I have a Dell 3 year old Latitude laptop...it boots and runs very very slowly..?

Question

and sometimes have to turn it off and reboot 3-4 times to get it to start.It is this way on battery as well as AC power.It has MS office , Windows XP ...but little else on it... (no games, music etc...and even very few files)...so there is lots of room left...
Even after it boots ,the cursor often freezes (with keyboard mouse as well as external wireless) and even sometimes when you type ...the letters will not show up for a few minutes....When I start it has about 37 or 38 processes running...and says has lots left..any ideas of what is wrong...is it worthwhile to get someone to look at it...is it an expensive fix? Thanks

Answer 1

There are many things you can do on your own. First: how long has it been doing this? If days, then you can do a system restore to restore the computer settings to what they were before this started. If there is a virus or spyware, this would help get rid of it. System Restore: Click on Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Pick a date (bolded) that is prior to when this started and let it restore to that date. Restart your computer so the changes will take effect.

Clean the hard disk. Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. Follow the prompts to get remove of all the accumulated junk.

Defrag your hard disk. XP has a disk defrag, but there is a free one by Auslogics that is much better and faster. Get it here:
http://www.auslogics.com/ . I have XP and a big hard disk, and I use this once a month to keep my disk operating better.

Check your laptop's memory: Start, programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information. When this loads, scroll down until you see Total Physical Memory and Available Physical Memory. Unless the laptop has at least 512Mb of memory, it doesn't have enough to run XP efficiently. Adding memory will greatly improve the computer's performance. If you need to add memory, have a technician do this. It's worth it to save your computer, and a lot less expensive than buying another one.

I hope all this helps!

Answer 2

Since there's very little on the computer, try backing up all of your personal documents and then doing a fresh install of the oeprating system. Or get a hold of a program like Registry Mechanic that might clean up some problems bogging down your system.

Answer 3

Fresh install is probably the best way to go.

But if you don't want to attempt that...you might want to do the usual:

Defrag
Scan for viruses (sounds like you might have a couple)
Scan for spyware

You could also try running (Go to the Start Menu, and then hit "Run") msconfig.exe

Click on the Startup tab and uncheck some of the programs you don't want to automatically start.


Otherwise...if you know someone who's computer-savvy, you could take it to them. If not...it's probably not worth it to get it fixed because you can get a new laptop for $500 easily nowadays.

Answer 4

save neccasary stuff on a memory stick ex. Pictures Default computer to factory settings. Only download important stuff and dont visit sites you dont trust