increasing the RAM. I am no computer geek either but what I do know is that if you were happy with your laptop before it started slowing up then there might be a way of getting back to that working order again. I got mine serviced in Wolverhampton, I l don't live too far away but you can do searches on the internet for your local IT techs. If you want to save money I recommend getting an IT expert to do this for you and would avoid PC world or Currys unless you want to pay through the nose.
Some good advice. Think getting it serviced is a good start.
Replacing the harddrive is a very simple process on laptops. Typically, under laptops there are two different hatches that you can open. One gives you access to the RAM, the other to your harddrive. it is literally a case of just pulling back on the harddrive and picking it out carefully and slotting in the SSD (Which will both be the same size, 2.5").
Laptop *should* recognise the drive straight away. It is then up to you to obtain a copy of windows, insert the disk and install it.
This is the best way to increase the speed of your laptop. The difference in speed will be staggering and you won't believe the difference until you see it. This would probably make your laptop faster than any new laptop you could buy anyway because a lot of them stick with traditional hard disks to keep the cost down!
If you're going to go down the route of a new drive anyway, I'd first back up everything and then try running CCleaner. I use this regularly - although others will tell you not to and I won't guarantee anything! It cleans out all the crap and if you ask, first having backed up the deletions, it will clear out all the rubbish left on the Registry by software updates over the years. It may be that doing that and getting more RAM will be all you need. BTW last year when Microsoft stopped supporting XP, I installed a new drive and more RAM on an ancient Dell desktop and now run it on Linux - it's been fine. I was most surprised at how easy the whole process was! On a different topic, I see that Microsoft have just issued a patch for a 19-year-old bug........
Replacing the harddrive is a very simple process on laptops. Typically, under laptops there are two different hatches that you can open. One gives you access to the RAM, the other to your harddrive. it is literally a case of just pulling back on the harddrive and picking it out carefully and slotting in the SSD (Which will both be the same size, 2.5").
Laptop *should* recognise the drive straight away. It is then up to you to obtain a copy of windows, insert the disk and install it.
This is the best way to increase the speed of your laptop. The difference in speed will be staggering and you won't believe the difference until you see it. This would probably make your laptop faster than any new laptop you could buy anyway because a lot of them stick with traditional hard disks to keep the cost down!
SSD's will increase the speed of your laptop but its not something that someone whom is not a "techie" can do easily. It's not the physical fitting of the SSD that causes problems normally but getting the new copy of Windows onto the new PC and getting that to recognise all of the laptops component parts correctly i.e. to install the right drivers. It only takes one mismatch for it to become a time-consuming exercise.
Also, an SSD = £70, RAM = £40'ish and a copy of Windows 8.1 = £85 That's the best part of £195 and you can pick up a new but basic laptop for around £270.
Unless OPs laptop was a total budget job to start with, I couldn't recommend him picking up a laptop for £270 that will come with a slow hard drive and some budget AMD processor.
If you're going to go down the route of a new drive anyway, I'd first back up everything and then try running CCleaner. I use this regularly - although others will tell you not to and I won't guarantee anything! It cleans out all the crap and if you ask, first having backed up the deletions, it will clear out all the rubbish left on the Registry by software updates over the years. It may be that doing that and getting more RAM will be all you need. BTW last year when Microsoft stopped supporting XP, I installed a new drive and more RAM on an ancient Dell desktop and now run it on Linux - it's been fine. I was most surprised at how easy the whole process was! On a different topic, I see that Microsoft have just issued a patch for a 19-year-old bug........
I used CCleaner free edition at the weekend and couldn't believe the amount of crap it got rid of.
I've used malware and disk clean up so far. Got rid of a few bits, but still pretty slow. @cafcnick1992 I think I may struggle fitting it as I'm far from what you would call "computer savvy"
RAM and Hard drive upgrades will definately tide you over until you replace the laptop.
With regards to hard drives, if you need a lot of storage on your laptop, hybrid drives (SSHD's) offer large drives with a lot (but not all) of the speed of SSD. You can get 1TB drives for about £80. Worth it if you need storage space locally.
I'd echo CAFCFan and Starinnaddick's comments about CCleaner. I make full use of it and it's great for clearing out crap which builds up easily - although watch it doesn't delete the history and cookies you might want to keep. The makers of it also created Defraggler which does a superb job of defragging your hard drive. With the pair of them combined I have sped up many a PC for a user. As they're free would recommend you install these and see if it makes enough of a difference so you don't need to shell out for hardware upgrades. These should be run regularly to keep things cleared down. Note: if you have an SSD you shouldn't run defrags as this will shorten the life of your drive (and is unnecessary). CCleaner is fine though.
RAM and Hard drive upgrades will definately tide you over until you replace the laptop.
With regards to hard drives, if you need a lot of storage on your laptop, hybrid drives (SSHD's) offer large drives with a lot (but not all) of the speed of SSD. You can get 1TB drives for about £80. Worth it if you need storage space locally.
I'd echo CAFCFan and Starinnaddick's comments about CCleaner. I make full use of it and it's great for clearing out crap which builds up easily - although watch it doesn't delete the history and cookies you might want to keep. The makers of it also created Defraggler which does a superb job of defragging your hard drive. With the pair of them combined I have sped up many a PC for a user. As they're free would recommend you install these and see if it makes enough of a difference so you don't need to shell out for hardware upgrades. These should be run regularly to keep things cleared down. Note: if you have an SSD you shouldn't run defrags as this will shorten the life of your drive (and is unnecessary). CCleaner is fine though.
Hope this helps, CrayAddick.
Thanks mate for that. I've just done CCleaner and I'll now have a look at defragger to.
I have no idea what's slowing it down... Ideally I would like it to play some games better and also be quicker when browsing the net and typing up documents.
Comments
However, be aware that PC/Laptop speed problems are not always just to do with hardware. Have you scanned the PC with a malware checker (MalwareBytes is good and free).
I'd say this is the priority. Tallboy's suggestion of increasing the ram would also help but definitely change your slow harddrive for a solid state one.
Edit: You will need to reinstall windows after this has happened though. Ignoring other ignorant comments in this thread, windows 8.1 is a very good OS and runs very efficiently on aging hardware.
EDIT. tl;dr: "I agree with Nick"
Where did you get yours serviced?
I've just started the Malaware thing as suggested above.
Definitely upgrade to SSD. By far the best upgrade to any laptop still running an old 'traditional' hard disk. However, be advised you will need to buy a new copy of Windows, as you won't be able to transfer the license to the new installation
Laptop *should* recognise the drive straight away. It is then up to you to obtain a copy of windows, insert the disk and install it.
This is the best way to increase the speed of your laptop. The difference in speed will be staggering and you won't believe the difference until you see it. This would probably make your laptop faster than any new laptop you could buy anyway because a lot of them stick with traditional hard disks to keep the cost down!
I would recommend the Samsung EVO 840 and it is renouned for being the best SSD available. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-120GB-Basic-Solid-State/dp/B00E3W15P0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415803491&sr=8-1&keywords=ssd
BTW last year when Microsoft stopped supporting XP, I installed a new drive and more RAM on an ancient Dell desktop and now run it on Linux - it's been fine. I was most surprised at how easy the whole process was!
On a different topic, I see that Microsoft have just issued a patch for a 19-year-old bug........
That is a link to the 120GB drive but you may want a bigger one. up to you.
Also do check that you can remove your harddrive! Do you have a copy of windows?
Also, an SSD = £70, RAM = £40'ish and a copy of Windows 8.1 = £85 That's the best part of £195 and you can pick up a new but basic laptop for around £270.
With regards to hard drives, if you need a lot of storage on your laptop, hybrid drives (SSHD's) offer large drives with a lot (but not all) of the speed of SSD. You can get 1TB drives for about £80. Worth it if you need storage space locally.
I'd echo CAFCFan and Starinnaddick's comments about CCleaner. I make full use of it and it's great for clearing out crap which builds up easily - although watch it doesn't delete the history and cookies you might want to keep. The makers of it also created Defraggler which does a superb job of defragging your hard drive. With the pair of them combined I have sped up many a PC for a user. As they're free would recommend you install these and see if it makes enough of a difference so you don't need to shell out for hardware upgrades. These should be run regularly to keep things cleared down. Note: if you have an SSD you shouldn't run defrags as this will shorten the life of your drive (and is unnecessary). CCleaner is fine though.
Hope this helps, CrayAddick.
I have no idea what's slowing it down... Ideally I would like it to play some games better and also be quicker when browsing the net and typing up documents.