Solved! Speeding up an old laptop?

[LifeKendall2]

I currently have a HP Compaq 8510w. It's a pretty old laptop, but it has really good specs for it's age. But, for some reason (probably because it's just getting older) it's reeeally slow. Like opening "My Computer" on it makes it lag for about half a minute, and it opens just about 2 minutes after pressing it. The laptop has Windows 7 Home 32 bit on it, it basically has no files and all of it's animations are disabled so it looks like Windows 95. CCleaner is used as often as possible. My question is: does anyone have suggestions for speeding it up? I was thinking about installing Windows 10 on it, but I'm not quite sure about that yet. Other than than that I would like to hear your ideas!

 

[Th3pwn3r]

The only thing I can suggest is using an air compressor to blow out every bit of dust in the machine. I have even disassembled some laptops to clean them to try to squeeze a bit of performance out of them, I'm honestly not even sure it helps much. I like you, have a laptop that's really old and is like an old pet that you would rather have suffer with you than put down.

 

[dumb_man]

When did you last defragment the hard disk of this laptop?

 

[dumb_man]

Better to install Linux Mint on it than to install Windows 10 on such an ancient laptop.

 

[LifeKendall2]

The only thing I can suggest is using an air compressor to blow out every bit of dust in the machine. I have even disassembled some laptops to clean them to try to squeeze a bit of performance out of them, I'm honestly not even sure it helps much. I like you, have a laptop that's really old and is like an old pet that you would rather have suffer with you than put down.

Thanks for the suggestion, I was planning on doing so, maybe even adding more ram to it!

 

[LifeKendall2]

When did you last defragment the hard disk of this laptop?

I am currently in the process of doing so. Also Linux isn't really an option, since i basically need it for Serato and music.

 

[WildCard999]

You could put a SSD into which should help considerably.

 

[jsmithepa]

U know they play "tap" at funerals, THAT.

32bit, W95... megaw.

If you notice it's swapping a lot (HD LED comes on constantly) then maxing ram *may* help.

But here is the thing, even if you are able to run an early, leaner browser on it, the sites you are trying to contact will demand that you update.

If you use it and dedicated to those 2 apps and only those 2 above only, OK.

W10... I say you are insane. Newer software tend to demand better hardware that it's run on. But hey, is your time. Do they even make 32 bit W10?

 

[LifeKendall2]

You could put a SSD into which should help considerably.

I don't really think that it's possible to put an SSD into it. I'm going to look into it a little more, to see if there is a way of doing that. Thanks for the response!

U know they play "tap" at funerals, THAT.

32bit, W95... megaw.

If you notice it's swapping a lot (HD LED comes on constantly) then maxing ram *may* help.

But here is the thing, even if you are able to run an early, leaner browser on it, the sites you are trying to contact will demand that you update.

If you use it and dedicated to those 2 apps and only those 2 above only, OK.

W10... I say you are insane. Newer software tend to demand better hardware that it's run on. But hey, is your time. Do they even make 32 bit W10?

I had to delete Chrome off of it and download Opera for it to run. I really have no idea why it is so slow. Currently no sites ask me for an update since I have it updated to the latest version. About W10, I thought that it would be a good idea to install it since it's definetely more lightweight than W7 that is killing it. It might even help that it has Edge, which is so much better for older laptops. And yes, they do make 32 bit W10.

 

[LifeKendall2]

OK, I found something that really confused me. When using the laptop as usual I remembered that I can look at the CPU usage on the laptop. So I tested it a bit, with running Windows Explorer, trying to open big files and I even downloaded Chrome again to test it. The CPU usage was always below 20%, even when doing all 3 at the same time. I really have no idea why it's doing that, but that's probably why it was so slow. Suggestions?

 

[dumb_man]

Check in BIOS or in software if youve got any CPU thermal throttling temperatures set. Basically the CPU will be set to slow down once it exceeds a temperature set by you. So if the throttling temperature is set to something like 50 deg C, the CPU will be slowed down to bring the temperature down

 

[LifeKendall2]

Check in BIOS or in software if youve got any CPU thermal throttling temperatures set. Basically the CPU will be set to slow down once it exceeds a temperature set by you. So if the throttling temperature is set to something like 50 deg C, the CPU will be slowed down to bring the temperature down

I haven't found anything like that in the BIOS, and I can't seem to find where that setting would be in any software on the computer.

 

[jsmithepa]

If CPU is at 20% only and is still slow, something is very out of wack. I ask you again to pay attention to that HD activity light, if it's swapping all the time, that's a major issue.

 

[LifeKendall2]

If CPU is at 20% only and is still slow, something is very out of wack. I ask you again to pay attention to that HD activity light, if it's swapping all the time, that's a major issue.

http/i.imgur.com/SSyKptQ.png

The HD LED is going wild as soon as I open anything, basically. Maybe a HD swap would help here? Or is this fixable?

 

[LifeKendall2]

I am thinking of buying a new HD for it, but first I need to check 2 things.
1. Is it possible to fix this?
2. If not, if the laptop supports a SSD, maybe I should consider getting that over a normal HD?

 

[Th3pwn3r]

I am thinking of buying a new HD for it, but first I need to check 2 things.
1. Is it possible to fix this?
2. If not, if the laptop supports a SSD, maybe I should consider getting that over a normal HD?

It might not even be worth it to spend on upgrading. I'm wondering how well a $200 machine would work considering I only use mine for web browsing and emails.

 

[LifeKendall2]

It might not even be worth it to spend on upgrading. I'm wondering how well a $200 machine would work considering I only use mine for web browsing and emails.

OK. I'm going to look for a new laptop then. Guys thank you all for the responses, we all at least tried!