Laptop very slow.

[nilagin]

My mother in law's laptop is very slow to start up. It doesn't appear to need defragging as there is 80% free space. I was going to attempt a disc clean up but it's taking ages to scan what needs cleaning up. Any suggestions what else I could try. I'm no IT expert so my knowledge is very limited.

 

[Gary]

probably got loads of stuff running at start up, or even a virus.

has it got loads of icons in the bottom rhs next to the clock?

if you know what you are going, you could go to msconfig.exe and have a look under the startup tab to see whats loading up

(this is all assuming we arent talking about a 486 33mhz with 64mb of RAM )

 

[nilagin]

I've uninstalled the anti virus software and reloaded it and it seems ok again at the moment.

 

[JumboBeef]

If it is runing Norton Antivirus, that is your problem. I HATE Norton

 

[RobertP]

Worth checking for file system errors too. right click the drive for properties and choose tools > error checking and schedule a thorough check.

 

[hillwalkinggirl]

If it is runing Norton Antivirus, that is your problem. I HATE Norton

Norton Antivirus makes everything run at a crawl. I've removed it off all my 5 computers and most of my clients computers and installed AVG free. It works really well and doesn't affect the speed of the PC.
ANOTHER NORTON HATER.

 

[JumboBeef]

I agree about AVG too, I've used it for years (and it's free, unlike Norton!)

 

[nilagin]

It was actually running avg free, but kept saying it was turned off. Once I'd managed to uninstall it then install again, everything was back upto speed. I swear by avg as well, been using it for years with no trouble.