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Speeding up old laptop
hottoq
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I recently bought a new TV that has a PC input. I'd like to hook up my old laptop to it for streaming Netflix and playing AVI files. Only problem is, the laptop is a little slow and is dropping frames/stuttering during video playback. I've done everything I can think of (that doesn't cost money) to get the laptop running more smoothly: registry and disk cleanup, defrag, AdAware... only thing I haven't tried is reformatting. But would reformatting actually help?
The laptop's specs aren't that bad, so I'm confused as to why it can't run video smoothly. Here's the specs:
Dell 2.4 Ghz
512 MB RAM
GEForce 2400 Go
Anyone have any ideas? I could add more RAM, but I'd think that 512 would be enough for just playing video. Your help would be much appreciated!
The laptop's specs aren't that bad, so I'm confused as to why it can't run video smoothly. Here's the specs:
Dell 2.4 Ghz
512 MB RAM
GEForce 2400 Go
Anyone have any ideas? I could add more RAM, but I'd think that 512 would be enough for just playing video. Your help would be much appreciated!
hottoq on
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Posts
The graphics card... did you mean the GeForce4 4200 Go? Not that it really matters, just wondering.
If we're talking HD video here, two obvious culprits are the playback software and the speed of the hard drive. How does the hard drive benchmark? If it's some crappy 4200 RPM drive, that might be the whole problem right there.
The harddrive speed probably is pretty crappy, how do I go about finding what RPM it is? And what can I get to replace it that'd be fairly cheap?
Replacing it: it's probably 2.5" IDE, which should be cheap nowadays. Newegg should be good.
I discovered this after tearing my hair out over the same issue.