Slow Laptop.. Any tips?

[Chetan Madaan]

Hi -

i have a Sony Vaio E Series Laptop i bought in October 2010.

Here are the specs:
- 500 GB toshiba Hard disk
- 4 GB Ram
- i3 Processor
- Windows 7
- Wifi/LAN/Blutooth
- and pretty much everything a basic laptop may have.


Now, this is getting slow day by day and i understand why... i work as a web developer and work on my laptop most of the time... here are the reasons why i think my laptop is slow.

- i use it for more than 14 hours a day.
- i have almost 9 - 10 applications running all the time(Ms outlook, Firefox (with firebug), Chrome, Notepad++, Filezilla, Livezilla, Youtube(yes, in firefox... but flash sometimes takes up a lot of memory) and few small one's from time to time).
- i haven't got it cleaned up in last three years.
- ...

My question to the experts is: will upgrading the RAM or Processor to i7 help me fasten up the things?


Thank you so much to anyone who may be replying.

 

[USAFRet]

- i haven't got it cleaned up in last three years.

When was it last reinstalled, and when was it last defragged? Check your startup apps to see how much extra junk is running that you don't need.

Fix the cause of the slowness, not put a bigger engine in it.
Although more ram is usually never a bad idea. And I doubt you can swap the processor.

 

[Chetan Madaan]

Thanks!

i know start up programs probably slows up the system and there is only one i have.
Teamviewer.

True... swapping the processor will be a heck of a deal and i won't be doing it... i will consider doing the RAM though.

It was never reinstall at all. i was never defragged at all.

 

[USAFRet]

Hardware does not 'slow down' over time. Either it runs or it breaks.
Software builds up cruft. That is the issue.

 

[doxtor]

try to clean your system with soft like wintoolspro (file,registry,startup cleaning)

90Gb+ ssd drives are the boosters #1 they will turn your slow machine into brand-new like )

 

[USAFRet]

It was never reinstall at all. i was never defragged at all.

Before you go hacking away at it with more software:
Defrag
Disk Cleanup (Right click on the drive, Properties, General...look for the Disk Cleanup button

 

[Chetan Madaan]

I did the diskclean up and it turn out it saves some space on Drive C (windows) but nothing on other drives.

 

[Chetan Madaan]

Hardware does not 'slow down' over time. Either it runs or it breaks.
Software builds up cruft. That is the issue.

I don't think if i agree on this one... my Understanding is that hardware does slows down by time.. all part of it is right that keeping so many unused software may consume a lot of memory.

 

[rosefire]

I recommend updating your drivers and getting a few help apps such as SlimWare Utilities or SlimDrivers.
Another good app is Defraggler also Speccy all made by Piriform www.piriform.com.
I get all of these at CNET http://download.cnet.com/

 

[USAFRet]

Hardware does not 'slow down' over time. Either it runs or it breaks.
Software builds up cruft. That is the issue.

I don't think if i agree on this one... my Understanding is that hardware does slows down by time.. all part of it is right that keeping so many unused software may consume a lot of memory.

The hardware still runs at the same speed, or is trying to. That there may be too much crap is the issue.
Hardware may break and not run, but if it runs, the electrons still move at the same speed.

 

[Chetan Madaan]

alright... i agree on that one then.