Technology Ways to make old computer run faster

[principessa]

I have a Compaq Presario 1600 laptop that my parents got for me in 2000. I don't really care for this computer. It's slow and b*tchy, but it's still good for email and word processing, and that's probably all I will need it for since I can use the med school computers for anything else. I would like to get the most out of it, though, so I'm looking for ways to make it run faster without so much trouble. Someone suggested that I reformat the hard drive, but I'm not very tech smart and from what little I know this seems kind of drastic. Is there anything else I can do?

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[!dr_nick!]

Install Lunix.

 

[Drakensoul]

Install Lunix.

Which would still require a format

Well, I suppose not require, but for all intents and purposes..

I agree with the format sentiment, though. That's the best way to go, and it really isn't all that difficult.

 

[mward04]

so I'm looking for ways to make it run faster without so much trouble.

I suggest you drop it from either a really steep cliff or you put it on a skateboard at the top of a hill. I don't think that should cause you any trouble.

Seriously, you could probably refurbish it and upgrade it, but, by the time you do, you probably could have bought a new laptop. That's the problem with old computer equipment. It's cheaper just to buy something new.

 

[!dr_nick!]

Seriously, you could probably refurbish it and upgrade it, but, by the time you do, you probably could have bought a new laptop. That's the problem with old computer equipment. It's cheaper just to buy something new.

Plus a laptop is severely limited by how much it can be upgraded.

But more ram is always good.

 

[flighterdoc]

Plus a laptop is severely limited by how much it can be upgraded.

But more ram is always good.

Yeah, but those compaqs are REALLY limited.

For about a grand you can get a very respectable Toshiba (Costco, Bestbuy), that will last you several years.

 

[kwakster928]

you might have a lot of spyware running on the background or a virus. you can download one of those anti-spam software. adware is good and spybot is also great. you can also do free online virus scan at www.trendmicro.com

 

[mward04]

here's another option...you can trade in your pc and get cash towards a new one:
http://www.computers.us.fujitsu.com/www/trade-in_program.shtml

 

[principessa]

As much as I like the idea of tossing it off a high building, this is what I've got. I've lived with this POS for four years, and I can at least handle one more. So, on reformatting, with a laptop, will there be drivers for the keyboard, mouse, CD-ROM drive, and/or floppy drive?

As for spyware and/or virus, I did have a ton of spyware on it and a nasty virus a while back, and it was horrible. I got someone to fix it (he's the one who suggested a reformat), and it ran much better, so I doubt there's much on there now.

 

[tkim]

There are several things you can do to increase the performance of your laptop - or any computer for that matter. They are roughly, in increasing order of difficulty/expense:

1) Maxing out your RAM. Your model maxes out at 320 megs, find out how much memory you have, and if you can, buy a larger sized RAM chip and install it.

2) Installing an larger/faster hard drive. Stuck with the original 6 G hard drive? Always have to delete files in order to make space for new ones? Having a larger drive with some free space does wonders for your speed. Also, the newer hard drives spin faster, which equals faster access to the data.

3) Installing a new OS. Stuck with Windows 95/98/ME? They may not be the most efficient OS available for you. Windows 2000 is generally regarded as the most stable Windows OS, but there are a lot of fans of the newest - XP.

4) Upgrading your CPU. This is probably the hardest thing to do - not because of the installation issues, but because the CPU for your laptop - Pentium III 500 MHz, can be upgraded to the Pentium III 850 MHz chip - which is now hard to find.

Clean up your hard drive, max out the RAM, consider upgrading to a newer OS , or a newer/larger hard drive.

Or, look at the price differential from buying all these things, versus selling your laptop and putting a little more in to a new laptop.

 

[mward04]

There are several things you can do to increase the performance of your laptop - or any computer for that matter. They are roughly, in increasing order of difficulty/expense:

1) Maxing out your RAM. Your model maxes out at 320 megs, find out how much memory you have, and if you can, buy a larger sized RAM chip and install it.

2) Installing an larger/faster hard drive. Stuck with the original 6 G hard drive? Always have to delete files in order to make space for new ones? Having a larger drive with some free space does wonders for your speed. Also, the newer hard drives spin faster, which equals faster access to the data.

3) Installing a new OS. Stuck with Windows 95/98/ME? They may not be the most efficient OS available for you. Windows 2000 is generally regarded as the most stable Windows OS, but there are a lot of fans of the newest - XP.

4) Upgrading your CPU. This is probably the hardest thing to do - not because of the installation issues, but because the CPU for your laptop - Pentium III 500 MHz, can be upgraded to the Pentium III 850 MHz chip - which is now hard to find.

Clean up your hard drive, max out the RAM, consider upgrading to a newer OS , or a newer/larger hard drive.

Or, look at the price differential from buying all these things, versus selling your laptop and putting a little more in to a new laptop.

Word of caution...before you do anything to your computer...BACK IT UP!!!

 

[tkim]

Word of caution...before you do anything to your computer...BACK IT UP!!!

Heh. Oh yeah. Heh.

I've done my share of 'stunt upgrading' before. Never a good idea.

 

[BubbleBobble]

There are several things you can do to increase the performance of your laptop - or any computer for that matter. They are roughly, in increasing order of difficulty/expense:

1) Maxing out your RAM. Your model maxes out at 320 megs, find out how much memory you have, and if you can, buy a larger sized RAM chip and install it.

2) Installing an larger/faster hard drive. Stuck with the original 6 G hard drive? Always have to delete files in order to make space for new ones? Having a larger drive with some free space does wonders for your speed. Also, the newer hard drives spin faster, which equals faster access to the data.

3) Installing a new OS. Stuck with Windows 95/98/ME? They may not be the most efficient OS available for you. Windows 2000 is generally regarded as the most stable Windows OS, but there are a lot of fans of the newest - XP.

4) Upgrading your CPU. This is probably the hardest thing to do - not because of the installation issues, but because the CPU for your laptop - Pentium III 500 MHz, can be upgraded to the Pentium III 850 MHz chip - which is now hard to find.

Clean up your hard drive, max out the RAM, consider upgrading to a newer OS , or a newer/larger hard drive.

Or, look at the price differential from buying all these things, versus selling your laptop and putting a little more in to a new laptop.

Totally agree with all of these, except the OS one.

While Win2K is far and away more secure than 98 or ME (*especially* ME), it does require more system resources to run, and will therefore likely make your computer run slower. I would suggest loading 98 onto an old computer, and then taking all precautions necessary to ensure that you don't get any external problems (like viruses....crashes you'll have to live with).

You could also get a new video card with more video memory, since most things that slow you down are graphical rendering. I'd say the upgrades that will produce the most notable improvements are:

more RAM > faster hard drive = more video RAM

Note: I'm sorry, I just realized we're talking about a laptop, which would make it much more difficult to install all of these things.

Realistic changes then:
- putting up spyware blockers
- disabling all unnecessary startup programs so that they don't start up on reboot
- using Mozilla Firefox over Internet Explorer
- running Word with auto spell-check off
- cleaning out the registry (or reformatting)

Good luck!

 

[microTAS]

see http://techbargains.com/hottips/hottip12/index.cfm

 

[principessa]

I finally worked up the nerve to reformat, and so far it's all good. I have everything I need backed up, all my drivers and software reinstalled, and it's running much faster. Yea! Thanks for the help, everyone.

 

[Stroganoff]

PIII 500? That's some decent power. I'm using an old laptop my dad got off ebay for $300:
Original Pentium w/MMX @ 266MHz
64MB EDO RAM
Replaced 4GB hard drive with 20GB
20x CD-ROM
Purchased wireless B card and USB ethernet adapter
Upgraded from WinME to Win2000

Reformatting and installing Win 2000 worked wonders for this laptop. It takes forever to load anything, but it's far more stable than WinME. I might get another 4 years out of this thing.

 

[Garuda]

On an older system, Windows 2000 is better than Windows XP. XP is too much of a resource hog. It has some additional features, but they don't make that much of a difference. And all the bug fixes are available for Windows 2000 as well.

 

[Yogi Bear]

Install Lunix.

u kidding? linux is definitely not for the average computer user. and for the average user, if u want to run linux using distributions like suse, mandrake, or fedora, it won't run any faster than windows xp. it'll take more time to load up than xp/2k. office apps like openoffice.org take 15s-20s to load up. unless u have a broadband internet connection and are willing to download updated versions of programs, post of forums for help installing updated programs/drivers, linux won't go any far.

that said, if anyone's interested in running it, go to www.mandrake.com, download the 3 cd version. it'll automatically partition itself and u could try it out.

 

[DDS2BE]

Find out what bus speed your computer supports. If it's 100 then you can upgrade the CPU up to 1Ghz but this chip will be a pain in the neck to find. It the bus is 133 MHz then you have very good chances of going up to 1.3 GHz and a lot easier to find. Speaking of RAM, SDRAM is very cheap now, so I would add memory up to the max. If you computer runs on EDO, then screw it! I wouldn?t bother with this system then, unless it can optionally run on SDRAM. I wouldn?t recommend Windows XP, but W2K will do just fine.

I was a computer tech/support rep for 6 years
So, if anyone has a computer-related question, feel free to PM me.