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System Reboot

by Coyotex
11 replies
I'm not sure if this is the proper place for this, but since Warriors have been helping me out so much, I wanted to post this within a place I can trust. If this is not the proper place to post, just let me know.

I have a laptop about 4-5 years old. I like it. 70GB hard drive and 500mb (appx)RAM.

The last couple of months, it's been running really slow, a lot slower than before. I may have picked up something, but I'm not sure. Ran all the scans and still nothing.

My question is, if I save to disc all the stuff I want off the hard drive, then run a system recovery (or whatever it's called) to reset the system back to original factory settings, will my laptop be back to the way it used to be in terms of speed and such? Or, because of the age and use, will it still be slow?

Also, if you don't mind, have you ever heard of someone doing this in the past? Results?
Thanks.
#reboot #system
  • Profile picture of the author RyanAndrews
    Reinstalling windows cleans away the cruft, and generally improves the apparent speed. At least until it accumulates again.

    With msconfig and some registry editing, you can reach the same goal without actually reinstalling. Practically everything that runs at startup, has no business running at startup, so those reg keys can be deleted.
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  • Profile picture of the author Coyotex
    Thanks Ryan! But, I have to tell you, I'm lost. I don't know too much about this tech stuff. what is msconfig? How do I do it? Registery editing? I have to go into the guts and edit something (believe me, that's a scary thought!)

    I like the idea of keeping everything and not reinstalling, but doesn't that still delete any extra stuff I have on my hard drive?
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    • Profile picture of the author swords
      Originally Posted by Coyotex View Post

      Thanks Ryan! But, I have to tell you, I'm lost. I don't know too much about this tech stuff. what is msconfig? How do I do it? Registery editing? I have to go into the guts and edit something (believe me, that's a scary thought!)

      I like the idea of keeping everything and not reinstalling, but doesn't that still delete any extra stuff I have on my hard drive?
      If you have no computer knowledge, I'd suggest not messing with your registries. And simply taking off the startup programs won't help your case that much.

      You need to wipe your computer and, yes, put it 'back to factory default'.

      However, you need the original computer files that came with your computer when you purchased it... if you don't have help in this process, you're in quite a pickle though... reinstalling all the drivers and other tidy things can be very overwhelming for a noob to do.
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  • Profile picture of the author RyanAndrews
    Start->Run->"msconfig"->Startup tab

    Now you have a list of all the stuff that runs at startup, and the method it's using to autorun. This will give you an instant idea of how much rubbish has invited itself to run on your laptop.
    The location column tells you how it's auto starting. HKLM/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Currentversion/run is a common location in the registry for this.

    Also on the msconfig->Services tab, click "Hide all Microsoft services", and see all the services that are running in the background.
    As for editing the registry itself, well it's Start->run->"regedit", but...be careful.

    Reinstalling windows is a naive but effective approach to regaining performance, but with a bit of background knowledge, you can avoid it.
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    • Profile picture of the author RyanAndrews
      Sorry swords, can't agree with that. If you just reinstall every time your computer is slow, you'd never learn to control what's running on it, and the problem will just reoccur over and over.

      Another problem however:
      With only 512 MB you need all the resources you can get, because if you run out, windows will swap and because laptops of that age have really slow 2.5" drives, things grind to a halt.

      By all means reinstall this time, but do compare what's running now, compared to a fresh install.
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  • Profile picture of the author Coyotex
    You guys are great! Thanks for the help!

    I don't have the discs. I do have the "system restore" thing I can do, right? If I understand, that brings everything back to factory settings.

    BUT, from what you're telling me above, if I can figure out what's always running, that may have solved a big issue for me without having to redu everything.

    I will assume doing that msconfig thing is not that same as hitting ctl+alt+del right? When I do that, it doesn't show anything running.

    When I get to my laptop later, I'll try it. Thanks!
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    • Profile picture of the author Cash Money Hosting
      Drew, While restoring your comp will give u some speed back, i doubt that is the only problem.

      You stated that your only running 512mb of ram. if you are running newer programs like firefox, flash, ect .... these programs consume lots of ram.

      I personally cannot use a computer without a minimum of 1024 MB of Ram.

      my current laptop has 4GB of ram.

      You will spend hours and hours trying to save all your data to disk, and perform the recovery, to not have it perform as well as you would like.

      I recommend upgrading your computer.
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  • Profile picture of the author Coyotex
    I'm with you Cash, but right now, I'm not at a point where I can justify shelling the money for a new computer just for a quicker response time. Believe me, that would be awesome and I have thought about it.

    I know I should be further along in my internet business journey than I am, but for now, got to make due with what I have. Hopefully not much long!

    I did delete a few things and my system seems to be running faster, so for that I thank all of you for your input. I'll keep you updated as well.

    Thank you!
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  • Profile picture of the author dapwalvekar
    when the system is rebooted and what is the need of reboot?
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    • Profile picture of the author jtcne
      Hi CoyoteX,

      I have been doing PC support for over 10 years. When I come across a slow system, I do a number of things to speed up a PC before I would ever reinstall Windows or run a factory restore.

      I have a hubpage on optimizing a slow PC.

      If you have any questions about this or need any clarifications, please PM me.

      Good luck!

      John
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  • Profile picture of the author kjhosein
    Hi @coyotex - if you're running even Windows XP, I highly recommend 4GB of RAM as well. Even with a cleaned up system, you'll notice how much more responsive your system is.

    A couple of other quick suggestions to add:
    * Disk defragmentation. I like to use MyDefrag
    * Pagefile defragmentation. Use PageDefrag

    There are literally dozens of other tips that you could use, but start with the 'big' ones and keep tweaking until you get to an acceptable performance.

    I like to tell my clients that hardware doesn't slow down, but the more you tax it with additional software and requests, the slower the whole experience is to you. So keep that in mind the next time you're about to install a new piece of software.

    Cheers!
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