Slow Laptop

[Old_Geezer]

Since the latest round of Windows updates on my woman's laptop, it seems to be very slow.

Performed the usual scans, got the laptop to delete unnecessary stuff. Not much change.

Been looking at the Task Manager but the figures are so dynamic nothing sticks out that much as being obvious. CPU can be high at times. And granted Disk seems high much of the time though. Especially on opening something or running scans. 100% is not uncommon.

Given that the C: drive has plenty of free space, in desperation (even though I figured it was unlikely to help) I took control of virtual memory and increased it by 50%. As expected it achieved nothing. I think that the high disk figure must relate to the amount of time data is passing to and from the disk, rather than anything else.

Any suggestions regarding a possible fix ? Aside from replacing the laptop I mean.

Cheers.

[woodchopper]

If it has an HDD - save your stuff onto an external drive - remove the offending HDD and replace it with an SSD and clean install Windows 10 onto it.
My 9 yr old desktop was kindly upgraded to Win 10 from Win7 which did nothing but bu%%er it. Pulled the HDD out at xmas and replaced it with a Crucial SSD and hey presto it boots up in less than 10 seconds which is faster than the new desktop which I replaced it with 6 months ago.
Read/write speed of SSD's is far superior to the old HDD.

[Old_Geezer]

Thanks. Did wonder about that. Unsure because it's not my (old) laptop. But worth consideration.

[Old_Geezer]

Replaced drive. Seems faster. Not gee whiz fast but acceptable delay rather than finger tapping and long sighing type waiting. Still possible to add memory but one wonders how much one can do with decreasing returns. Not contemplating investigating CPU change but occasionally wondering if there are faster versions.

[Old_Geezer]

PS didn't need to back up. Came with upgrade kit so cloned original drive on SSD first. Changed drives over, then put original in external case that was supplied to facilitate cloning.

[fender62]

what cpu have you got in there, have a look in system, you can replace the cpu in a laptop top, if you any good at such repairs upgrades, i renewed the thermal paste on the cpu recently as i had to put in new fan that was failing, the paste was almost solid, and badly put on in factory, i checked temps before and after, what a difference, i also put in an ssd and an extra 2gb of ram, laptop runs better now than when it was new.

[Old_Geezer]

AMD K8
Athlon 64x2 dual core processor TK-42

[fender62]

pretty slow entry level cpu, id stick with intel, i5 and i7 if budget can stretch..

[Old_Geezer]

Would doubt it's motherboard could cope with a different processor.

[fender62]

if it gets on your nerves, wipe the drive and sell it, get something a bit faster, but stay away from anything with an amd cpu, just my personal op as i have had them over the years, and was not impressed, i stick with intel's i5 or i7 cpu's i3's are ok for basic internet browsing and ms office etc, but i like something with a bit more grunt.