Laptop Appears to be Going Slower

[tokarev]

Hi,

I have noticed that things on my laptop are taking a much longer time to complete than before (been noticing this for the last couple of weeks)

For example converting an Avi to a DVD file takes twice as long as it used to and encoding dvd's using dvd shrink are taking 3 or 4 times as long as they used to. I have done a virus scan already and there are no viruses (even the virus scan is taking 3 or 4 times longer to complete!) - there are no other programs running when i do this aswell.

Just wondering what could be causing it to slow down. I am thinking of doing an OS reinstall (but want to make sure it isn't somthing else first, because an OS reinstall is a pain in the ass! )

Cheers.

[cagiva gezzer]

Is it a Dell?
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"because one stroke isnt enough and four strokes waste two"

[tokarev]

Yeah! How did ya know.

[cagiva gezzer]

Because they're wank.

Asuming that you've done nothing with it i'd start with a disk cleanup up.

[tokarev]

Yeah somthing dodgy going on with this piece of shit laptop...check out this picture.

The window on the right is what it should be (1.5 GHz) and the window on the left is a diagnostic tool which is saying the CPU is running at 600Mhz!!

https://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7295/cpuspeeds8dp.png

No wonder. I just checked the fan and it is not working either (even when laptop has been in use for long time), which probably means that the CPU is fecked.

I will give your suggestion a try and if still not working, I will have to call Dell and get them to fix it.

[djr]

It's a pentium M (Mobile) it means when it's doing naff all it'll normally underclock it's self so that it uses less power...

You can change this by going into control panel, power options and changing it from laptop to desktop normally.

[djr]

Also, I'd seriously consider uping the memory if i were you, Atleast to 512 although a gig may be a better idea depending on what your laptop will take.

[djr]

[tokarev]

I will try these suggestions out, until I find a solution to the problemo, once I have found it, I will post and say what it is.

[AcIdBuRnZ]

Also, like the Centrino, the new mobile AMDs have Speedstep Technology - basically lowers the clock speed of the CPU during idle/office taks and runs it on max. when playin games etc.

I don't know about the Intel, but with the AMD you can disable the Speedstep so it runs on full speed all the time
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[Jamie.]

Have you scanned for spyware? Its the most common cause of a slow computer. Also about the dell thing, every laptop is made from the same parts, so thats bollox. Alough dell DO get the seconds from factories and "fix" then to use in their computers / laptops, Hense why they are so much cheaper amoug other things

[djr]

[tokarev]

Alright, I tried doing the power options but it had no affect.

So I opened up the laptop and took of the keyboard etc... had a look inside and tinkered a little bit. Also checked out the fan and removed some dust etc from the fan/cpu area. Put it back together and now it is working fast again.

When I use the diagnostic tool this time it states the speed as 1500MHz which is correct rather than the 600MHz as before. Also Converted a DVD (ripped the one I rented out ) and then converted an avi to a DVD and it did them both fast (like how it should do it).

So all is working ok now and hopefully it will stay that way. I can only think that the fan/CPU area was clogged with dust? Can't really say what else would have caused it.

[lanester]

The newest pentiums have thermal throttleback on the CPU, so if the heat sink was covered in dust & or the fan wasn't working. The CPU would lower its speed to reduce the heat output of the CPU so it would't fry the chip, It would then speed up once the CPU has cooled enough. Which would explain after giving it a clean it worked fine again.

[tokarev]