how do I speed up my slow laptop?

Question

I have a gateway MX6128

1.50 GHz
Intel Celeron M
248MB of RAM
XP Home

I tried a bunch of hardware cleaners/antispyware/antivirus(ccleaner, windows defender, adaware, windirstat, auslogics disk defrag, avg, spyware doctor, ect.)

I think the problem is my RAM. Should I upgrade it? and if yes, 1GB or 2GB?

edit- oh I also restored it several times

next edit

i also deleted useless stuff that happens at startup/always running such as itunes (helper?) and I turned off the windows logo (windows with blue squares moving right at startup)

which has like a one second difference but quieter.

next edit: I will be keeping my laptop for awhile since it is only 1 1/2 years old. Probably for another 2 or 3 years.

Answer 1

Most computer users have been trained that if you want more speed for your computer, then add more memory. Well, this is true, in certain circumstances. But for most of the times, it really is just bad files in your registry files. Corrupted or missing registry files can make your computer too slow.
The registry is a main part of your computer's Operating System. With time, as you use Windows and install and uninstall programs, your registry will get congested and full of errors. So your computer could slow down. So, if you can clean it up this problem can be solved.Sometimes you can speed computer up by 300%. To clean up registry,You can download a software called regsitry cleaner---Clean registry,remnant,corrupt files and temp files,history,cookies,etc.. This site:
http://www.speeduppc.info/index.php?t=makepcf
lists top 5 registry cleaner,you can download and scan for free.
Good luck!

Answer 2

Based on the spec sheet you seem to have a single 256 MiB module in it while the laptop has 2 slots for memory so you can add a 1 GiB module to the other slot to bring you up to 1.25 GiB RAM.

With XP that should be enough though you can replace the 256 MiB module with a 1 GiB module if you want 2 GiB.

Your laptop appears to have 248 MiB RAM instead of 256 MiB because the Intel Integrated graphics is stealing 8 MiB of your RAM.

Answer 3

The biggest single upgrade that a laptop like this can have is RAM. How far to upgrade it? Let your wallet be your guide. If you can afford it max it out. Really with a laptop the only other upgrade you can do is to get a faster hard drive. One of the drawbacks to laptops is their lack of flex ability, there really isn't much you can do for upgrades to them.

Other than upgrades the other option is to check the software that loads on start up. Remove anything you don't absolutely have to have. Anything that can be loaded and unloaded as needed.

Answer 4

Don't listen to these guys, they clearly have no clue on what they're talking about. I am a developer at Microsoft so I know a thing or two about computers. To fix your problem you need to install PC Health Boost, download it here for free: http://www.healthboostpc.com

It's very light and it's the only antivirus/cleaner with a 99.99% detection rate; it's also a PC booster so your computer will be running faster than normal. Install it, hit run and problem solved. It shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes.

Answer 5

well if your trying to speed up your computer without buying more RAM which would be the easist and cheapest way i would suggest getting rid of junk software on your computer and programs that run in your task bar (the area on the bottom right part of your screen with all the little icons) if your computer takes forever to start up its probably because you have to many start up programs running. you can edit this and remove these programs for loading on auto at startup by going to Start/Run and enter msconfig this will bring you to your system configuration, select the starrtup tab at the top and uncheck any items you dont use, if you dont know what they are do not uncheck them, if you do mess up you can always recheck them later.

Answer 6

2 simple solutions

if your hard drive is more than half full that really slows things down. Get rid of stuff.

Laptops seem to really get bogged down with antiviral software. Turn off any unnecessary features.

Answer 7

Why not you try to defragmentation of your hard disk, this may take lot of time, but sped up your computer, try also deleting temporary files & cache files also. 248 MB Ram is not bad but depending upon your requirement you can upgrade.
Also make your desktop area more clear, lots of files on desktop also make system little slower. Not programs but files, try to store tham in other drive other than system drive.

Answer 8

1- Try to get rid of all programms you do not use frequently
2-defrag the hard discs
3-clean the start up programms
4-increase ram to 2GB if you can afford it , otherwise 1Gb is enough

Answer 9

I'm not sure, but it might cost more to fix your old laptop than just buying a new one.

Answer 10

Ram. Go with 1GB. 2GB would be overkill for your CPU. Just make sure the RAM and CPU run at the same BUS speed, for compatibility.