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Laptop is just slow

JigrahJigrah Registered User regular
edited August 2009 in Help / Advice Forum
I have a Presario 2500 Laptop, specs are 2.6 Ghz Celeron Processor, 756 mb ram. For some reason it is just super slow even when browsing the internet. It is running on a fresh install of XP-Pro. Mozilla consistently uses 50+% of processing and I can't even run some sites it gets so bogged down. Startup and shut down take ridiculously long times on occasion, in excess of five minutes. Is XP pro just to much for this laptop or could there be something wrong with it mechanically?

Jigrah on

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    AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    How much room is there on the HD? That's usually why shit grinds to a halt for me. :oops:

    Aldo on
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    JigrahJigrah Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Aldo wrote: »
    How much room is there on the HD? That's usually why shit grinds to a halt for me. :oops:

    150 gigs, so yah not the harddrive size.

    Jigrah on
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    pogo mudderpogo mudder Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I have this problem at work sometimes, we need to have firefox open pretty much solidly from 9-5, and even though it's my prefered browser it seems to be prone to memory leaks or something along those lines, sometimes when it's super laggy i check the task manager and it's running at like half a gig or something stupid.
    closing down the browser and firing it back up usually helps, but if it is a memory leak restarting the comp is your best bet, but i don't actually know of a real solution :/

    pogo mudder on
    what a work of art is man, and the most boring choice you can make
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    elfdudeelfdude Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I'd suggest getting a spyware scanner and a virus scanner. Keep in mind mozilla is geared towards more modern computers than what you're working with even on my desktop it's prone to memory leaks and getting bogged down. You might want to try google chrome browser, it's a little different interface but it's substantially easier for a computer to run.

    Ad-aware is good anti spyware program. AVG spyware and AVG virus protection are good as well (the free versions).

    Press ctrl alt delete (ctrl shift esc) to bring up task manger and see how many programs are running in the background. Celerons often have difficulties running too many programs in parallel.

    Finally if those don't work hit start>run>msconfig (windows key + r then type "msconfig") it'll bring up a menu where you can find out what programs are starting up and what services are running. Often you can bring about significant improvement just by disabling all the the start up programs and (click hide microsoft services first) all of the services.

    If none of those ideas are working, you can download ram/memory cleaners which you can use to help keep yourself ahead of memory leaks, this is a temporary solution though (and the programs can sometimes be more of a drain than without) until you can find a new computer.

    Also keep in mind that depending on your wireless setup wireless networking is prone to latency issues and stuttering.

    elfdude on
    Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion.
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    JigrahJigrah Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    elfdude wrote: »
    Celerons often have difficulties running too many programs in parallel.

    It very well might be this as I've already trimmed off all the excess programs in msconfig as well as keep it free of any kind of virus or spyware. Chrome was even slower when multiple tabs were kept open too, any real light weight browsers out there?

    Jigrah on
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    elfdudeelfdude Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Jigrah wrote: »
    elfdude wrote: »
    Celerons often have difficulties running too many programs in parallel.

    It very well might be this as I've already trimmed off all the excess programs in msconfig as well as keep it free of any kind of virus or spyware. Chrome was even slower when multiple tabs were kept open too, any real light weight browsers out there?

    Really? O_o. Chrome has a substantially smaller effect on my computer.

    How do you do with internet explorer (just for diagnostics not suggesting using it) does it have the same problem?

    elfdude on
    Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion.
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    ronyaronya Arrrrrf. the ivory tower's basementRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    If it's a fresh install of XP Pro and you went on the internet with it, there's a good chance it got instantly infected by a million drive-by downloads and is merrily sending out viagra ads at this moment.

    ... yeah.

    Anyway. With those specs it shouldn't be that slow, although I'll recommend grabbing more ram if possible. Since it's a fresh install I'm inclined to blame bad drivers; XP drivers are still generally available, so go grab them from HP. I think this is the site you want.

    ronya on
    aRkpc.gif
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    underdonkunderdonk __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2009
    Try Opera: http://www.opera.com/browser/

    underdonk on
    Back in the day, bucko, we just had an A and a B button... and we liked it.
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