Improve old and dying laptop

[RookiePootis]

I'm using a Compaq CQ61 laptop with the following specs:

I've had it running for about 3 years or more. It never broke down or anything but it's getting more and more sluggish.

Please tell me how to improve the performance of this thing. For now, it lags and freezes a lot with about 6-8 tabs of firefox or chrome.
For gaming, it could barely play Team Fortress 2 with 60fps locked. While it could do so a few months ago.

What should I do to fix this?

 

[Liam Joyce]

defrag?, uninstall everything you dont use.. fresh install of windows... fire ? .. lol

 

[markwp]

How much free space do you have on the hard drive? Do you do regular maintenance such as cleaning out temp files, etc? Are you running an antivirus, and if so which one? How much ram?

There are many ways to improve an older system, starting with a good cleanup of unused programs, temp files, etc. For instance - check how many days of history you keep in internet explorer - default is 20 - cut it down to 2. How much space is allocated for web files? Default is generally 10% of hd space - cut it down to 50mb.

Mark

 

[Liam Joyce]

also ccleaner is great for clearing out the registry of all the unwanted crap .... my mum gave me her old vista computer it used to take like 10 minutes to boot up .... i did a defrag, removed all the user profiles, removed unwanted software and then used cc cleaner to fix the registry and clear any junk files and i got it down to a 45 second boot time

 

[RookiePootis]

This is all of my hard drive

Thanks a lot for all the help

Also, should I fresh install Windows? If so, how? I was afraid of losing all the drivers

 

[markwp]

How much of the data on your drives is really valuable to you? Do you have the old compaq restore discs? What version of windows?

 

[kyzarvs]

I've had it running for about 3 years or more. It never broke down or anything but it's getting more and more sluggish.

[snip]

For gaming, it could barely play Team Fortress 2 with 60fps locked. While it could do so a few months ago.

What should I do to fix this?

That suggests heat to me - whilst everything else is worthwhile - I'd also consider a physical check and good clean of all airways and fans and check the temps with tools such as GPUZ and speedfan. FPS drops in game are rarely down to a fragmented drive...

 

[RookiePootis]

How much of the data on your drives is really valuable to you? Do you have the old compaq restore discs? What version of windows?

Mostly games and you-know-what
I'm using Avast! Free
No restore discs. This lap was bought by my relatives from France and locked in a Windows 7 Professional French. I had to install an internet version of Windows 7 Ultimate.

 

[Liam Joyce]

if oyu are going down the full reinstall route you may also want to look down the path of if an ssd... an expensive but very worthwhile upgrade, although there are a few setting that need to be done during install to get the full potential so some research should be done!

 

[THSNOTLEK]

SSD download ccleaner and if you want Razer Game Booster. RAM upgrade.

 

[markwp]

An "internet version" of Ultimate? I'm going to stick my neck out and guess your "internet version" was not a direct purchase of a new install.

Please do yourself a favor and purchase a legitimate copy of windows PRIOR to asking for advice on this forum. The terms of service here forbid members from giving advice to users of pirated software.

If I am in error in my understanding of your method of acquisition of Windows Ultimate, you have my apologies.

Mark