Tips For
Improving Laptop Performance
There
is nothing more frustrating than realizing that your
laptop has slowed down to a snails pace and any
small task you try to accomplish is drawn out due to
horrendous load times and constant lock-ups.
Fortunately there are many hardware and software
tweaks you can perform on your laptop to help get it
back on its feet.
First and foremost it would be best to avoid this
situation in the first place by getting a laptop
which you know will have great speed and
efficiency. You can accomplish this by paying
attention to three main factors which will determine
your laptops speed. The first and most crucial
component is your CPU (Central Processing Unit).
CPU speed is measured in megahertz, and the more
megahertz your CPU has the more cycles it will
accomplish in a shorter amount of time. In short,
the faster the CPU is the faster your computer can
process tasks.
The second factor you should consider is the amount
of RAM (Random Access Memory) your laptop will
have. When running big programs on your computer or
multi-tasking your computer will load these programs
into the RAM in order to run. Should your laptop
“run out” of RAM, than your laptop has to create
temporary files on the hard-drive to continue
running these programs. When compared to the speed
of RAM in handling data, your hard-drive is
exponentially slower. Having more RAM means that
your computer will be able to run more programs
without using the hard-drive.
Last but not least is your hard-drive. Generally
hard disks are considered as only “a place to keep
stuff” and often little attention is paid to how
they affect your laptop as a whole. All hard drives
are measured in speed by how many RPM’s (Revolutions
Per Minute) they operate at and the more RPM’s your
hard-drive has the faster data can travel from the
hard-drive to your laptop. Higher RPM hard drives
will make the difference in the speed of loading
programs and writing data.
In addition to being proactive
in choosing your laptop parts there are hardware and
software tweaks you can perform to give your laptop
a boost in speed. The simplest and most effective
way to increase performance on your laptop is to add
some RAM. It is recommended of having at least 1 GB
of RAM for Windows XP and 2 GB of RAM for Windows
Vista.
Alternatively there are many
software tweaks you can perform on your laptop to
help it along and many come along with your pc.
When using your laptop files will become fragmented
and your computer will slow down because your
hard-drive has to search for files scattered across
the drive. Defragging your hard-drive will solve
this problem and will pack all your files together
for easy access from your hard-drive.
In order to perform this click
Start >> Programs >> Accessories >> System Tools >>
Disk Defragmenter and the program will give you a
brief estimate of fragmentation on your hard-drive
so you can decide if you should run the disk
defragmenter which will take some time to complete.
It is recommended you defrag once every 2-3 months
to keep your laptop running smoothly.
Many laptops come with software
you don’t need that is put there by the
manufacturers and will launch every time you boot
up. When these programs are compounded on each
other your notebook can be severely slowed down. A
popular and free program called
PC Decrapifier helps you find and remove these
programs.
Spyware is hidden software that runs in the
background of your computer and uses your system
resources. There are many solutions to removing
spyware but the most popular (and free) solution is
Spybot Search & Destroy. Run this program regularly
to purify your computer from these unwanted
programs.
If your laptop is ever starting to bog down and run
slowly then remember these quick tweaks to get it
back on track.
Alexander Solis is a technology writer for
Xponex Web and Media
Services.
Toll Free: 877-422-1907
