My laptop is getting slower and slower

Posted by  in Thursday, October 23rd 2008   
17 Comments

I’m starting to get really frustrated when I’m using my laptop. It’s so slow!

When I first start up the laptop it takes forever for the browser and my email program to start up. Once they are loaded it’s not too bad, but the computer is a lot slower than my desktop computer and it’s slower than it used to be even a few months ago.

I think I’m going to have to go over everything and start deleting things I don’t use and maybe move documents and photos over to my other computer or to my portable hard drive. I haven’t defragged the computer for a while either, maybe defragging will help.

For those of you that have both a laptop and desktop computer do you find that your desktop computer is faster?

Update- I forgot to mention that yes I use an anti-virus program (Norton Anti-Virus) and it runs a complete scan of my system once a week. I just ran it last night after posting this, so it’s unlikely that this problem is being caused by a virus.

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17 users responded to this post

Stephen Hunter said in October 23rd, 2008 at 9:44 pm    

I think your processor is the problem. Are you running CoreDuo2? My laptop is really fast. If all else fails I recommend you buy a MAC. They don’t get sick which makes your computer’s “immune system” so to speak stronger without losing speed.

Roxys Best Of... said in October 24th, 2008 at 12:30 am    

I have a Mac desktop and a Windows Vista notebook and the Mac is waaaaay faster…particularly when it comes to all things Internet and the blogosphere. EntreCard dropping, surfing, commenting, all much faster on the Mac. But it is hard to bring that big thing into my bed with me and Rex…

All the best,
Roxy

cromely said in October 24th, 2008 at 3:01 am    

1) Update and run your Anti-Spyware program. If you don’t have one, get one. I use Spybot Search and Destroy.

2) Defrag

3) Run Scan Disk to ID any hardware problems with the hard drive.

4) Reimage your machine. If you have the recovery disks thatb came with your notebook, now is the time to use them. If not, contact the manufacturer and order them. It may cost up to $50 depending on the vendor.

Over time, Windows “decays.” As you add programs and remove them, they can leave traces behind. Other things you do over time can clog up the system files.

When you reimage the machine, you are putting it back to the way it was when it was brand new. Those recovery disks will erase everything on your hard drive and put on a fresh copy of Windows and your vendor provided software. Then you can reinstall the apps that you use.

Be aware: THIS WILL ERASE EVERYTHING ON THE HARD DRIVE

So back up all your data first.

Reimaging can solve a bunch of problems.

5) Check the air vents on the machine. Are they dusty or dirty? If so, they are less effective, allowing heat to build up inside which lowers performance.

I hope this helps.

lindzer said in October 24th, 2008 at 4:33 am    

Defragging definitely helps gives a performance boost. regular defragging will keep the drives fast and prevent premature problems.
In fact its ideal to have one of the automatic defragmenters like Diskeeper run in automatic mode, its fast and unobstrusive, you wont even know its there. I have both a laptop and desktop and they are both running at top speed.

Laane said in October 24th, 2008 at 6:18 am    

When a laptop goes slow, I start scanning first:
panda activescan
spybot
panda activescan and
kaspersky to seen what is hiding and where.

Most of the time there are bugs to remove.

Good luck!

RennyBA said in October 24th, 2008 at 7:00 pm    

A great site where you can check your puter and get recommendation for adjustment is http://www.pcpitstop.com. I hope it’ll work for you too.

Btw: Sorry I haven’t been around for a while – fall is a busy season.

Wishing you a great end to your week :-)

Jean-Luc Picard said in October 25th, 2008 at 12:41 pm    

It may need defragging or emptying the temporary files.

Lifecruiser said in October 26th, 2008 at 11:34 am    

Mine is the same, despite no virus or spyware. I go with cromely’s advice, sounds correct.

kat said in October 27th, 2008 at 3:40 pm    

I admit that I have a preference for Macs. However, I doubt you need a new machine. Sometimes, if the machine gets slower and slower it could be the result of spyware and fragmentation. I’m assuming you are using a PC with some version of Windows. Windows machines are much more prone to spyware than are Macs. The first thing I would do is delete what you don’t care about and then run the defragment program. This will help. If you tend to keep a lot of documents and photos, etc., I’d suggest an external hard drive that you can plug in to your PC so you don’t store everything on your hard drive, which can, over time, suck up space. Once your machine is back up to snuff, I would periodically run your defragment & spyware programs as preventative maintenance. In some cases, I have seen where the spyware programs have not worked and a clean install of your OS may help. But it is a hassle. Good luck!

Caroline Hornsby said in October 28th, 2008 at 6:15 am    

The only thing that jumped out at me was the fact that you have Norton Anti Virus on your machine – I would recommend uninstalling this and see if this increases the speed as most large brand antivirus software uses so much memory that it can slow your machine down considerably.
Parental control, antiphishing, and ad blocking could also easily slow your browsing.
If you have tried all of the other options ie; defragging, disk clean up, spyware/virus scan etc then it’s worth a try. And I really would recommend AVG if Norton proves to be the issue.

Roger Hamilton said in October 28th, 2008 at 9:50 am    

After some time, laptops might just get slower and slower. It quite irritating at times.

Driveway Sealing said in October 28th, 2008 at 2:43 pm    

Definitely delete the files you no longer need and defraging should help a bit. I have the same problem. I have Norton anti-virus as well as something called rogers agent that runs on start up. That program slows everything down, especially loading up firefox for the first time.

If your cable provider is rogers cable the rogers agent could be the cause of your slow down.

Steve

Christopher said in October 29th, 2008 at 11:07 am    

sorry to here u got a problem

hope u sort it out soon

Andy | West Florida Components said in October 29th, 2008 at 11:09 pm    

Check to see what programs are running at start up. Then you can determine if they really need to be running unless you want them to.

That will free up a lot of memory.

If you’re running XP, go to Start>Run>type in MSCONFIG. Click on the start-up tab. You will see a list of the programs that are running on start-up.

Go through the list and determine whether or not you need them to run automatically. I usually use dual screens (or two machines) to get through the list quicker. Use google or a site like http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/ to search for each entry.

You’ll be surprised how much faster your laptop will run when you keep some of these programs from always running.

Good luck!

Everything Blogs said in October 31st, 2008 at 2:26 pm    

Yes my laptop is beginning to get slow also, Although I think my problem is more of memory which I plan on adding. I hope you can get yours moving quicker soon.

Doug C said in November 3rd, 2008 at 4:44 pm    

How old is the laptop?

I would recommend reformating a harddrive every six months in order to maintain tip-top performance.

If you are going to do this though make sure you read up on the best method of doing this as it could all turn quite nasty if you are not sure what you are doing

Carl Smith said in August 20th, 2011 at 3:56 am    

Hi, I have a Macbook Pro and its pretty fast and I don’t have any problems with it. If you have the money I would recommend getting a Mac if you decide to get a new laptop. Before I had a Mac I had an Acer laptop with windows 7 and it started to go slow like yours. I used this software called Turbo Your PC and It worked quite well.

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