Laptop Speed

[Sylthia]

My laptop's starting to show it's age and has been freezing/crashing more than usual and has just been generally slow.

I'm not an expert by any means, but does having a large quantity of games on the computer make any substantial difference with speed and performance? I've got a few high demand MMO games like WoW and ESO, as well as a pretty big GOG library. Would uninstalling some of the games that I'm done playing speed up the laptop at all, or is it inevitable with age.

[sana]

My laptop's starting to show it's age and has been freezing/crashing more than usual and has just been generally slow.

I'm not an expert by any means, but does having a large quantity of games on the computer make any substantial difference with speed and performance? I've got a few high demand MMO games like WoW and ESO, as well as a pretty big GOG library. Would uninstalling some of the games that I'm done playing speed up the laptop at all, or is it inevitable with age.

It doesn't really matter how much you have installed. What matters is how much stuff is running in the background, how much junk has creeped up in places it shouldn't be and to some extend how much broken little things are still sticking around even though they should have been gone.

The only time it matters how much is installed is when your hard-drive is almost completely full. As a general rule 10-20% of a hard-drive should be free space. if you load it up to 99% you'll usually have more problems then just slowing down however.

I'd say open the task manager after a fresh re-boot and just see how much is running. Different game clients all starting up and running in the back-ground could be a reason things get slowed down.

It's often just installation ruins being left behind. Well that or mal-ware, tool-bars, junk, too many things running at once.

[Flickerdart]

As Sana said, unless it's completely full, the games aren't the problem. How old is the laptop? If it's older than two-three years, it's starting to fail and there's not much you can do about that.

[Artanis]

On top of what has already been suggested, you might try running CCleaner. It's pretty good at finding crap that's running in the background, and is capable of uninstalling and/or disabling stuff that would otherwise give you the finger and keep on running (McAfee real-time scan, I'm looking at you :smallannoyed: ). It'll also clean out minor registry junk like pointers to file types used by long-since-uninstalled games' saves.

I don't think CCleaner tried to add extraneous c*** like browser toolbars when I installed it, but as a free program, the usual caveat to keep a very careful eye out for that stuff applies anyways.

If nothing else, it almost certainly won't hurt.

[Sylthia]

As Sana said, unless it's completely full, the games aren't the problem. How old is the laptop? If it's older than two-three years, it's starting to fail and there's not much you can do about that.

It's a little over 2 years old.

[Flickerdart]

Then it's about time you start looking for a replacement. One thing you can do to prolong this one's life is crack it open and clean out the fans, maybe swap the HDD for an SSD (no smaller than 200GB or there won't be enough space for the system to spread its wings). A RAM upgrade would help too, and if you buy good RAM and a big SSD you can reuse them when you buy a new laptop.

[Sylthia]

Then it's about time you start looking for a replacement. One thing you can do to prolong this one's life is crack it open and clean out the fans, maybe swap the HDD for an SSD (no smaller than 200GB or there won't be enough space for the system to spread its wings). A RAM upgrade would help too, and if you buy good RAM and a big SSD you can reuse them when you buy a new laptop.

I'll have to make that my next big thing to buy. I'll have to decide between a new laptop or a desktop. My better half needs a new laptop as well, and I have no idea how its keyboard melted.

[Erloas]

There actually isn't much of anything about "age" that will cause the hardware to slow down. Some of it might fail altogether, but that is actually pretty rare for anything but a hard drive, and generally a hard drive will give you obvious crashes and will fail completely rather than just slow down.

My desktop is ~5-6 years old and it still runs everything reasonably well, obviously a new system is going to run games better but I'm getting the same framerates on games now as I did when it was new. Of course I built the desktop myself and they are a lot more powerful for the price compared to a laptop. But if your main problem isn't "it can't run new game X" but instead "it is running old game Y much worse than it was when it was new" then you can fix that problem without a new system.

While the cleaning programs generally work pretty well there also seems to be some things they just don't/can't get. The surefire way, but also tends to be the most time consuming way, is to simply back up any important files on an external drive/cloud/usb stick, wipe the computer completely and re-install windows fresh. Of course you can only do that if you have a copy of the windows CD and it is really hit-or-miss if the company actually includes that with your laptop.
I would really only go that route if you've already tried some of the system cleaners (and there are a lot, CNET/downloads.com is a pretty good and generally safe place to find those sorts of programs) and done what you can to remove unnecessary programs from loading and made sure you're hard drive isn't completely full.

Adding RAM tends to be a really easy and cheap way of getting more from a laptop too, at least if you have less than about 4GB, if you have that much or more you probably won't see a lot of difference with most laptops as they'll be limited by something else.

[Flickerdart]

There actually isn't much of anything about "age" that will cause the hardware to slow down.

...

The surefire way, but also tends to be the most time consuming way, is to simply back up any important files on an external drive/cloud/usb stick, wipe the computer completely and re-install windows fresh.
I did that when my old laptop (~3 years old at the time) was super slow, and it was actually worse after the fresh install.

[Sylthia]

I guess I'll try a cleanup program. Any steps I should take to make sure it doesn't remove anything essential?

[Flickerdart]

Backing up your system is the #1 thing - anything it breaks, you can restore (after a few minutes of cursing, but that comes with the territory).

[Sylthia]

I think I'll look into getting an external hard drive.

[Forbiddenwar]

huh. my laptop is 6 years old now, and it runs programs faster now than when I first got it.

[Sylthia]

huh. my laptop is 6 years old now, and it runs programs faster now than when I first got it.

How'd you manage that? Mine always seem to slow/crash after a few years.

[Erloas]

How'd you manage that? Mine always seem to slow/crash after a few years.

Really it makes sense, as the years go by drivers should get more efficient and stable, as well as updates to the OS. Although in most cases that probably wouldn't be all that noticeable outside of benchmarks.

But contrary to what someone else said, I couldn't see any possible way for a computer to be slower after a wipe and fresh install of Windows compared to before. Maybe if the "fresh" install was a system recovery disk rather than just windows so included all of the bloatware many manufacturers put on their computers and are generally removed because they are practically useless.

I think though that there is a lot of change in perception. When your computer is new it was probably replacing something even older and slower so it felt fast, after several years you've forgot that old computer and chances are if you compare it to anything it will be a newer system you use at your friends or just that you get used to it.

For instance, if you're used to using a lot of extensions on your browser and you don't have them installed yet it is going to feel different, and probably what you used to do will be slower because the shortcuts you used to use aren't there right now. And depending if you have updated all of the drivers again, that takes time and often gets delayed over some other things, but that should only be an issue for the first couple days after a wipe.

There is also a lot of learning and caching that OSes do now and if you've recently wiped it isn't going to have that any more, it will take some time for it to relearn what you use the most.

Short of a system overheating from dust and hair building up on fans and parts, or a part failing completely (it is relatively rare/hard for a computer part to just partially fail, the way they are made makes most failures all or nothing), age really doesn't do anything. It isn't like a car where parts get worn out. The system clock (ie what everything runs on, not time/date) doesn't slow down, what the processor can do per cycle doesn't change, there really isn't anything that *can* slow down, it is just the nature of how they are made. If things are failing and you're getting errors it is generally pretty obvious, and recovery from an error will take extra processing (if it doesn't crash the OS/program completely). Of course a lot of errors are caused by software rather than hardware and a wipe should clear up a lot of those. But you can easily check the system error logs under the admin tools -> event viewer (which is under control panel).

[Forbiddenwar]

How'd you manage that? Mine always seem to slow/crash after a few years.

I've had to do a complete systems wipe a few times. The last time was last year before they discontinued XP support. The problem I think is not hardware getting old, but registry bloat, and software demanding more resources.

However, my laptop screen is on its last legs.

[Sylthia]

I ran CCleaner. It's a bit early to tell, but it looks like it cleared quite a bit, going by the report.

[Forbiddenwar]

I ran CCleaner. It's a bit early to tell, but it looks like it cleared quite a bit, going by the report.

It's good idea to run it, restart, run it restart and repeat until it can't find any more problems. At least that is what I do.

[Sylthia]

It's good idea to run it, restart, run it restart and repeat until it can't find any more problems. At least that is what I do.

I ran it a couple times, I'll probably give it another spin once I get home today.

I really want to squeeze some more life out of this laptop until I can afford to get a new one.

[Icewraith]

Get rid of the bloatware, disable drivers for things you never use, disable or uninstall programs you don't use, stop certain programs from trying to auto-update, and if you use Chrome run it in incognito mode all the time so it doesn't keep writing to your hard disk. There's a lot of windows stuff related to being a server for instance that you probably never use but windows loads every time you start your computer.

Do make a list of things you disable so if things break you can turn them all back on.

Get a cooling pad and blow out your fans regularly. If necessary, open up your case and clean off the fans if there's a bunch of dust in there.

[Peelee]

I'm a die-hard desktop fan, mostly because of the moar power/less moneys aspect. I also have no real reason to have a laptop, and the one is mostly a "I can play Kerbal while watching Columbo" type convenience. Plus, after a while, you can replace parts way easier than on laptops. If you get a new one, I'd always recommend a DIY desktop.

[Flickerdart]

I'm a die-hard desktop fan, mostly because of the moar power/less moneys aspect. I also have no real reason to have a laptop, and the one is mostly a "I can play Kerbal while watching Columbo" type convenience. Plus, after a while, you can replace parts way easier than on laptops. If you get a new one, I'd always recommend a DIY desktop.
For sure. 90% of cases, a combination of a self-assembled desktop and a cheap tablet or Chromebook for mobility is going to be sufficient. There are situations where you need your power to be portable, though - it's tricky to bring your desktop on a business trip, for instance.

[Sylthia]

For sure. 90% of cases, a combination of a self-assembled desktop and a cheap tablet or Chromebook for mobility is going to be sufficient. There are situations where you need your power to be portable, though - it's tricky to bring your desktop on a business trip, for instance.

I wish I had the know-how to assemble my own desktop.

[Flickerdart]

I wish I had the know-how to assemble my own desktop.
It's actually really easy! There are guides everywhere (Tom's Hardware is a good place to start) and the motherboard will come with maps of what goes where. Basically this is the order, with components bolded:

Screw power supply into case.
Mount processor on motherboard by following the processor's instruction manual.
Insert the RAM into the long narrow slot.
Insert the video card into the perpendicular long narrow slot so the output ports point out the back of the case.
Insert the spacer screws (which should be bundled with the case) into the case, attach motherboard to the case.
Connect your hard drive(s) to the power and data cables. If you can only afford one, a spacious 7200RPM drive is the way to go. You probably won't save much on the 5400 and the access speed stings.
Connect your front USB ports and power buttons to the motherboard, following the motherboard's instruction manual map.
Plug your power cables into the motherboard and power supply, following the motherboard's instruction manual map. You'll want to make sure that the processor, the video card, and the case fans are powered.
Plug in your monitor and keyboard and mouse and start that sucker up!

All that nonsense with LEDs and fans and heatsinks is for fancy PC gamers who want to overclock.

[Sylthia]

It's actually really easy! There are guides everywhere (Tom's Hardware is a good place to start) and the motherboard will come with maps of what goes where. Basically this is the order, with components bolded:

Screw power supply into case.
Mount processor on motherboard by following the processor's instruction manual.
Insert the RAM into the long narrow slot.
Insert the video card into the perpendicular long narrow slot so the output ports point out the back of the case.
Insert the spacer screws (which should be bundled with the case) into the case, attach motherboard to the case.
Connect your front USB ports and power buttons to the motherboard, following the motherboard's instruction manual map.
Plug your power cables into the motherboard and power supply, following the motherboard's instruction manual map. You'll want to make sure that the processor, the video card, and the case fans are powered.
Plug in your monitor and keyboard and mouse and start that sucker up!

All that nonsense with LEDs and fans and heatsinks is for fancy PC gamers who want to overclock.

I might give that a go. Maybe once I get my tax return this year, I'll have an idea of what I can afford.

[Flickerdart]

I might give that a go. Maybe once I get my tax return this year, I'll have an idea of what I can afford.
This guide (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-budget-gaming-pc,4021.html) is from December, but it breaks down a very cheap (under $500) and quite powerful build. New components are constantly coming out, so once the Q1 2015 version of this guide drops, consider either following that or buying these components which will no doubt receive a steep discount once they're no longer the latest in the model line.

If you can afford up to $1000 you can probably get more or less the components I have, which will blaze through any brand new game on ultra settings.

[Sylthia]

This guide (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-budget-gaming-pc,4021.html) is from December, but it breaks down a very cheap (under $500) and quite powerful build. New components are constantly coming out, so once the Q1 2015 version of this guide drops, consider either following that or buying these components which will no doubt receive a steep discount once they're no longer the latest in the model line.

If you can afford up to $1000 you can probably get more or less the components I have, which will blaze through any brand new game on ultra settings.

I'm more in the $300-$500 range. It doesn't need to be top-of-the-line, just something to hopefully last me a few years and be able to play most games decently.

[Flickerdart]

$300 is tough. How did you find any sort of laptop in this range?

Also don't forget that a monitor and keyboard/mouse are extra, although Craigslist is your friend here. People tend to upgrade from perfectly usable monitors a lot more often than perfectly usable computers.

[Sylthia]

$300 is tough. How did you find any sort of laptop in this range?

Also don't forget that a monitor and keyboard/mouse are extra, although Craigslist is your friend here. People tend to upgrade from perfectly usable monitors a lot more often than perfectly usable computers.

$300 was the lower range for a do-it-yourself I'd be looking for. You gave $500 as a starting point. I'd be willing to go a bit lower if it didn't sacrifice too much.

[The_Jackal]

My laptop's starting to show it's age and has been freezing/crashing more than usual and has just been generally slow.

I'm not an expert by any means, but does having a large quantity of games on the computer make any substantial difference with speed and performance? I've got a few high demand MMO games like WoW and ESO, as well as a pretty big GOG library. Would uninstalling some of the games that I'm done playing speed up the laptop at all, or is it inevitable with age.

The answer is likely no. If you have a magnetic disk (as opposed to SSD), fragmentation can reduce access speed, but the odds are that your hardware is slowly and steadily being outpaced by the relentless march of bloatware development. However, crashing is not generally a sign of performance issues, but rather driver problems or actual hardware problems. Cooling is a classic laptop problem, it may avail you to blow out your laptop's innards with some canned air.

[Peelee]

I wish I had the know-how to assemble my own desktop.

On the one hand, I really hate when a cliché is the most accurate way to get my message across.

On the other hand, trust me on this, if I can do it, you can do it. And the Flickerdart Guide is pretty foolproof - though you might want a hard drive with that. Internals are a little cheaper, if only for the fact that an external HDD is basically an internal HDD in a plastic case, and why not charge more.

Also, if you go this route, Newegg and Tiger Direct are pretty good sites to check out. They should have comparable prices, but once you see a component you like, try a price comparison (with shipping; free shipping is a crapshoot with those sites). Newegg is usually better, but Tiger Direct has the occasional surprise, which is nice. Also both sites have a review system that is pretty well-used.

Also, you could look into barebones kits on both sites. They're not the best systems, but they're pretty good and pretty cheap, which is a nice combination. Also, you don't have to doublecheck that the parts will all play nice with each other.


There are situations where you need your power to be portable, though - it's tricky to bring your desktop on a business trip, for instance.

Which is why I gave the caveat that I don't need a laptop. Probably didn't come off the way I meant it to, in retrospect. I don't write good.

[Sylthia]

On the one hand, I really hate when a cliché is the most accurate way to get my message across.


I think that's why they become cliches in the first place.

[Flickerdart]

On the other hand, trust me on this, if I can do it, you can do it. And the Flickerdart Guide is pretty foolproof - though you might want a hard drive with that.
Real men load everything they need into RAM and never let go of the gas.

But yes, I did forget to mention the hard drive; I've gone back and edited one in.

[Peelee]

Aaaaaaaand sigged.