Slow Laptop

[doanster]

I have a laptop with specs that rival my desktop, but my desktop is horrifically faster than the laptop. Is there a way to improve performance with minimal or no hardware upgrades? Software tweaks? Optimizing Windows?

Some Specs:
Pentium 4 3.06GHz with HT
512MB DDR333 RAM
60GB 4200RPM HDD
Mobility Radeon 9700
17" Widescreen
WinXP Home

Already considering a memory upgrade because that would be cheapest and easiest and would keep the laptop from relying on virtual mem, but I know for sure that its the sluggish hard drive thats bottle-necking the system.

Suggestions anyone??

 

[suicidalpigeon]

get a faster hd?

 

[Ricemarine]

Least you have a faster laptop than mine... heh.

 

[phisrow]

More RAM would probably help reduce the effect that the harddrive has; but there really isn't too much you can do within the constraints of the hardware.

 

[Jeff7]

I say hard drive too. I went from a 4200rpm drive to a 5400rpm, and there is a difference. Maybe look at getting a 7200rpm laptop drive - you'll definitely notice an increase in speed.

Hard drives are one of the slowest parts of the PC anymore, dealing in MB/sec and millisecond access times, while most of the rest of the PC deals in GB/sec and nanosecond access times. Having a 4200rpm hard drive just makes a bad problem worse.

 

[doanster]

Hmm... alrite time to go parts shopping 😀

In the meantime, software wise, what are some options?

 

[Hacp]

Get windows 98 or 2000. It will defenetly take a load of memory hogging off your computer, and make it feel snappier.

 

[jameswhite1979]

A clean install of XP because the one that comes with the laptop will have loads of crap installed with it! If this is too much you can try start>run>msconfig click the startup tab this is all the software outside of the main Windows stuff that runs and eats up all your power. Be careful what you remove! Also try to defrag your HDD. More memory or faster HDD always going to help.

 

[w00t]

I dont even have a laptop.

 

[mettleh3d]

disk defrag!!

 

[vegetation]

4200rpm drives are dogs, that's the root cause of your seemingly slow speed of the laptop. Buy a 7200 and stuff that 4200 into an external case for backup purposes.

 

[Oyeve]

Get another half gig of ram. My P4 2ghz M lapppy purred when I went 1 gig on it.