[Runninground]

My laptop is about 3 or 4 years old- it's a Dell Inspiron 1750 (17.5" screen )- but it's getting very slow.

Specs:

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium
Processor: Pentium Dual Core
Installed Physical Memory (RAM): 4.00gb
Available Physical Memory: 516mb
Total Virtual Memory: 7.92 gb
Available Virtual Memory: 1.33gb
Hard drive size: 283gb (80.7GB free of 283gb)

So my hard drive is fairly full, but it was almost full, so I deleted some large applications and files and got it lower, but I didn't notice a difference.

At the moment, I only have Google Chrome, Outlook, Two folders and three inkscape windows open, and it keeps freezing, and the laptop base is feeling fairly warm (warmer than it used to be) and I even have it on one of those fan cooling laptop stands.

Is there any way I can speed it back up again, and stop it getting so hot?

[Lunch_Box]

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000179.htm

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by Runninground)
My laptop is about 3 or 4 years old- it's a Dell Inspiron 1750 (17.5" screen )- but it's getting very slow.

Specs:

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium
Processor: Pentium Dual Core
Installed Physical Memory (RAM): 4.00gb
Available Physical Memory: 516mb
Total Virtual Memory: 7.92 gb
Available Virtual Memory: 1.33gb
Hard drive size: 283gb (80.7GB free of 283gb)

So my hard drive is fairly full, but it was almost full, so I deleted some large applications and files and got it lower, but I didn't notice a difference.

At the moment, I only have Google Chrome, Outlook, Two folders and three inkscape windows open, and it keeps freezing, and the laptop base is feeling fairly warm (warmer than it used to be) and I even have it on one of those fan cooling laptop stands.

Is there any way I can speed it back up again, and stop it getting so hot?

Firstly make sure all the drivers are up-to-date
http://search.dell.com/results.aspx?...False&~ck=anav
http://drivers.softpedia.com/downloa...n+1750+Drivers


Then make sure your Windows is up-to-date.

Then download the free version of CCcleaner and it'll deleted unwanted data, and fix the registry issues.

Another thing is that as it's 3-4 years old, I expect huge dust build up in the inside, so open up the back panel, and carefully take out the dust.

[Runninground]

(Original post by Iqbal007)
Firstly make sure all the drivers are up-to-date
http://search.dell.com/results.aspx?...False&~ck=anav
http://drivers.softpedia.com/downloa...n+1750+Drivers


Then make sure your Windows is up-to-date.

Then download the free version of CCcleaner and it'll deleted unwanted data, and fix the registry issues.

Another thing is that as it's 3-4 years old, I expect huge dust build up in the inside, so open up the back panel, and carefully take out the dust.

How do I take the back panel off? Shall I just unscrew any screws?

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by Runninground)
How do I take the back panel off? Shall I just unscrew any screws?

It should be an outlined panel, screwed down, so take out the screws, be careful, and take out the dust, there should be loads near the metallic bit especially the one closest to the fan.

[Runninground]

(Original post by Iqbal007)
It should be an outlined panel, screwed down, so take out the screws, be careful, and take out the dust, there should be loads near the metallic bit especially the one closest to the fan.

I took a panel (marked C/M) off and there was no dust. Was that the correct bit?

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by Runninground)
I took a panel (marked C/M) off and there was no dust. Was that the correct bit?

That's what the heatsink should look like and there should be thorough dust build there as well

[marcusfox]

(Original post by Runninground)
I took a panel (marked C/M) off and there was no dust. Was that the correct bit?

I don't know what C/M means. Card/Memory perhaps? There is a large panel in the centre of the back case of the 1750, but this is nowhere near the fan. The only thing under this panel is the RAM and Wifi card,

The RAM looks like two small electronic wafer boards one above the other (if you have two chips) and the Wifi card will be a thicker wafer with a white wire and a black wire running to it.

There is unlikely to be any dust there.

To access the fan/heatsink for cleaning, you will need to be more invasive. With the Inspiron, and I have dismantled many, you cannot simply remove the back case. You must work from the keyboard down, as everything is screwed into the base.



If it's not for you, you can try getting a can of compressed air (not a vacuum cleaner!) and blowing it in through alternately the left side and the right side of the vent, and also the circular grating on the base which is an intake for the fan. It will blow any dust that exists out of the heatsink back through the alternate side of the vent and grating.

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by Runninground)
I took a panel (marked C/M) off and there was no dust. Was that the correct bit?

(Original post by marcusfox)
I don't know what C/M means. Card/Memory perhaps? There is a large panel in the centre of the back case of the 1750, but this is nowhere near the fan. The only thing under this panel is the RAM and Wifi card,

The RAM looks like two small electronic wafer boards one above the other (if you have two chips) and the Wifi card will be a thicker wafer with a white wire and a black wire running to it.

There is unlikely to be any dust there.

To access the fan for cleaning, you will need to be more invasive.

Listen to marcusfox............. forgot that not all laptops have the same access panels to the heatsinks/fans

[Runninground]

Ahh, I don't think i'll take it all apart to get to the fan, i'll probably break it

I've tried blowing into the fan before but not much happened

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by Runninground)
Ahh, I don't think i'll take it all apart to get to the fan, i'll probably break it

I've tried blowing into the fan before but not much happened

You probably need a compressed air can to blow out all the dust which is a few quid.
There is always a lot of dust build up, mistook my sisters dust build up for a small inner cushion, than realised it was all dust and was blocking a lot of the ventilation.

[marcusfox]

(Original post by Runninground)
Ahh, I don't think i'll take it all apart to get to the fan, i'll probably break it

I've tried blowing into the fan before but not much happened

Blowing with your mouth? I'm not surprised not much happened.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_sa...sed+air&_rdc=1

[Runninground]

Okay, so if I do this would it also help to speed up my computer?

[marcusfox]

(Original post by Runninground)
Okay, so if I do this would it also help to speed up my computer?

The cooler the porcessor, the faster it will run. If you clean the fan and it is still overheating, then it will need dismantling as there will likely be a bad connection between the chipset and heatsink.

In the vast majority of cases of computers running slowly it's either not enough RAM or software related, which can be any combination of viruses and spyware, too much crap loading at start up, trying to run too much software at once, a desktop full of icons, too much guff left behind from installing and uninstalling programs and unnecessary temporary files.

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by Runninground)
Okay, so if I do this would it also help to speed up my computer?

It should, if you can get the dust out, but its cheaper and you'll know whether the dust is cleaned out if you tried the method marcusfox put up.

Also trying CC cleaner.

[Runninground]

I think it's probably cause it's full of rubbish- I have installed and uninstalled lots of programs, and I have generally lots of files. I can't even back it up any more, as it takes almost 4 hours to do 1%. (400 hours to do the whole laptop )

But then again, my bedroom is fairly dusty so it probably is a combination of both. I heard something about partitioning the hard drive with program files on one partition and my personal files on another. Would this help if I were to do this?

[marcusfox]

(Original post by Runninground)
I think it's probably cause it's full of rubbish- I have installed and uninstalled lots of programs, and I have generally lots of files. I can't even back it up any more, as it takes almost 4 hours to do 1%. (400 hours to do the whole laptop )

But then again, my bedroom is fairly dusty so it probably is a combination of both. I heard something about partitioning the hard drive with program files on one partition and my personal files on another. Would this help if I were to do this?

How do you back it up? It should not take long to duplicate even 1TB of data? I very much doubt you have this much irreplaceable data, which it goes without saying should be backed up. You probably have too much porn. You don't need to back this up.

Partitioning your hard drive in this way doesn't speed up the computer that much, it would just speed up having to reinstall the OS and apps should you need to do so because you don't need to touch the partition that contains your personal files.

You should back up the OS and apps drive to an image that can be restored if the hard drive fails - presumably kept on a separate physical disk, not a partition - or if you change something that makes your computer screwy, then you can easily go back to where you started from.

[Runninground]

(Original post by marcusfox)
How do you back it up? It should not take long to duplicate even 1TB of data? I very much doubt you have this much irreplaceable data, which it goes without saying should be backed up. You probably have too much porn. You don't need to back this up.

Partitioning your hard drive in this way doesn't speed up the computer that much, it would just speed up having to reinstall the OS and apps should you need to do so because you don't need to touch the partition that contains your personal files.

You should back up the OS and apps drive to an image that can be restored if the hard drive fails - presumably kept on a separate physical disk, not a partition - or if you change something that makes your computer screwy, then you can easily go back to where you started from.

I have an external hard drive, and I use that Windows Backup and Restore program that was already installed on the laptop.

I have quite a lot of files which I do want to keep, but also some that I don't need. The problem is they are all mixed up so I'd have to spend a few weeks going through everything and deleting stuff which I reaally cba to do.

Even to do a system image it takes more than a day :/


Also I don't actually have any porn on my laptop

[marcusfox]

(Original post by Runninground)
I have an external hard drive, and I use that Windows Backup and Restore program that was already installed on the laptop.

I have quite a lot of files which I do want to keep, but also some that I don't need. The problem is they are all mixed up so I'd have to spend a few weeks going through everything and deleting stuff which I reaally cba to do.

Even to do a system image it takes more than a day :/


Also I don't actually have any porn on my laptop

It should not take more than a few hours to image a 283 GB drive to USB and restore it back to the same location. To image a drive containing Windows, you can't be doing it from Windows (unless the software restarts the computer to complete the process) as the operating system locks crucial files.

Have a look at Acronis True Image.

You will wish you did when your HDD fails. It is not a question of if but when. Every HDD dies eventually and it's usually hard to predict when.

[Runninground]

(Original post by marcusfox)
It should not take more than a few hours to image a 283 GB drive to USB and restore it back to the same location. To image a drive containing Windows, you can't be doing it from Windows (unless the software restarts the computer to complete the process) as the operating system locks crucial files.

Have a look at Acronis True Image.

You will wish you did when your HDD fails. It is not a question of if but when. Every HDD dies eventually and it's usually hard to predict when.

So can that Acronis thing do the image to my external hard drive? If I downloaded the free trial, would I be able to do an image to my external hard drive and keep it there even when the trial runs out?