[Frasier]

My Toshiba A30 laptop has become very frustrating. Programmes take an age to load, the hard drive whizzes, the fan runs at top speed and after 2/3 minutes the programme sometimes loads and sometimes nothing happens.

I have considered formatting the drive and reinstalling XP but before I do can anyone advise if any of the proprietory programmes offering to "speed up your PC" are worth buying. I have tried Ashampoo and that seemed to cause more problems than it solved by deleting things it should have kept.

Any advice gratefully received.

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Items in blue which are underlined are clickable to give more information about the process

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, right click any file then click delete, confirm delete

Click start, all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, then from system tools, run disc defragmenter.

Click start then run, type sfc /scannow then press enter, you need the XP CD

Windows File Protection will show a blue onscreen progress bar, when the bar goes, reboot

If you do not have an XP CD you can borrow a same version as was originally installed XP CD, if you downloaded SP2 then you need an SP1 XP CD

Download and install Tune Up 2007 Trial

Run Tune Up Disc Clean Up

Run Tune Up Registry Clean Up

Click Optimize and Improve to run Reg Defrag, which will take a few minutes and need a reboot. You should disable the antivirus programme to run this

Check the anti virus is running after the reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to optimize the computer, select computer with an internet connection from the drop down menu, this also requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to accelerate downloads, select the speed just above your actual connection speed, this requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to run system advisor

[Retired Tech]

Items in blue which are underlined are clickable to give more information about the process

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, right click any file then click delete, confirm delete

Click start, all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, then from system tools, run disc defragmenter.

Click start then run, type sfc /scannow then press enter, you need the XP CD

Windows File Protection will show a blue onscreen progress bar, when the bar goes, reboot

If you do not have an XP CD you can borrow a same version as was originally installed XP CD, if you downloaded SP2 then you need an SP1 XP CD

Download and install Tune Up 2007 Trial

Run Tune Up Disc Clean Up

Run Tune Up Registry Clean Up

Click Optimize and Improve to run Reg Defrag, which will take a few minutes and need a reboot. You should disable the antivirus programme to run this

Check the anti virus is running after the reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to optimize the computer, select computer with an internet connection from the drop down menu, this also requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to accelerate downloads, select the speed just above your actual connection speed, this requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to run system advisor

[Lancaster]

Thanks for the reply. I will follow your suggestions and report back!

[toasale]

The biggest threat to laptops vs. desktops is heat. If your unit gets very warm on the bottom, move it to another area. If you have a portable fan, jack your unit up and allow the fan to blow air under the unit. Do NOT jack your unit up without using a fan as the heat has nowhere to dissipate like it does while sitting on its feet. A laptop cool pad is available for +$20.00 and is a required item by us laptop techies.

[Lancaster]

Thanks for the tip. It does sometimes run hot but I am not sure if that is the problem, I will watch out for it though.