As I type, my laptop has majour lag...and I need help fixing it... Here are what I believe may be the problem-please let me know if I'm on the right track -I run vista (but it wasn't this bad until the next point...) -Half my space on the C drive is taken (got halo, halo 2, quake 4, doom 3, v8 super cars 3, and devil may cry 4, as well as several emulators...total space is 231GB, remaining is 150GB) -Random shut downs (stupid power cord keeps getting unplugged, and some day's, it hangs on the log out prompt, forcing me to do the old hold down power button trick...) -I defrag it constantly (because of my download habits, I move them all to my external drive, deleting the original files, and de-fragging after every 2GB's of removals) -They became more apparent when I got this mobile broad band adaptor... -It AFFECTS EVERYTHING! (But more commonly, when the adaptor has went for at least an hour, but even after removing it still lags, have yet to try without device attached due to, um, requirement ) What can you guys suggest?
I suggest it needs reformatting and a fresh install of windows. The mobile broadband device drivers may also be causing trouble, see if there are newer ones available
indeed, as loony once told me, windows deteriorates over time and every 6 months the HDD should be formated and windows re-installed (this goes for both vista and xp). also, an advice: if you format the HDD, don't bother getting vista again. go for XP.
...even though mum's computer is outdated (and out powered) by this, it's never had this before! But I shall take that into consideration...
if you frequently install/uninstall programs then it deteriorates faster. A machine that is hardly ever touched in terms of installed software can last more than 6 months.
uh oh...that isn't long...even if I didn't install useless programs and then eradicate them constantly... (not my fault-many of theses programs give bad descriptions or simply don't do what I need)
btw where can I get some drivers for my mobile broadband? (I found a way to help the speed-had at least 20 icons on my desktop (hid some) had the mobile broadband status on (hid that) and had messenger running (exit that) so now it works as it once did...but the broad band has affected it as it never did this before the broad band...)
yes, all computers running windows (except servers, they can generally manage a year or more, although companies rarely if ever reformat servers because of the work involved and the consequences) try your internet provider's website, failing that, the modem manufacturer's site.
Clean up your temporary files(CCLeaner) and also your desktops of unneeded icons.... Defragment your HDD.... That means that I'll have to reinstall almost every program I have now....
well, that's what formatting a drive is about: completely delete everything in it. not just every program, but windows as well. but indeed, ccleaner is a very helpful tool that rids your HDD of unennecessary shit. defragmenting might make it faster, unless you have defragmented not long ago. try it, anyway, piriform (the company that made ccleaner) also has a disk defragmenter. links: ccleaner - http://download.piriform.com/ccsetup221.exe defraggler - http://download.piriform.com/dfsetup111.exe
defragmenting tends to make no noticeable difference unless the disk is very badly fragmented to start with. A registry cleaner is also worth using (download JV16 power tools 1.3 from www.oldversion.com)
