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Several Solutions to Laptop Slowdowns By Ste ve Horton Septembe r 16, 2013 . slow , browser , co ntrol panel , laptop ,slo wdown No Comments The Situation: A Slowdown Perhaps you measure your laptop’s speed with a stopwatch before drawing a conclusion. More likely, you notice that photos or websites which used to open instantly and flawlessly now take too much time. If you’re telling yourself, “This didn’t take so long before,” your laptop may, in fact, be slowing down. What’s Your Next Move As a User? What to do when this happens? Throwing away your old PC laptop and buying a new one doesn’t have to be your only choice. And if you’re like many users, no matter how inexpensive computers become, immediate replacement is not on your list of choices at all. Fortunately, a slow computer is often not a death sentence for it: there are many reasons for the possible slowdown. Using easy- to-follow methods and software tools easily available, these problems are also easy to fix. The Accidental, The Suspicious, The Incidental There’s an equal chance that slow response is the result of something you’ve done, or it may be the result of something Windows has done. You should account for the possibility that something innocuous, something circumstantial, or something malicious happened to make your laptop slow down.

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Several Solutions to Laptop SlowdownsBySteve HortonSeptember 16, 2013. slow,browser,control panel,laptop,slowdownNo Comments

The Situation: A SlowdownPerhaps you measure your laptops speed with a stopwatch before drawing a conclusion. More likely, you notice that photos or websites which used to open instantly and flawlessly now take too much time.If youre telling yourself, This didnt take so long before, your laptop may, in fact, be slowing down.Whats Your Next Move As a User?What to do when this happens? Throwing away your old PC laptop and buying a new one doesnt have to be your only choice. And if youre like many users, no matter how inexpensive computers become, immediate replacement is not on your list of choices at all.Fortunately, a slow computer is often not a death sentence for it: there are many reasons for the possible slowdown. Using easy-to-follow methods and software tools easily available, these problems are also easy to fix.The Accidental, The Suspicious, The IncidentalTheres an equal chance that slow response is the result of something youve done, or it may be the result of something Windows has done. You should account for the possibility that something innocuous, something circumstantial, or something malicious happened to make your laptop slow down.The following guide might help you distill a few of the most common causes, and their most common remedies.Among accidental causes:Hardware slowdown or breakdown: No, you dont have to open up your laptop, but its important to get possible hardware maladies out of the way first. This is especially true if your laptop, being a portable unit, has recently suffered a drop or a knock of nearly any kind. Give the laptops fan a listen and judge if its buzzing or not flowing air overheating can slow down a system. Listen for the hard drive making any clicking noises (many contemporary drives, especially laptop solid-state drives, are essentially silent). Ensure that all your memory is running. Right-click on your taskbar and clickTask Manager. Click thePerformancetab. Look in the lower left hand corner atPhysical Memory.If the amount of memory 4,007 is equivalent to 4GB, for example doesnt match what you remember as your laptops specification, you may have had a replaceable memory module stop working.

Check the Performance tab in Control Panel to see if your memory has stopped working.Among suspicious causes:Malware or Spyware: While the news is filled with them, yours doesnt necessarily have to be the horror story. However, this is another possibility to get out of the way first. Look back in your email and see if there are documents you have downloaded that may have been suspicious. Rely on your existing antivirus software, or consider upgrading to another product. Applications from Norton and ESET include firewall protection in addition to that offered by Windows, and will scan your files individually.Among the incidental causes:Malfunctioning updates, including Windows Updates: Think back to the first moment you noticed your laptop running slowly. Was it after a particular update, either from third-party software that asked your permission, or from a series of recent Windows Updates? Uninstall third-party software and reinstall: alternatively, especially if the software is a couple of years old, see if there is an updated version thats designed for Windows 7 or 8. Undo recent installations of Java, Flash or Adobe: these applications, because they are almost always running in the background, and are sometimes interrupted by shutdowns, can cause problems. They will flexibly reinstall later, often without further incident. Have Windows diagnose it for you: From your Start Menu or Start Screen, enter the Control Panel, and clickTroubleshooting. This will lead you to a window with various options to find and fix issues with software.

The Windows Control Panel offers a variety of troubleshooting solutions. Too little memory for the cache: If your computer has 2GB or less of memory and runs Windows XP or above, its going to heavily rely on a hard drive cache to stretch performance. A cache means that Windows uses extra hard drive space as memory. Eliminate unnecessary add-ons: These are applications that run in the background of your browser, and can significantly impede performance. Within Internet Explorer, click Tools (gear), clickInternet Options, and go to theProgramstab. Clear any add-ons that you dont actively use, or all of them at once your browser will still work. Clearing your browsing history is sometimes the simplest fix to a slow laptop. Within Internet Explorers menu bar, clickTools (gear)andDelete Browsing History.

Delete your browsers Internet history for a speed boost.Conclusion: Dont Panic, But Take ActionIn the end, there is something to be said for the latest and greatest. But theres also nothing inevitable about obsolescence generally, if your computer is less than five years old, you should be able to run most any current software.If you make sure that you are methodical and organized about your fixes if one method doesnt work, moving on to the next then youre sure to eventually hit upon a solution. Good luck and happy hunting!Rehttp://www.reviversoft.com/blog/2013/09/several-solutions-to-laptop-slowdowns/

How to Fix a Slow Laptopby Erin McManaway, Demand Media

You can speed up your slow laptop to improve productivity.Related Articles How to Fix a Slow Toshiba Laptop How to Defragment an HP Laptop How to Reset the Acer Aspire One to Factory Settings How to Fix an Overheating Laptop Battery AVG Free is Slow to Start Up How to Fix Slow PDF Files

Over time, you laptop begins to accumulate more files and programs as a result of regular use. Eventually, this can slow down your laptops response time, making daily processes take longer to execute and lowering your productivity. You can fix a slow laptop by conducting normal maintenance on your machine, such as freeing up hard drive space and running the Windows hard drive utilities. You can also prevent unneeded programs from launching when your laptop starts and add more RAM memory to increase performance.Step1Update and run your laptops virus scanner to remove viruses and spyware. Malware can use up your laptops CPU resources and slow down your laptops performance.Step2Click the Start button, type msconfig and press the Enter key to launch the System Configuration screen. Navigate to the Start Up tab and remove the check in the box next to every item you dont need running on your laptop. When you reboot your laptop, only the selected programs will start up, freeing up resources on your machine.Related Reading:AVG Free is Slow to Start UpStep3Click the Start button, type add or remove programs and press the Enter key to launch the Add or Remove Programs screen. Click unneeded programs and then click Uninstall to free up space on your laptops hard drive.Step4Click the Start button, type disk cleanup and press the Enter key to launch the Disk Cleanup utility. Place a checkmark in the box next to items you want to delete, and then click OK to clean up your laptops hard drive.Step5Click the Start button, type disk defragmenter and press the Enter key to launch the Windows defragmenter utility. Select your laptops hard drive and click Defragment disk to consolidate files, which helps speed up the hard drive response time.Step6Add more RAM memory to your laptop. This will provide more overall memory that allows your laptop to run multiple programs at once with more speed.Tip Back up important files and folders to prevent data loss, especially if your laptop is older or experiences crashes and Windows errors.References(1)About the AuthorErin McManaway holds a B.A. in professional writing from Francis Marion University, where she earned the Richard B. Larsen Memorial Award for Business and Technical Writing. She has worked in materials development, media and information technology in the nonprofit sector since 2006. McManaway has also been a writer and editor since 2008.Photo Credits Hemera Technologies/AbleStock.com/Getty Images

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Retail POS Review7 Ways to Speed Up Your PCBy Alex JenkinsFOLLOW USSHAREThere are many items that can slow down your computer orlaptopsuch as spyware, malware and viruses, which your computer will pick up. You should also consider the fact that if your computer is getting old and software is getting outdated, this too will inhibit your PC from doing what it is supposed to. Even new, out-of-the-box computers come with a load of programs on them. Manufacturers think you need them all, and you almost always do not. Some of these will continually run in the background and, in turn, slow down your system.While keeping your computer hardware up to date and your anti-virus software current can help mitigate some of the problems your computer will encounter, what else can you do to speed up your system? We break down a few tips to help boost the performance of your PC.Remove SpywareWe can't stress enough how important it is to rid yourself of these nasty bugs that can slip into the cracks of your virtual life. Spyware can cause pop-ups as well as collect personal information without letting you know or asking for permission. This puts your computer and your information at risk. Spyware also can also instruct your home computer to send harmful emails to your friends and family. These are just a few of spyware's tricks. Make sure you use a reputable spyware remover to take care of the problem.Free Up Disk SpaceThe Disk Cleanup tool is a great way to help free up space on your hard disk and improve performance. A few things Dick Cleanup can do are: Remove temporary internet files (which generally take up the most space). Empty the Recycle Bin. Delete programs you never use. Remove Windows Temporary files, such as error reports. Backup files you never access.DefragDisk fragmentation slows the overall efficiency of your computer. As you install and uninstall programs and save and delete files over the years, these actions create small empty gaps among the other data on your hard drive. After a while, new information is no longer stored in blocks, but in the nooks and corners of your hard drive. As a result, your computer must work harder to piece certain parts of the data together by scouring the hard drive. Disk Defragmenter consolidates these files and folders so that they occupy one single space on the disk. Run this when: You add a large number of files Your free space totals 15 percent or less. You install new, large programs or a new OS.Use ReadyBoostReadyBoost was introduced with Windows XP, and there are multiple videos on Microsoft's website that instruct you on how to use ReadyBoost. This tool basically uses a USB flash drive or memory card to introduce a level of memory that functions somewhere between RAM and your hard drive disk for storing non-volatile memory. ReadyBoost works better on systems that struggle to open and maintain the speed of certain programs. It will enhance your computer, but only if you have a hard drive that is at capacity or a system that is several years old. Otherwise, you are not going to notice much of a difference.Repair Disk ErrorsIn addition to Defragmentation and Disk Cleanup, repairing disk errors can optimize the performance of your hard drive and your system. As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors, making it hard or impossible to save files and write data to your hard drive. By running the Error Checking utility, you can scan and repair bad sectors. To run this utility, follow these steps:1. Close all open files and programs.2. ClickStart, and then clickComputer.3. In the Computer window (My Computer), right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then clickProperties.4. In thePropertiesdialog box, click the Tools tab.5. Click theCheck Nowbutton.6. In theCheck Diskdialog box (calledError-checkingin Windows 7), select theScan for and attempt recovery of bad sectorscheck box, and then clickStart.7. If you find bad sectors, choose to fix them.Remove Start-up FluffUsing MSCONFIG allows you to shut down all programs that automatically start when your computer boots up. Many of these programs, like anti-virus applications, legitimately need to run in the background. Others, such as MSN Messenger, only think they do but they just make start up time longer. To shut down the programs you don't need to run, take the following steps:1. Click start and go toRun.2. Type inMSCONFIGin the box.3. Click theStartuptab.4. You will then be shown a list of all the startup items that run when the computer boots up. Select the programs you want to shut down.Always double check to see if you need a program before stopping it. In most cases, if you don't recognize it, it doesn't need to be there.Add RAMMore RAM means a faster feel to opening files and easier multitasking. For every program you open, your computer uses RAM; if you have multiple programs open at once and lack sufficient memory, everything will slow down. Upgrading RAM is fairly inexpensive these days, and it can drastically help your computer. There are help videos on the web to show you how install additional memory, or you can take it into the shop and have them do it there. Be warned: It's much more expensive that way.Regular maintenance, like running the Defrag and Disk Cleanup utilities, as well as running spyware removers, should ideally be done once or twice a month, depending on how often you use your computer. 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