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Windows Vista Laptop running slow

Discussion in 'Legacy Windows' started by PAUL SHILLAM, 2012/09/23.

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  1. 2012/09/23
    PAUL SHILLAM Lifetime Subscription

    PAUL SHILLAM Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    My laptop running Vista is running very slow, it's being doing this for a while but is getting slower and slower. I have run disk defrag and disk clean up. Any help please.
    Paul
     
    PAUL SHILLAM,
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  2. 2012/09/23
    Admin.

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    Admin.,
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  4. 2012/09/23
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Hi Paul. Is this the same laptop that you had problems with in the thread that Arie linked to?

    What are the system specs of the laptop?
     
    Evan Omo,
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  5. 2012/09/24
    PAUL SHILLAM Lifetime Subscription

    PAUL SHILLAM Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Yes it is the same one but since you helped me sort it out it has been running fine until a couple of weeks ago. it is a Dell XPS M1330 it has 2GB of memory, Intel core(TM) Duo CPU
    a 136GB hard disk with 75GB free space.
     
    PAUL SHILLAM,
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  6. 2012/09/24
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    Well, you would have to ask yourself what it is you do that causes the 'slowdown'.

    You could just go trough all the same steps again, although I would probably just opt to save any user files, format & re-install the OS.

    Make sure that Windows is up to date & your hardware drivers are up to date.
     
    Arie,
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  7. 2012/09/24
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    I would also recommend that you upgrade from 2 GB of RAM to 4 GB. 2 GB of RAM with Vista is not very ideal and is probably part of the reason why the computer is hanging and is not running as fast as it should be.

    If you want to see if you can upgrade the amount of RAM in the laptop, run the Crucial Memory Scanner and see if its possible to upgrade the amount of RAM.

    Is the computer running Windows Vista 32-bit or 64-bit?
     
    Evan Omo,
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  8. 2012/09/24
    PAUL SHILLAM Lifetime Subscription

    PAUL SHILLAM Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Its running Vista 32 Bit
     
    PAUL SHILLAM,
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  9. 2012/09/24
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    You'll think you died and went to heaven with another 2 gigs of ram.
     
    Steve R Jones,
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  10. 2012/09/25
    adelejukerberg

    adelejukerberg Inactive

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    Scan your computer using a good anti-virus software. Many times virus may be the reason the slow processing.
     
    adelejukerberg,
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  11. 2012/09/25
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    I don't think that going from 2GB > 4GB is going to make much of a difference. 2GB is plenty for Vista. The Core Duo may be more of a limiting factor here.
     
    Arie,
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  12. 2012/09/25
    SpywareDr

    SpywareDr SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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  13. 2012/09/25
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Yes I agree that the processor is probably what is hurting performance the most on the laptop since the Intel dual core processor at 2.0 GHz isn't going to be very fast. But the cost to change out the processor with a better Intel processor isn't worth it. It may not even be possible to change it.

    Increasing the RAM to 4 GB will help especially since Paul has already tried performing a clean boot with Vista and has disabled all 3rd party programs from running on startup without much change.

    This to me means that we are dealing with a hardware limitation that is hurting the performance of the system.

    I have done memory upgrades on many Vista systems, and going from 2 GB to 4 GB has helped performance. Ultimately its up to Paul if he wants to try and upgrade the RAM to 4 GB or if he wants to bite the bullet and buy a new and faster laptop with Windows 7.
     
    Evan Omo,
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  14. 2012/09/26
    PAUL SHILLAM Lifetime Subscription

    PAUL SHILLAM Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    I've run a full scan with McAfee for viruses but it didn't find anything.
    I also scanned with Mailwaire, it said it had found 23 issues which I told it to delete, but that has made no difference.
    I might consider getting a new laptop but I'll wait until Windows 8 comes out next month.
    I still don't understand why this laptop has been running fast for three years if now the cause is a slow CPU.

    Paul
     
    PAUL SHILLAM,
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  15. 2012/09/26
    Admin.

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  16. 2012/09/26
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    It looks like your laptop is infected. Follow Aries advice and create a new thread in the Malware and Virus Removal Forum.

    Then when your laptop has been declared clean, post back in this thread with an update on your problem.
     
    Evan Omo,
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  17. 2012/10/03
    PAUL SHILLAM Lifetime Subscription

    PAUL SHILLAM Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    The laptop has now been declared clean, it is a little faster but not as fast as it used to be. It is still hanging soon after it has booted up (about ten minutes).
    It will just freeze, the clock stops and the CPU meter is frozen, it will then come back to life after 3 or four minutes. It doesn't seem to matter what your doing it can hang when your not doing anything. Yesterday I rebooted after doing some virus clean up and ten minutes later it froze.

    Paul
     
    PAUL SHILLAM,
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  18. 2012/10/03
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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  19. 2012/10/03
    PAUL SHILLAM Lifetime Subscription

    PAUL SHILLAM Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Yes I did go through all the steps. I,m reluctant to reinstall the OS. Worried I might loose something.
    What I can't understand is these hangs, is something getting started at startup thats causing it? I don't know how to see whats getting started and what I can take out and what I must leave in.
     
    PAUL SHILLAM,
    #18
  20. 2012/10/03
    SpywareDr

    SpywareDr SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    The free software "What's my computer doing?" shows all programs that are accessing your hard disk or using the CPU, along with the option to close or even uninstall them.
     
    SpywareDr,
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  21. 2012/10/03
    PAUL SHILLAM Lifetime Subscription

    PAUL SHILLAM Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Looking back over the posts I notice you asked me for the WEI of this laptop
    and I didn't reply so here it is now

    Processor: 4.6
    Memory (RAM): 4.5
    Graphics: 3.4
    Gaming graphics: 3.5
    Primary hard disk: 5.4

    I have run "Whats my computer doing" after a reboot and it lists the following

    ScanToPCActivationApp.exe
    Explorer.exe
    Mcagent.exe
    Sidebar.exe

    Exploer and Mcagent finish after a couple of minutes, ScanToPc pops in and out and Sidebar runs all the time.
     
    PAUL SHILLAM,
    #20
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