Rejuvenating 4 year old laptop

[Dearnla]

As my comment in the "What Apps do you use" went down like a lead balloon, I swiftly realised that there is a wealth of Windows users/fans/programmers on the site to turn to for help.

So, eating a bit of humble pie (it's quite nice with a dash of cinnamon...) how do I resurrect my 4 yr-old Lenovo laptop to run a bit faster. It's running XP SP3 and Mozilla FF.
I've removed a whole load of programs, so the registry is going to be cluttered.

So, short of rebuilding it from scratch - defrag, registry clean up - what else??

[lilelvis2000]

It might run faster with Linux..if you can get Linux to install and run on it. Win7 is pretty quick on a laptop as well.

[Clippy]

Install more RAM.

[doodab]

What spec is it?

What do you do with it?

If you want to stick with XP then the usual defrag, registry cleaner, run pagedefrag (from sysinternals), also going through the list of startup programs / always running stuff and getting rid of any junk is a good idea. Also worth taking a look to see how much RAM you are using relative to what you have installed.

RAM upgrades are relatively cheap and if you don't have enough installed will make a massive difference. Hard disk speed is another thing that makes laptops horrid to use, I nearly always end up upgrading to the fastest HD I can afford. Windows 7 does seem to be less prone to slowly grinding to a halt as well.

[chef]

why not rebuild it from scratch? it's the fastest way to improve speed IMO.Copy any wanted files to a USB/External HDD (including the user profile, Outlook OST files) and spend a few hours re-installing. Do you have a free Restore disk with it? If this really isn't an option.

- how much RAM does it have?

- what is the Hard disk size and how much available free space?

- Go to ‘start\run’ and type ‘msconfig’ to access the MSConfig utility, the ‘startup’ tab in MSCONFIG provides access to several other applications that are started at boot up and are running in the background. By examining their Filenames and directories, you should be able to get a feeling for what is necessary and what is not.

Be aware than several viruses and worms have a habit of disguising themselves with authoritative sounding Windows system file names, such as the Win32.spybot.worm as MSCONFIG32.EXE. Leave these for now if you are not sure.

-goto ‘start\programs\startup’ which is a directory Windows XP uses to launch application shortcuts on boot-up. remove any shortcuts you don't want starting at boot-up from this location.

- go into the bios and set it to Fast Boot Up or the equivalent option, also detect your hard disks rather than auto detecting

[Spacecadet]

What are the specs?
A 4 year old laptop should be able to run XP at a decent speed.

As chef said a rebuild will probably be quicker and simpler. So copy everything you want to keep on to an external drive. Also make sure that you download any system specific drivers you need before reinstalling XP, especially for network/wireless cards!
Also download the latest XP service pack to save you having to do that later.

When rebuilding, partition the hard drive into system (C) and data (another drive letter). Once you've installed XP, service packs drivers and all the applications you want back up the system drive. You then have a quick method for reverting back to a safe mode should the system get infected.

For anti virus, I can't recommend Microsoft security essentials enough. It doesn't impact the system, sits very quietly in the background and gets a good rating when compared to the other AV products on the market.

[Platypus]

Install more RAM.

For Windows XP, less than 1GB of RAM will mean the system runs more slowly that it could, IME.

I recently created a "note to self" memo as I accumulate hints and tips for speeding up a PC. At present, the list looks like this (I'm sure others may disagree vehemently with some of these points):

• Install 1Gb of RAM (WinXP) or 2Gb (Vista) or 4Gb (Windows7) or more (see below)
• Move the swap file to the secondary hard drive, or switch off the pagefile altogether (only if lots of RAM is installed, min 2Gb on WinXP, 4Gb on Vista/Win7):
  
• Start / Control Panel / System / Advanced
• Under Performance, select the Settings button / Advanced Tab
• Under Virtual Memory, select the Change button
• Adjust as needed, or select "No paging File," then select the Set button
• Select the Ok button to apply the settings, then reboot
• Defragment the hard drive
• Uninstall un-needed apps removes registry entries and files from windows directory
• Run a windows registry cleaner and defragmenter (can be dangerous)
• Run CClean to remove junk files. Run regularly for best results!
• Chkdsk to find and fix filesystem errors / drive errors
• Ensure system (energy saving settings) is set for max performance
• Stop unnecessary start-up programs
• Stop unnecessary Windows Services… (the elder geek website has a list of these)
  
• Indexing Service is a renowned resource hog
• Themes Service is pretty pointless on a business system!
• Switch off auto-discovery of network resources
• Remove any Spyware / Malware (duh!) using Malwarebytes
• Keep fewer emails in ‘Inbox’ (so I was told, but I don't believe this one)
• Switch off System Restore (clearly risky and controversial):
  
• Step 1 – Disable System Restore
• Start / Control Panel / System
• Select System Restore Tab
• Check "Turn off System Restore" then “ok” to apply
• Step 2, Switch off the System Restore Service:
• Start / Control Panel / Administrator Tools / Services
• Select "System Restore Service" / General Tab
• In the Startup type: select "Disabled" then “Ok”
• If MSN Messenger isn’t needed, click Tools / Options and uncheck "load at startup" and uncheck "allow to run in background."
• Replace Anti-Virus with MS Security Essentials (only for low-risk systems. Not a good idea for a typical user who will happily download anything!).

[Platypus]

Is it just me, or did my previous reply totally break the page formatting? It looks all cocked up to me

EDIT: ok I edited it so it doesn't screw everything up, but now the 2nd level bullets don't show. I'm sure you can figure it out

[Dearnla]

Cheers, fellas - I'll start with the general cleanup suggestions before taking the plunge on a total rebuild. I'll have to get a rebuild disk generated first, as it didn't come with a standalone, but at least I can still read the Windows key.

I did upgrade the memory to 3GB total a little while ago, so I'm pretty sure that it's just needing a cleanup. I ran CCLeaner that someone else suggested, which helped, but still feel I need to look at MSCONFIG to see what runs in the background. If I look at Windows Task Manager, there's always 3 pages+ of stuff running, but it never seems to use more than 6-700k memory or take more than a couple % of CPU.

It's a 1.1GHz processor 3GB memory and an 80GB HDD Lenovo 3000 N100.

[northernladuk]

So, short of rebuilding it from scratch - defrag, registry clean up - what else??

There is the option of not being so tight, giving it away/sell it, spend £500 on a new one, put it through the company and write it off over 3 years and hey presto... Jobs sorted.

Why dick around with 4 year old laptop when they are pretty cheap (bearing in mind it earns you revenue and has tax advantages) and you are going to have to replace it completely very soon?

Stick your hand in your pocket. Get fast colourful new one. Sorted.

Just a bit of lateral thinking/brain storming/devils advocate thinking for you.