[greghoffman]

i recieved a laptop from a family member who got a new laptop. it has xp installed but is horribly slow. the person who had it before me had downloaded numerous games from the internet and other useless stuff. i cleaned up almost all of this stuff using add/remove programs, but it is stll slow and some windows features do not work. can i wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall xp? will this erase everything from the hard drive and the ram? any help would be much appreciated. thank you.

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What is the make and model of the laptop?
Did you receive any recovery disks with the laptop?
If not then please do the following.
Go to Start then to Run
Type in compmgmt.msc and click Enter
On left side click on Disk Management
On right side you will see you hard drive.
Now I need you to take a screenshot and attach it to your next reply. Do the following to take a screenshot while the above is open and showing on your desktop.

To do a screenshot please have click on your Print Screen on your keyboard. It is normally the key above your number pad between the F12 key and the Scroll Lock key
Now go to Start and then to All Programs
Scroll to Accessories and then click on Paint
In the Empty White Area click and hold the CTRL key and then click the V
Go to the File option at the top and click on Save as
Save as file type JPEG and save it to your Desktop


Attach it to your next reply

[rshaffer61]

What is the make and model of the laptop?
Did you receive any recovery disks with the laptop?
If not then please do the following.
Go to Start then to Run
Type in compmgmt.msc and click Enter
On left side click on Disk Management
On right side you will see you hard drive.
Now I need you to take a screenshot and attach it to your next reply. Do the following to take a screenshot while the above is open and showing on your desktop.

To do a screenshot please have click on your Print Screen on your keyboard. It is normally the key above your number pad between the F12 key and the Scroll Lock key
Now go to Start and then to All Programs
Scroll to Accessories and then click on Paint
In the Empty White Area click and hold the CTRL key and then click the V
Go to the File option at the top and click on Save as
Save as file type JPEG and save it to your Desktop


Attach it to your next reply

[greghoffman]

thanks for the quick reply. the brand is nobillus? as for the rest, i will reply later as the laptop is at home and i am at work. thanks again.

[rshaffer61]

ok no problem

[greghoffman]

ok heres the snapshot attached.also,the comp is a nobilis n3016 mdl #529ki1 10/2006. i really appreciate your help. with the very limited stuff on this machine, i think it should be faster. thanks for your help.

[rshaffer61]

Do you have recovery disks or a full install disk for XP?
If full install where did it come from?
On the laptop there should be a sticker on the bottom I would guess of the original OS installed and what version it is.

[Macboatmaster]

You have plenty of free space on the hard drive, so that is not the issue.
To answer part of your first post, when you ask will that erase everything from the hard drive and the ram.
RAM is memory and it is only written to while the computer is working.
Once you swtich off, everything in ram is erased.

To answer will it erase the hard drive, if it was a reinstall the answer is YES. all that would be left would be Windows XP Operating system and its included software.

How would you plan to reinstall, on the base of the laptop will be a label showing which XP is installed ie: Home, Professional etc. and the product key.
If the computer was originally supplied with a recovery partition that included the installation and any software that was installed then you can go back to that.
When I have had a look at the model I will let you know.
Some laptops however did not come with the recovery partition but with recovery CD`s.

While you are wating do this and see if it is any smoother.
http://support.micro....com/kb/310353/
Go to that link use the manual method and proceed only as far as and including step 3.
Do Not go to step 4.


NB The Moderator is back with you, answer his question first please.
Hi. rshaffer61.- can you slow down a bit - I cannot keep up

Edited by Macboatmaster, 22 March 2011 - 05:02 PM.

[rshaffer61]

Hi. rshaffer61.- can you slow down a bit - I cannot keep up Posted Image

Sure you can take the lead on this if you would like. Looking at the screenshot there is no Recovery partition so there would be Recovery Disks needed or a full installation disks.

[Macboatmaster]

rshaffer61 - Thks. You have beaten me to the last five.

greghoffman
As the moderator has said, there does not appear to be a recovery partition.
My initial search reveals that the Noblis was in fact, not a brand as such like Acer, Toshiba, Dell etc. , but it appears a briefly marketed laptop, which was really a combination of many parts from various suppliers.

Finding what those various parts are and the drivers may be a little difficult
After an extensive search I have now established that they were built by this firm
http://www.equuscs.c...ult.aspx?id=611
and all reports I have found indicate difficulty in obtaining support from them for computers not in present manufacture.
However that may be totally unfair to them and if it came to the crunch you would have to email them and see how it went.

In view of that the best course of action is to try and improve performance.
I also now know that the laptop did not come with a recovery/restore partition but with a CD for the same purpose.


When you reply we will start the analysis of why it may be slow and how we can improve it.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 22 March 2011 - 05:42 PM.

[greghoffman]

hey there...thanks so far for the help. the label affixed to the bottom of the unit says windows xp home..and it is the label that came off the box or sleeve containing an early version of xp. i'm sure the unit is also a no name brand, it was built by my nieces ex boyfriend who has his own comp repair biz. i will be able to get back on the machine this evening..after 6 pm central time. i guess i would love to find out why it is so slow, i understand it is probably not as fast as the newer machines, but almost 3-5 minutes to boot or get on the internet is ridiculous. thanks again.

[Macboatmaster]

Please do as I suggested in post 7.
Clean boot it.

[greghoffman]

OK thanks again

[greghoffman]

ok i have the machine running in clean boot state. it is a wee bit faster but not what would be expected with all the free space. where do we go from here?

[Macboatmaster]

Speed is basically unrelated to free space until that becomes insufficent for the drive to be written to and for the paging file.
Speed generally is determined by the speed of the processor the CPU
The amount of ram
The clutter of the startup items
The fragmentation of the file system
Unwanted use of registry cleaners, booster programs etc.

Go Start, right click My Computer
click properties and on the window that opens on the general tab, which is what it will open on post the processor speed and the ram installed pls.

Then go again on start, programs, accessories, system tools, Disk defragmenter. Click the analyse button does it report fragmenation necessary. click the view report scroll down on the top window - what percentage of fragmentation please.
If it reports it is necessary and the fragmentation is ABOVE 15% do not use that defrag, you will be there all night.
Post back the results pls.

[greghoffman]

AMD Turion 64 Mobile Technology M T-30
798 MHz 480 MB RAM

Total fragmentation = 7%
File fragmentation = 15%
it said i do not need to defrag this volume