Balky Laptop?

[Boomyal]

I have a Toshiba Laptop that is interminably slow. It runs 64 bit Win7 and uses an AMD E-300 APU at 1.3 gHz. It has 4 gb of RAM. I know this is not greased lighting but I don't think it should be this slow. It takes for ever to load a web page and half the time I get a notice that "a web page is slowing your computer down". That message goes away by itself and the page finally does load. The most aggravating thing is in typing. A lot of the time I can type a word and no part of it will start to show up until I am completely done with it.

I think there is something clogging up the works. I constantly check for adware and there is seldom much of it. I took the laptop to a computer shop and they just brushed me off saying that it was a low end processor issue.

Any ideas? Until recently I did not use this laptop much but I do not remember it ever being like this. Are there any good utilities to run, maybe a recommendation on where to have it looked at?

 

[jbcurt00]

IMO, its the age of the laptop (and its technology) and the heavy scripts running on most web pages now.

My android has more ram and a quicker processor and its not speedy when I surf in desktop mode, using the mobile browser it does pretty good.

What browser are you using? Not sure current adblocker adstop or whatever will run in Win7. But if you're not running an ad blocker, you should. Perhaps more then 1. Theres even 1 targeted at MSN and gmail email page scripts and ads.

 

[Boomyal]

IMO, its the age of the laptop (and its technology) and the heavy scripts running on most web pages now.

My android has more ram and a quicker processor and its not speedy when I surf in desktop mode, using the mobile browser it does pretty good.

What browser are you using? Not sure current adblocker adstop or whatever will run in Win7. But if you're not running an ad blocker, you should. Perhaps more then 1. Theres even 1 targeted at MSN and gmail email page scripts and ads.

I am using FireFox with their Adblocker. Even as I type this response, I can type three words before the first letter of the first word appears. Sometimes the letters do appear in real time but most often they lag considerably.

 

[jbcurt00]

I cant remember when Microsoft said they would abandon Win7 support, but they have, IIRC. Any chance you updated this shortly before support ended?

And I suspect quite a few of the Win7 drivers it has installed are no longer supported too.

 

[bruceb58]

Windows 7 is being supported until 2020. That's not the problem. I am running Windows 7 on a desktop that isn't even close to as powerful as your laptop so your hardware isn't the problem either.

Download windows process explorer. It's a program I have told you about before. Go down the list of all the processes that are running and see if there is anything that you don't recognize.

My company runs Windows 7 on all of our desktop and laptop PCs and also on our chassis that have embedded PCs that we sell to customers. Windows 7 is NOT your problem.

You can also open a utility from the Start menu called msconfig and turn off things at startup that don't need to be running.

One other thing...you don't happen to have two or more anti-virus programs running at the same time do you?

 

[Boomyal]

The only real time security program that I have running is Microsoft Essentials. I did do msconfig and there are a lot of things running under the 'service' tab. I wouldn't know what to turn off. This computer is pretty spartan. I haven't downloaded a bunch of stuff.

 

[gm280]

Interesting Boomyal. I recently experienced some of the very same problems you stated. My adult son is a computer person with a lot of computer repairs under his belt as well as building lots of laptops and desk top computers for others. I had a real problem with my laptop not wanting to boot up anymore. So he took it and removed the hard-drive and installed a SSD drive and installed Win 10 and now from dead turned off to actually running and using it, is about 12 seconds. Gone are all my troubles of working slow and loading slow. The old hard-drive seems to have been a lot of the problem. Now my same laptop is lightening fast. No more typing and waiting for it to appear on the screen, or slow surfing the net loading pages. It works great! Just a little info about what fixed my laptop that could be you problem as well. :noidea:

 

[JASinIL2006]

Things I would check (in addition to what has already been suggested): network connection speed and available memory. With only 4 GB, you might be hitting the wall. I'd also open up Task manager and look at what percentage of your CPU cycles are being used when you're experiencing the slowness. You can sometimes find the culprit by looking at what percentage of CPU and RAM is being used by each program. (Task Manager is accessed by hitting CTL-ALT-DEL and then selecting Task Manager from the list.)

 

[wrvond]

Auto update is a real resource hog.

 

[garbageguy]

+1 on what JASin and bruceb said above. I also run Win7 and no problems from that

 

[dingbat]

Windows 7 is being supported until 2020. That's not the problem. I am running Windows 7 on a desktop that isn't even close to as powerful as your laptop so your hardware isn't the problem either.

Yep, every computer in this company is running Windows 7 Pro. No problems.

What wi-fi card are you using? First thing I'd do it turn Wi-fi off and connect directly to see if that doesn't speed things up.

 

[Boomyal]

........What wi-fi card are you using? First thing I'd do it turn Wi-fi off and connect directly to see if that doesn't speed things up.

Not sure what you mean by "wi-fi" card. As far as I know, the "wi-fi" is an integral part of the laptop. I can turn it off and hook it right to the CenturyLink combination router/modem. Will also run speed tests.

I can see that internet speed would effect page loading speed but I do not see why/how it would effect typing speed?

 

[gm280]

Not sure what you mean by "wi-fi" card. As far as I know, the "wi-fi" is an integral part of the laptop. I can turn it off and hook it right to the CenturyLink combination router/modem. Will also run speed tests.

I can see that internet speed would effect page loading speed but I do not see why/how it would effect typing speed?

Your typing speed is effected via internet speed because each character you type has to send and receive data to appear on the screen when connected to a web page. How is your typing speed when using a Word type program and not connected to any internet. That should show you the difference. JMHO

 

[JASinIL2006]

Your typing speed is effected via internet speed because each character you type has to send and receive data to appear on the screen when connected to a web page. How is your typing speed when using a Word type program and not connected to any internet. That should show you the difference. JMHO

Yes, assuming you're using a copy of Word loaded on the local computer, and not something like Office 360 (that is remotely run software, no?).

 

[boatman37]

First thing I would do is check Task Manager to see what is hogging the resources.
Next try downloading and installing CCleaner. Run the free version and clean up your OS and registry. Also, install Malwarebytes free version and scan your laptop for malware.

Windows 7 is definitely not the issue and your hardware, while on the slower end, isn't your problem either.

 

[bruceb58]

I can see that internet speed would effect page loading speed but I do not see why/how it would effect typing speed?

It doesn't affect typing speed.

 

[Boomyal]

It doesn't affect typing speed.

Well aside from slow page loads (both slow to start and slow to completely populate) and start/stop video play, that is what I am most plagued by.

 

[Boomyal]

First thing I would do is check Task Manager to see what is hogging the resources.
Next try downloading and installing CCleaner. Run the free version and clean up your OS and registry. Also, install Malwarebytes free version and scan your laptop for malware.

Windows 7 is definitely not the issue and your hardware, while on the slower end, isn't your problem either.

I run Malwarebytes regularly and it finds few to no bad guys. I will download CC cleaner and see what it will come up with. As far as task mgr, not sure that I would know what I am looking at.

 

[Boomyal]

Your typing speed is effected via internet speed because each character you type has to send and receive data to appear on the screen when connected to a web page. How is your typing speed when using a Word type program and not connected to any internet. That should show you the difference. JMHO

I really haven't tried the word processor. I will do so.

 

[bruceb58]

Out of curiosity, what is your internet speed? Do a test here:
http://www.speedtest.net/

Tell us what your download speed is.