How to improve laptop performance?

Question

I have Toshiba laptop with following configuration: Intel Celeron CPU, 1.5GHz, 512MB RAM, 75 GB Hard disk

Currently it has Windows XP operating system with 30GB of free hard disk space . I am facing performance issue with my laptop in following setup:

• Without connecting to internet, when i open 3-4 applications like MS word, skype, yahoo messenger and chrome, performance really goes down and it takes very long time for each of them to open up and respond if they are already open. This is not specific to above applications, and has been observed with any applications.

Without upgrading the hardware, could you suggest ways to improve the laptop performance ?

Thanks & Regards,

Nirav

Answer 1

Windows XP (as well as Vista and Windows 7) is set by default to run a number of "services" - background processes that perform some function. On a standalone machine (i.e. one NOT connected to a business or corporate network) many of these are not needed. It's best NOT to run services that you don't need because:

1. It improves security (less running software = less potential vectors for attack)
2. It reduces CPU use (all those programs running in the background DO use a fairly significant amount of CPU)
3. It reduces memory usage (again, services are still sitting there taking up memory).

Disabling services that you don't need will free up CPU and memory which will enable you to squeeze every last drop of performance from your machine.

There is an excellent web site made by a gamer "BlackViper" that tells you how to optimize Windows XP performance by disabling unneeded services. It lists all the services as well as indicating which ones are safe to disable.

Answer 2

Well, the biggest bottleneck here is your RAM, a simple upgrade (would cost 20-30 bucks) would do loads more for your performance than any software fixes. That said, there are a few things you can do to squeeze a little more performance out of your laptop.

1. Trim Windows down to the bare essentials. This will save you a lot of memory and CPU cycles to unnecessary Windows services.
2. Restrict applications from starting at boot. Alot of programs load themselves into your task-bar at boot to give them the appearance of loading faster when you go to use them. Go into your start menu, select Run, and enter msconfig. Go to the startup tab and de-select any programs that you don't want to start at boot (be wary of programs residing inside the C:\WINDOWS folder though).
3. Use a lightweight ant-virus solution as opposed to heavy ones like McAfee or Norton. This can have a significant improvement depending on your performance depending on what your currently running.
4. Defrag your hard-drive. The benefits of this are debatable but it can't hurt at least.

Answer 3

upgrade Ram (possible )

remove unnecessary program

standard clean-ups,

Remove spyware, adware and / or viruses

Edit 2 :

http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/maintenance/speed.aspx

Answer 4

a) get some RAM

b) use some light anti-virus like [www.avast.com]

c) reduce the number of unnecessary startup programs [do this if you know what you're doing Start->Run->msconfig->startup]

d) defragment your hard drive (also i think 30GB is okay, but too less might be a problem)

e) remove any funky useless softwares that you use - a lot of them can do bad - especially with limited resources

f) make sure your CPU fan has a proper ventilation and is not blocked, as in against a wall or something

g) use a software like CCleaner - it removes useless crap that you might have on your computer and you might never need. Again check the settings properly before you use it [www.ccleaner.com]

Thats pretty much I would do.

Answer 5

Lots of good advice given already, but one thing that hasn't been mentioned is to make sure any "Battery saving" option isn't enabled. I'm not sure about Toshiba, but some notebook makers include software that replicates windows "Power options" settings.

Answer 6

If you bring up Task Manager, on the "Processes" tab, select columns, and show the "Page Fault Delta" column (might show as "PF Delta" on XP, I forget, and only have Vista and Win7 to hand). If you sort descending by this column, you can see what applications are hammering your virtual memory, which is a common performance bottleneck.

If it's background applications with "high" figures, then you may benefit from removing them (As I write, Cyberlink MediaLibrary Service is causing a bottleneck for me); If it is foreground applications, then it may be worth investing in some more physical RAM, or, if that's not an option, a faster hard disk can help.

Answer 7

A clean installation of Windows without the default Hardware vendor applications is always a good move. If you are a techie... you could consider using nLite to make a compact Windows installation.

If you don't have much free disk space, chances are that a defragmentation could help a bit.

Also... Anti Virus programs are very hard on performance. I don't recommend it, but personally I don't have Anti Virus installed on any machine... never had. I know a lot of people would kill me for saying it but, it will make your computer faster.