How to speed up my laptop

Discussion in 'Sony' started by Mikitty, Apr 2, 2016.

  1. Mikitty

    Mikitty

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    Hey guys! I've had a Sony Vaio (not sure about the model, sorry!) for about 2.5 years now, and it's become painfully slow. I have upgraded it to Windows 10 last year, but I haven't noticed any big changes in performance. It's also 100% virus/malware free, so that's not the issue. I did notice the system takes up a huge amount of RAM. Could that possibly be what's slowing down my entire laptop and if so how do I fix it?
     
    Mikitty, Apr 2, 2016
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  2. Mikitty

    UpgradeMe

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    You most likely have what's called a memory leak, you should familiarize yourself with what they are and how to diagnose them and solve the problem. They are fairly common, and tools like "resource monitor"/"performance monitor" typically do the job at figuring out where the RAM is getting eaten up. Task manager is also your friend. The goal is to isolate what's causing the leak and figure out why it's there.
     
    UpgradeMe, Apr 2, 2016
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  3. Mikitty

    IcyBC

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    I always have interest in learning more about this subject since everyone in my family is using Window. I am on Mac and it still new so I have no problem so far, knock on wood. My son's Toshiba is at a crawling stage right now, so this is very useful to know.
     
    IcyBC, Apr 2, 2016
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  4. Mikitty

    IBMPC8088

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    The irony here is that it's probably your antivirus and other programs you trust that are slowing everything down and making the system use unbearable.

    If you're not using an SSD drive on your system...you should be. If you're using a magnetic drive, you'll want to defragment it and clean up the registry and temp files whenever you can. There might be some services that are taking up ram and resources that aren't necessary, like Parental Controls (do you really need this on?)

    Other ones are:
    Windows Error Reporting Service (Microsoft doesn't have to know what crashed)

    Bluetooth Services (If you're not using bluetooth on your PC, then you can turn this off or set it to manual)

    Remote Registry (Not using a remote PC to modify your registry? Won't need this)

    Performance Logs and Alerts (Generates logs for errors. Not needed; turn off)

    Desktop Windows Session Manager (This is for the Aero Glass look and theme. If you're not using that, then you can turn this off and save some ram and speed up GUI graphics slightly)

    Diagnostic Policy Service
    and
    Diagnostic System Host

    (These are even more things for Windows to do error reporting and detect certain things that you never need to if the programs on your computer are working fine. You can always turn this on or off, but it's best left off for speed and more resources)

    EFS Encrypting File System (If you're not using encryption on your file system for NTFS with Windows, and most people don't, then it is safe to turn this off and speeds up file access because Windows doesn't have to read each header first with the intent to try and decrypt what comes next)


    HomeGroup-Policy
    and
    HomeGroup-Listener

    (This is for sharing files over the Homegroup; your home network using Windows. If you don't share files with the Homegroup or over the home network, then you can turn these 2 off. This does not affect internet, it only affects local file sharing on the network itself)


    Remote Access Auto Connection Manager
    and
    Remote Access Connection Manager

    (These are for VPN use. If you don't use a VPN, you can turn both of these off)



    Tablet PC Input Service (If your PC is not a tablet or doesn't have a touch screen on it, then you can turn this off because it only wastes resources when activated and slows it down)


    Windows Biometric Service (If you're not using a fingerprint scanner or doing retina scans like you see on the Terminator movies and action-adventure films to get to restricted areas, then you can shut this off since most people do not even bother to use this with their PC or laptop anyway and it just wastes resources and ram to leave it on)

    Windows Defender (Microsoft's junk attempt at protecting users from malware. You might as well disable this completely because it doesn't work and you're already using something better whether it slows down the system or not ;) Windows Defender does slow things down anyway, and if you're using 1 or more other solutions, it slows it down even more. This is one of the first things I shut off ffor people usually because it only gets in the way no matter what type of system they have)

    Windows Firewall (More awful stuff from Microsoft that doesn't work well at all and should be turned off. Most people use a better firewall, like the hardware firewall of their router, or a program like PrivateFirewall which is several times better, is lighter on system use, and is 100% free)

    Windows Search (If you're not using explorer to search for files all the time, you can turn this off. Microsoft slows down and fragments the drive on occasion by constantly searching for file changes in the background of your PC. Is this really necessary? No. You can turn this off and still use search whenever you need to, just slowly for one search, but it speeds up the entire system daily by not having it constantly running as a background service)

    Windows Media Network Sharing Service (If you're not using Windows Media Player to share videos over a home network or stream them to another device using your laptop or desktop as a streaming server to a TV set or something, then you can turn this off and save on resources here, too)

    Windows Time (This is yet another service thaet eats up ram and runs in the background to keep a clock which normally never changes synchronized to Microsft's time server. Not really needed. If it ever changes, just look at your watch and change it back lol)

    Shell Hardware Detection (If you don't want the annoying popup from Microsoft to always try to aggressively scan and do what it wants without your consent the moment you plug a flash drive or usb hard drive onto a system, then just turn this intrusive thing off and save resources)

    Optional, but may be needed:
    Windows Image Acquisition (only turn off if you're not using cameras or printers, or other imaging devices with your PC. This service is responsible for grabbing images from the scanner and camera devices, and passing them to other devices that handle digital imagery. if you turn this of, it temporarily won't be able to do that, but if you're not doing photography, scanning of images, or working with cameras regularly then you won't need this unless you do)

    Themes (This eats a good amount of ram because it manages the Aero glass themes and makes your computer lok "prettier" at the expense of being slower and hogging graphics time on video updates. You can make it lok more like XP and a no-frills look by disabling themes if you want to. If you need it to look pretty at the expense of using ram, then it's your call on this one)

    There are a lot of other things to, like moving files to the front of the drive during a defrag instead of leaving them where they are, dropping the screen resolution to a lower size (i.e: dropping 1920x1024 or 1366x768 to 1200x800 or 1024x768 will give you greater video speed and access because the video display doesn't have to manage 2 to 3 times as many pixels, and by going from 32bit truecolor to 16 bit high color, the computer's graphics card only has to manage 65,536 colors per pixel instead of 4 billion, making it much faster for video updates and refresh time. The only catch here is that some games require or demand it to be truecolor so that they give you the full "video" experience, but they will lag your machine and slow it down majorly to do so. Most programs won't ever complain about this and work as usual if set to 16 instead of 32. You can right-click any area of the desktop, select Screen Resolution, and then under Advanced you can set the screen display to a smaller size (graphics is bigger but pixel updates faster) and then make sure it is HighColor (16 bit) instead of TrueColor (32 bit) to make sure each pixel is just a range from 0 to 65535 instead of 0 to 4294967295.

    There's a bunch of other things I would sugest here too and more I'll remember later, but without seeing it to ask what you use it for daily and what other services you'd need to remain on, there's certain things that should be left on by default while these ones above can be selected and changed to your liking without changing the system's functionality.

    Oh, if you use msconfig instead of services.msc to modify the services, be sure to set the boot time to 3 seconds instead of the default of 30 seconds (you'll see it as an option under Boot when switching through the tabs at the top).

    There may be programs that start up with the computer that you don't need running, either. Without being able to see those or know which ones you ned and use, I can't say which ones you should leave on or turn off unless I had a list and saw what you were using them for, but that is another area that can be cleaned up if you have time to go through and see which ones you want or need on or off to make start up time faster.
     
    IBMPC8088, Apr 2, 2016
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  5. Mikitty

    vinaya

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    When I upgraded my windows 7 to Windows 8 I experienced a lot of problems. I don't know exactly why windows 8 crashed on ,my laptop. However, I believe that Windows 8 crashed on my computer because of hardware compatibility. My computer was old and it could not run a new program. I think your problem is same.
     
    vinaya, Apr 3, 2016
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  6. Mikitty

    spence88

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    I came here to try to give info and help. But then I read IBMPC8088 posts and got my ego completely destroyed. It seems that when he posts, you can't add value anymore. I, in fact, even learned a few things. Comprehensive and really informative as always. But anyway going back on topic.

    Windows 10 doesn't necessarily make your computer faster. RAM could, but most probably not if you already have 4gb. Well, even upgrading to higher end laptops won't FEEL faster. The only thing that makes a difference in terms of "responsiveness" is to upgrade to an SSD. The response time of an SSD, in my opinion, is so fast that first time users who upgraded from traditional HDDs will feel like their laptop is the fastest laptop in the world. I'm exaggerating, but SSD has the greatest effect in overall performance and system responsiveness. It's ironic that I say these things but don't have an SSD myself, but whatever. :)
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2016
    spence88, Apr 4, 2016
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  7. Mikitty

    Corzhens

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    My laptop has the standard of our office, from the OS to the anti-virus. But when I noticed that it was kinda slow (on the first week of use), the tech in the office diagnosed the problem. And since he found nothing wrong (maybe the processor is really slow, the tech said in jest) he requested for an added memory from the hardware group. When the memory was expanded, it was much better with the speed. I'm not saying it is the solution to your problem but it may be.
     
    Corzhens, Apr 4, 2016
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  8. Mikitty

    spence88

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    What is your laptop's processor? What is the size of your RAM before? If it was 2gb then yeah it might not be enough depending on your usage. 4gb is the memory size most users should look for, and any lower than that is not recommended. Good thing your tech acts fast and got it correct. Kudos to him.
     
    spence88, Apr 4, 2016
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  9. Mikitty

    Corzhens

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    I'm sorry if I couldn't give you the specs of my laptop because I admit that I'm not a techie when it comes to hardware. But from what I remember, yes, maybe it was 2gb of memory and the tech had increased it to 4gb. But the processor was not changed. My husband is advised to buy a laptop with 8gb memory because he intends to use it for video editing and it eats up a lot of memory.
     
    Corzhens, Apr 4, 2016
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  10. Mikitty

    spence88

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    I see, no problem.

    Video editing requires some pretty beefy hardware, and buying a laptop for that might cost you a lot of money. Not only that, you risk overheating when doing heavy tasks with a laptop. Although, in general, laptops have decent cooling that allows them to operate for extended periods of time, that is only for normal use. I wouldn't classify video editing as normal use. Having said that, I suggest you buy a desktop instead. Desktops have more customization options, and costs less for the same performance laptops can offer. 8gb RAM is the standard, but 12gb is the sweet spot. And while you're at it, get your husband an 8-core or 8-threaded processor. :)
     
    spence88, Apr 5, 2016
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  11. Mikitty

    Corzhens

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    My husband is looking at the Mac of a colleague who uses Final Cut software. He said that the Mac is the best computer for video editing. And Apple has a Macbook that is portable. But by golly, it costs a lot so I am thinking of a loaded laptop with a good size of memory and a quality processor. At least that would be cheaper than a Macbook, maybe half of the cost. I also understand that overheating can occur since the video editing can run for hours in the so called rendering part.
     
    Corzhens, Apr 5, 2016
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  12. Mikitty

    spence88

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    I beg to differ. Video editing is a CPU intensive task (if I'm not mistaken, having a good GPU may also have its own benefits). So if the Macbook you're planning to buy has a weak CPU, then it will perform poorly and lag compared to other laptops with stronger CPUs. Unless your husband wants an exclusive iOS video editing software, I really recommend you just buy a desktop instead. But yeah, I want to clarify that I'm just making suggestions here, the final decision is definitely yours to make. :)
     
    spence88, Apr 6, 2016
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  13. Mikitty

    Corzhens

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    I'm not much of a techie so I thank you for the information. This is what I like in this site, the reason I joined is to learn and not to brag because I am a laptop user but lacking in technical knowledge. When you say CPU, does that mean the computer's processor? From what I heard of Macbook, it is designed for the job since Macs are well known for tackling graphics and videos. But we are geared to buy a PC type for Windows because of budgetary constraints.
     
    Corzhens, Apr 6, 2016
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  14. Mikitty

    spence88

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    No problem, I'm glad to help. Yes, CPU is your computer's processor. I have a pretty solid foundation / knowledge with computer hardware but that's it. I absolutely don't know any of the advanced stuff. Yeah, I also came here to learn, and help if possible. I'm also happy to have joined this site. And if I might say, my purpose has already been accomplished! :)
     
    spence88, Apr 7, 2016
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  15. Mikitty

    rz3300

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    Well I think that we all wish that there was some secret to speed up the computer, but of course that is not the case. There are several options though, and often times the easiest thing to do is to clean it up yourself. Get rid of the applications that you use and that are running in the background. Doing this always surprises me and it is those little things that really add up.
     
    rz3300, Apr 7, 2016
    #15
  16. Mikitty

    IBMPC8088

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    There are things that I learn from each of you when you post, and I am glad that what I had to say was able to help you. :)

    I very much appreciate your kind comments. I would like to say that ego shouldn't come between computers and professionals no matter how much temptation there may be. Recognition and respect should always be at the forefront. Some of the most important things that I've picked up over the years was because of those who had remained true to the passion of computer science and enthusiasm for it in its original form, rather than letting what they know keep them from teaching it to others.

    I do wrestle with that sometimes. The farther you go, the harder it is at times to deal with questions that seem easier or more obvious. There are moments that I become cynnical or borderline rude on some responses in frustration, but I assure you it is because of that passion for this field, and because I see so many people being taken advantage of by corporations and certain individuals who are not about it and are only about the money while ruining what it was built from. The frustration runs high seeing people making mistakes that with other things in life they would instantly know better, if they could see and correlate computer science to the way they see and understand things logically in parts of their lives they deal with everyday. There was a time when I used to chastize people for the wrong decisions with the hope that that logic would instantly carry over from what they are used to to this, but found instead that sometimes it is better to remain silent than to do that at all for the sake of the person. It may help some, but it is more likely to be counter-productive to many more. So...although I do have some ego ;) I try to keep a lid on it and remain humble because there are always things to learn and to teach no matter how far up the ladder we have climbed.

    You're also correct on your statement about Mac hardware being less in performance than advertised. It is a perfect example of human logic taking vacation in favor of a consumer fad. A person may "feel" like they got something more from a Mac by paying a higher price and getting "pretty" interfaces, but they would be aghast at the performance differences and extremely disappointed in their Mac compared to a PC of the same price with 2 to 4 times as much processing and graphics power without as much overhead or bottleneck at the endpoints. See, people aren't going to realize that or understand what this means, so they end up stuck in Microsoft buying-cycles or Apple device buying-cycles instead of having one great system that they only spend a little upgrading over years of use or no money at all maintaining. The majority of the public isn't wired to differentiate between the marketing hype and the actual technical ability of these systems, and that is why Apple and Microsoft make an absolute fortune while better alternatives cost less to compete or remain unknown to the masses.

    Giving the gift of an SSD drive to a friend, relative, or co-worker is probably the best gift you can give them for an upgrade. It will help their speed and everything they tend to use and notice the most, and even those with overpriced/underpowered Apple Mac systems would see a performance difference, too. The only thing better would be loading the entire system into ram. You can do this on older systems with 4gb of ram minimum, and newer systems with (for a normal user) 8 to 16gb of ram where the Windows system and system cache are loaded into ram as a ram drive, and the rest is placed onto a paging file (magnetic or SSD even better).

    Back in 2007-2008 I found that this was about 20-30% faster than using an SSD (and it still is), but it has the limitation that the system will stop working and requires a reboot if the Windows system area exceeds the allocation of system ram total, or if the cache is not flushed before it reaches that point.

    Without a paging file, it uses the ram it has and releases it back, but if too much ram is used at once, it can make the system stop working if it can't release it again without a reboot. Essentially, it's very close to how a live CD works loading itself into ram, but it loads the windows system to ram instead from your hard drive, and only saves files and registry data back as needed. That's something that you can experiment with if you have a lot of ram on a system and want to turn off the paging file, or edit the registry to store system cache in ram. If a user doing graphic design or very small bursts of video editing were to do this, they would have an extremely fast system for a few hours and as long as their ram lasted.

    This was much easier to do with Windows 2000 and XP, but with the overhead from Windows 7, I would suggest doing that with no less than 8 or 12gb of ram (16-24gb preferable) for a smooth experience. The only thing faster than this is to turn off error-checking on the DAC of the video controller so that video output is literally as fast as possible, but I don't recommend that since if a user isn't quite sure of their hardware in and out, they could damage their video card or burn it out.

    So it's best to stick to the SSD and no paging file temporarily on a test system to see what kind of speed you can get ;) If you don't have an SSD drive but have a lot of ram, you can always do this per-session to give yourself the speed you need for smaller tasks until next reboot.

    Windows 10 is very bloated. I still think that Windows 7 is unnecessarily bloated too, but it can be managed and corrected to about 50 to 75% of what could be done with XP. Windows 8 was no good, and Windows 10 will slow down an SSD even. I would avoid Windows 10 even more than buying a Mac at this point lol
     
    IBMPC8088, Apr 10, 2016
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  17. Mikitty

    spence88

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    I see will this technique help prolong my hard drive's lifespan? I didn't know Windows 7 has this much overhead. Although I've read people saying "Windows 7 killed my hard drive, etc" before, but I only thought they're exaggerating without any good reason at all. I get it now.

    Ok, I'll try and do research on how to do this. I only have 12gb of ram, so I'll be more careful.

    I am very tempted to upgrade to Windows and I'm about to give in, good thing you gave me a heads up. Will try to avoid Windows 10 as much as possible.
     
    spence88, Apr 11, 2016
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  18. Mikitty

    IBMPC8088

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    You might want to use a virtual machine to try out Windows 10 first (or put it onto a system that never has any access to any of your personal information and would be ok if it lost the hard drive). If you see the Windows TOS update for Windows 10, you'll see why it shouldn't touch anything with any of your own private information on it.

    Oh, and to set the page file on Windows 7 it's pretty straight-forward. Push the start button and type:

    Advanced System Settings

    onto the search area of the Start menu, and then press Enter.

    It'll launch the properties window for you. On the section of the box that says "Performance", click on the "Settings" button, and it'll launch another box.

    From there, you can Click on On the Advanced tab, you can click the "Change" button on the section for virtual memory.

    On this screen, you'll likely see it checkmarked to have Windows automatically manage the paging file. If you wanted to use the system without a paging file and have it all stored to ram, then you would set the radio button for "No Paging File" here.

    An alternative way (if you're using a ram drive and want to defer only part of the paging file to ram and the rest to an SSD drive or another storage medium), then you can also set up and use a ram drive and tell the paging file to use that instead. That was the original "paging file" to ram method back in the day. It still works and can be done for special purposes and with 3rd party tools if you want, but it's faster to just have Windows page it to ram for most practical uses since it doesn't have to create a virtual handle or virtual hard drive in ram to use for it then.

    Windows 7 has a lot more overhead than XP did and uses a lot more ram and hard drive space than it needs to, but Windows 7 uses significantly less ram and hard drive space than Windows 10. Windows 10 uses nearly 4x as much as XP, Windows 8 about 3x, and Windows 7 about 2x.
     
    IBMPC8088, Apr 11, 2016
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  19. Mikitty

    spence88

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    Thanks for the guide! I just disabled the paging file and restarted my laptop. Will monitor my system's performance and RAM usage.
     
    spence88, Apr 11, 2016
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  20. Mikitty

    nytegeek

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    Windows 10 wont give you any performance boost over 8 or 8.1, you may get a negligible boost over 7 in some cases. I wouldn't advise worrying to much about how much RAM is in use by the system. The way modern operating systems utilize memory is quite different than the way it used to be. Often cases unused RAM is wasted ram. I'll have to read through and see what I'm missing, because normally I would tell people not to mess with the paging file, but I need to look at the actual recommendation before commenting further. It may have been made by an ignored user or something or maybe I just didn't see it.
     
    nytegeek, Apr 21, 2016
    #20
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