[evakins]

Hi, I'm new to the forums.. My Sony laptop has been lagging more and more lately. I clean up the hard drive and defragment regularly, but these don’t seem to do much anymore. Any tips for speeding up and improving performance? Thank you!

[Advertisements]

Hi There

I am presuming you have anti virus and spyware software installed and up to date?

removed potentially dangerous advice about using a registry cleaner

I have run this on XP and Vista machines and the results have even surpised me.

If however you have not got anti spyware setup go to

http://www.superantispyware.com/ they have a free version and it is both great on detection and light on your system recouces. Run this before you use CCleaner.

Hope this all helps.

[bizop]

Hi There

I am presuming you have anti virus and spyware software installed and up to date?

removed potentially dangerous advice about using a registry cleaner

I have run this on XP and Vista machines and the results have even surpised me.

If however you have not got anti spyware setup go to

http://www.superantispyware.com/ they have a free version and it is both great on detection and light on your system recouces. Run this before you use CCleaner.

Hope this all helps.

[CamTheMan]

When you download CCleaner, like bizop was saying:

When you first open it at the top of it you'll see


Can you tell me how much RAM you have, then go to start and into my computer and select your C drive or whatever is your main harddrive and on teh right under system details tell me the total Harddrive space you have.


I'm thinking if you do regular maintenance on your system, maybe it's just your system hardware being slow.

Thanks hope it helps,
CamTheMan

Edited by CamTheMan, 16 April 2008 - 12:21 PM.

[evakins]

Thank you! I will give ccleaner a try. I've got 512MB RAM and 60GB hard drive total, but only 22GB of that free.

[bizop]

Hi

I know it means extra money but an increase in RAM can make a dramatic difference as CamTheMan is suggesting. These new op systems (even dear OLD XP he he) eat it.

Anyway please let me know how you get on after running CCleaner

[evakins]

i won't have a chance till tonight (at work, hehe). but i will let you know. thanks!

[sari]

There is no evidence that cleaning up your registry will speed up your system performance - it will only speed up registry searches themselves. You run a far greater risk of damaging your PC to the point that it will no longer start by using a reg cleaner, and then you have an expensive doorstop. I would certainly never do anything like this without backing up the registry first.

The space you have available on your hard drive should be adequate for what you're doing. If you were down to just a few GB, I could see the concern with space.

Do you have an anti-virus program installed? If so, which one? Have you installed any other new programs lately?

[evakins]

i do have norton antivirus... haven't installed anything big lately that i can think of. also the cooling fan tends to run nonstop once it starts up, and the system gets very hot... i suppose this could be part of the problem?

[CamTheMan]

i do have norton antivirus... haven't installed anything big lately that i can think of. also the cooling fan tends to run nonstop once it starts up, and the system gets very hot... i suppose this could be part of the problem?

I would buy a pressured air and open the system up and clean the instead and rid of the dust inside that might be causing the heat. My advice is to uninstall Norton all together.

I hope this helps,
Cam

[sari]

evakins,

Norton is not the most efficient anti-virus - it can really bog down your PC after awhile. There are better alternatives out there, but do not just uninstall Norton - you must have an antivirus installed. Also, Norton doesn't uninstall easily. I would recommend going to this link and selecting the appropriate removal tool for your product. However, if you have a paid subscription and you wish to wait until it expires, that's understandable.

If you'd like some recommendations for good free antiviruses, I recommend one of the following:

AVG Free
Avast.

If you'd like some other recommendations, I can provide those as well.