Results 1 to 10 of 10

Thread: PC gurus

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Summerville
    Posts
    14,557

    Default PC gurus

    I値l start off by saying I知 not going to go buy an apple.

    Now that is out of the way...

    My laptop has gotten sluggish. Before taking it in for a tuneup I知 contemplating signing up for a program that automatically cleans up your PC and keeps it defragged, organized and running right.

    Does anyone have a recommendation? Seems like there are several programs that claim they do this.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Moncks Corner
    Posts
    15,556

    Default

    Install more memory and swap the hard drive for an SSD - I've done it on all my PCs - it's with the little bit of money and time.
    Ephesians 2 : 8-9



    Charles Barkley: Nobody doesn't like meat.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Moncks Corner
    Posts
    15,556

    Default

    BTW - I'm answering you on a 2007 Windows machine running Vista...with max memory and a 250 GB SSD.
    Ephesians 2 : 8-9



    Charles Barkley: Nobody doesn't like meat.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    In My Truck
    Posts
    3,654

    Default

    5 year old
    Computer at work was getting slow so I got a new one. Damn things are expensive
    Windows Down!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Sandy Run
    Posts
    2,759

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Rubberhead* View Post
    Install more memory and swap the hard drive for an SSD - I've done it on all my PCs - it's with the little bit of money and time.
    X2


    If a man is alone in the woods, says something, and a woman does not hear, is he still wrong?

    Bipartisan usually means that a larger-than-usual deception is being carried out. 宥eorge Carlin

    Common sense is not a gift. It's a punishment because you have to deal with everyone else who doesn't have it.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Irmo
    Posts
    4,249

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by reeltight View Post
    I’ll start off by saying I’m not going to go buy an apple.

    Now that is out of the way...

    My laptop has gotten sluggish. Before taking it in for a tuneup I’m contemplating signing up for a program that automatically cleans up your PC and keeps it defragged, organized and running right.

    Does anyone have a recommendation? Seems like there are several programs that claim they do this.



    Well that will be money not well spent. You can defrag and optimize drives yourself by searching for defrag in the Win 10 search area. Nothing will magically make a slow computer fast just by running a program. You might see a slight improvement, but your bottlenecks are most likely RAM and hard drive (and maybe you CPU as well, but usually not the primary factor). A spinning hard drive is infinitely slower than an Solid State Drive. Hopefully, you can add more RAM to your laptop, but it's getting more common to have it soldered to the motherboard making upgrading impractical. Adding an SSD is likely going to be your biggest improvement, followed closely by increasing the onboard RAM if you can.

    Something like this: SAMSUNG-500GB-Internal SSD

    Get a cable like this: Data transfer cable

    Then using a copy of the Samsung data migration software, clone your current hard drive (makes an exact copy). Then when it's done, turn off laptop and take the current hard drive out and replace with the SSD. Plug everything back up and start the machine. It should recognize the new SSD and start right up. All the data and Windows OS on the hard drive is now on the SSD.

    This would be a good time to upgrade your RAM when you have the back off the machine. Go to Crucial Memory and run the system scanner before buying your SSD, it will tell you if you can upgrade and what RAM you will need. If for some reason you can't upgrade, you might want to look at buying a new machine. At a bare minimum you need 8GB but I wouldn't run anything without 16GB these days, but I don't like slow. Then Google the type of RAM you need and buy it for the cheapest price from a major RAM company (Crucial, Corsair, Kingston, G Skill, Patriot, and a few others) and the number of sticks needed. Unless you have a separate graphics card on your laptop, your graphics memory is shared by the CPU, further degrading the amount of RAM for CPU use. Usually you only find discrete graphics cards on "gaming laptops" and on higher level laptops when added as an option, but they make a laptop way more "spiffy" in my opinion. I won't buy a new laptop without one, but the downside is usually gaming laptops have so-so battery life at best, but are great plugged in and usually much "faster" then the average laptop.
    Last edited by JBtflo; 03-04-2021 at 12:32 AM.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Summerville
    Posts
    14,557

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Rubberhead* View Post
    Install more memory and swap the hard drive for an SSD
    Quote Originally Posted by mello_collins View Post
    X2
    Quote Originally Posted by JBtflo View Post
    Adding an SSD is likely going to be your biggest improvement, followed closely by increasing the onboard RAM if you can.

    Then using a copy of the Samsung data migration software, clone your current hard drive (makes an exact copy). Then when it's done, turn off laptop and take the current hard drive out and replace with the SSD. Plug everything back up and start the machine. It should recognize the new SSD and start right up. All the data and Windows OS on the hard drive is now on the SSD.

    This would be a good time to upgrade your RAM when you have the back off the machine. Go to Crucial Memory and run the system scanner before buying your SSD, it will tell you if you can upgrade and what RAM you will need.
    This could not have been a more simple process. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. No more spinning hard drive. Had I known about this a couple of years ago I would have done it. I probably would have never purchased a laptop with a hard drive in the first place.

    I picked up the 1 TB Samsung solid state and a 8gb Crucial ram. Followed the migration steps and it's plug and play from there. This computer is running better now than on day 1.

    Thanks for the ideas and advice fellas.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    GREENWOOD
    Posts
    6,348

    Default

    What operating system are you running? Windows 10?

    32 bit or 64 bit machine?

    I know the most recent Microsoft update was terrible and they were rolling it back and putting out a new one.

    I would start with running windows updates to make sure you have the latest
    I am a nobody, that met somebody, that can save anybody.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Summerville
    Posts
    14,557

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by quack head 11 View Post
    What operating system are you running? Windows 10?

    32 bit or 64 bit machine?

    I know the most recent Microsoft update was terrible and they were rolling it back and putting out a new one.

    I would start with running windows updates to make sure you have the latest
    Windows 10. All updates complete. I check that on a regular basis. Without know everything about my computer I'm going to say 64 bit. I think I saw that running some sort of scan. They may have been why I was able to update from 4gb of ram to 8gb. If I'm not mistaken 32 bit is limited to 4gb of ram.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    GREENWOOD
    Posts
    6,348

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by reeltight View Post
    Windows 10. All updates complete. I check that on a regular basis. Without know everything about my computer I'm going to say 64 bit. I think I saw that running some sort of scan. They may have been why I was able to update from 4gb of ram to 8gb. If I'm not mistaken 32 bit is limited to 4gb of ram.
    Ten four, I know Windows 10 can use a good bit of resources, so if you are still having issues you can open task manager and look at the tabs up top under services and disable any that arent needed. You can google the list that are ok to disable.
    I am a nobody, that met somebody, that can save anybody.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •