I use a toshiba satellite pro. It serves me right but its so slow to do anything nowadays. Is it that the Norton anti virus slows it down? What can I do? I've run a full system scan, cleared the recycle bin. Argh

how many mb of ram/how much free hd space is on ur system?

@adrian5

A lot of things could be responsible for a system drag. The following are possibilities:

- System Memory available: If the amount of memory(RAM) is low, then the swap space on the HDD is used. HDDs generally have longer access times than RAMs thus you'll notice significant system drag.
Solution: Increase RAM size.

- Disk Fragmentation: Files on a drive are usually not saved in contiguous segments. When access to a fragmented file is requested, the drive read head has to flip through all the physical sectors on the disk where the file fragments are to give you the access.
Solution: Defragment your dirves often, especially when you delete relatively huge files on your disk(s).

- [b]AVP: [/b]Antivirus programs mostly scan processes that run on your system. Before a process starts, it gets scanned by the AVP thus you notice a relative delay. This delay could be further noticeable if the former two conditions are present.
Solution: Get a better AVP thats less process intensive or simply mark the major process that you run on your system as trusted so that they dont get scanned on next run. Whatever you do, DONT LEAVE YOUR SYSTEM WITHOUT AN AVP.

- [b]VIRUS, TROJANS, WORMS:[/b]Dreaded I know, but they could be a reason for the drag.
Solution: Update your virus definition and run a total scan. Hopefully any virus would be wiped out.

I could go on and on, but I would be more guided if I could get a HJT Log file of your system. That way, I'll be able to narrow it down for you.

RAM is the most likely culprit, by far. To free up more space, replace your heavy programs with memory-efficient ones.

buy a registry cleaning software, e.g Registry Mechanic install it and scan your system to fix all registry errors.
am sure this will improve your systems performance

Norton Antivirus is really not a good choice for any system, strictly speaking from experience. i advise you try either kapsersky or Bit defender. Although there might be some other reasons why it is slowing down. You will see a considerable increase in your system's response time. Virus or no Virus.

it will also help in you can download a program called hijackthis, try googling it. it is freeware. Do a system scan and Post the log here. I promise i can have your system up and running in no time. I can also give you a good deal on the latest Kaspersky Internet Security which is the best antivirus out there now. it shileds you from every harm on the internet and has a way of updating that you will hardly notice unike Norton Antivirus.

@maleeq has said it all, nothing more need be said.

_{One small correction sha,  nowadays defragmentation does not make much of a difference,  caching electronics on modern drives make the fragmentation problem moot, and NTFS handles fragmented files far better than fat32. Defragging can actually kill nowadays' high capacity drives with the crazy amount of reading/writing. Read the 'myths' section of the wikipedia article on defragmentation for more info :-)}

Hey adrian5,

I think the bases have been covered by previous posters. But from the below quote it appears you might be able to establish a checkpoint at which you deemed the system to serve you "right" (i.e. it appeared to operate in an inviolable state) beyond which point it slowed down noticeably,

but its so slow to do anything nowadays

Perhaps you may want to consider the following as well if you are unable to easily identify the culprit from what has already been pointed out by previous posters:-

Do you have a specific recollection of what you may have changed just before it became noticeably slow?. I.e. was it shortly after adding some specific piece of software or after a download incident that system perfomance noticeably degraded?.

Are there any pending patches/fixes you are missing for your platform (i.e. is your software up to date w.r.t recent operating system/application software patches/updates/service packs/etc.)

Are all the hardware devices functioning correctly (or is there a single device retrying a failed operation forever).? For this look at logs and LEDs.

Is this system solely available for your use or do others have access to it. If others also use it are they also able to download/install software on the system?

Is it part of a LAN - and if so, do the other systems on the LAN appear to be Ok - or have they also recently developed similar performance problems.?

I hope you have your data organized in such a way that you can easily back it up and re-install the underlying operating software/restore the backed up data JIC all else fails.

All the best,

Brume

it MAY have been corrupted by a virus. set up an anti virus or delete some unimportant programmes.

does have to do with toshiba satellite laptops cos i own one too and its darned slow too.i recently had to delete sme files and it became faster.

Maleeq:

@adrian5

A lot of things could be responsible for a system drag. The following are possibilities:

- System Memory available: If the amount of memory(RAM) is low, then the swap space on the HDD is used. HDDs generally have longer access times than RAMs thus you'll notice significant system drag.
Solution: Increase RAM size.

- Disk Fragmentation: Files on a drive are usually not saved in contiguous segments. When access to a fragmented file is requested, the drive read head has to flip through all the physical sectors on the disk where the file fragments are to give you the access.
Solution: Defragment your dirves often, especially when you delete relatively huge files on your disk(s).

- [b]AVP: [/b]Antivirus programs mostly scan processes that run on your system. Before a process starts, it gets scanned by the AVP thus you notice a relative delay. This delay could be further noticeable if the former two conditions are present.
Solution: Get a better AVP thats less process intensive or simply mark the major process that you run on your system as trusted so that they don't get scanned on next run. Whatever you do, DONT LEAVE YOUR SYSTEM WITHOUT AN AVP.

- [b]VIRUS, TROJANS, WORMS:[/b]Dreaded I know, but they could be a reason for the drag.
Solution: Update your virus definition and run a total scan. Hopefully any virus would be wiped out.

I could go on and on, but I would be more guided if I could get a HJT Log file of your system. That way, I'll be able to narrow it down for you.

Well said but like one poster mentioned not too much of disk defragmentation.Hopefully you get your system running  fine.

it has nothing to do with the brand of laptop since most of them use the same oem parts or similar. the first question u guys shld find out is how old is this laptop, if u have 7yrs old laptop with a celeron chips and u where expecting the current performance of and centrinal rose (intel core 2 duo 7100 or higher) u r are joking. a 1988 volks no matter hw well it has served u will not out perform a 2007 mazda 626. get that fact straight! u can keep adding more heavy programs to it and expect it to work like a champ. number 2, very important, take norton out as soon as possible, that sucker takes up to 35% of ur system resources. get better antivirus like trend micro, nod32, kapsersky etc, these are very light weight programs and dont consume ur resources like norton and macafee does (but macafee has recently improved their program and now have a better virus defination database than norton) nod32 just take 4% of ur system resources. u can also go to this site www.crucial.com and see the maxium ur laptop can handle, also it will tell u the type of memory ur laptop uses (clock speed and all that). number 3, u can use the command " msconfig " in run if u have windows ME, windows 2000, xp, and take out some programs that start up when windows boots, that will help improve ur notebook performace, (pls no go stop system programs or processes oooooo, well na ur laptop, na u go hear am). lastly, check for malware activities and clean them. if ur hard drive space is small, defragment but if u have a 250gb harddrive and u want to defrag, OYO! better have a pretty fast processor oooo.

chaik:

does have to do with toshiba satellite laptops because i own one too and its darned slow too.i recently had to delete sme files and it became faster.

best option is to backup ur files n format, microsoft advices doing this 3 times a yr, or try clearing up ur startup items, too many programs might be running taking alot of space.

start-run-msconfig

Yeah, msconfi is pretty good for removing startup items that slow the pc down.

i'd advise you to remove Norton antivirus immediately. It can slow a less capable system down.

Install Avira AntiVir Personal Edition. It's free and it's better than Norton antivirus (as rated by PC Magazine). better still, it takes up little system resources

just because i want to be a stupid idiot i will nitpick @na2day's post

everything na2day said is 100% correct. If ya laptop is collecting pension u cant blame it for being slow

only one small thing: u said 2007 mazda 626. There's no such thing its called MAZDA 6 now lol. Am a mazda fanatic so i just had to put mouth. dont mind me

@poster ----- call your engineer scaning for you there should be a virus on it what antivirus do you use.

SEE NIGERIANS LIKE TO TALK TOOOOOOOOOO MUCH. U SEE IVE GOT THIS SYSTEM[desk top]USE TO BE VERY FAST,MY FRIENDS LOVE IT COS ITS FASTER THAN THEIRS.BUT 4 FEW MONTHS NOW,I DONT UNDERSTAND IT AGAIN. [my plan is to throw it away cos am tired of feeding this computer guys,who dont find solution].

@theffanyi
So we talk too much, abi?
ok, here's a one-line solution to all your problems

'The Answer Lies in Prayer'!

the following tools should help
CCleaner.this tool does two things(removes invalid registry entries, and cleans up your HDD) the registry changes are reversible, as it saves all deleted registry entries.if you've never used it b4, u might find over 1gb of unnesscary files in your HDD)

alternatively navigate to\temp and delete all the files there

i would advise you to steer clear of all registry cleaners other than registry mechanic.
especially if you have a lot of apps on your system.i used one xprepairpro the a forthnight ago.it f, ked up several of my apps.i had to do a lot of reinstallations.


download autoruns from sysinternals.this will provide you with a comprehensive list of all the apps that startup when you start your system.you can disable from here.

alternatively, you can download advanced windows care personal. this will scan for spyare, immunize your system, clean your registry, optimize your settings, startups and disk space.if you use it , i recommend you deselect the
registry cleaning option.

you can also opt to increase your virtual memory.apparently virtual memory should be at least twice your existing ram.go to my computer -properties ->advanced -> performance options -> advanced->virtual memory.
if your ram is 256, set to 512.if its 512, set to 1024

you can go to control panel ->administrative tools -> services ->
if you kno what you're doing, you can disabl some services.its odd, but some service apps are left behind after uninstalling their parent programs. i had an instance of sql sever using some 3-10MB of ram running even though i had uninstalled its parent app.i simply disabled it.

norton antivirus, mcafee virus scan, bit defender all of these are system hogs.they will SLOW down your system.your best bet is kaspesky or nod32.

you can also download the following tools to monitor your system

free ramxp .this automatiocally frees ram.it also indicates how much ram you are using a any point in time

process explorer.
this is a process manager.you can zero in on any app that is eating up cpu.sep if you enable the icon in the taskbar.eats up ram, though.

glarysoft process manager.supposed to  do the same thing.

other recommendations:
if your ram is  256, you'd best upgrade asap.
if you have any bling bling apps (eg windowblinds) u'd best uninstall them.

cheers.

@ topic " why is my Laptop so Slow? Help!

may be because the person usuing it is not very fast himself?
why do i feel this person is an old man with white hair and glasses two inches thick?

[emad] it may be true

another possibility
i have a toshiba satelite
theres a design issue with the fans. is your laptop hot.dos very hot air blow out of the fan vent?
if you run process exploere, do u see 'DPCs(deferred procedure calls) ' taking up to 70% CPU?
does the laptop shutdown at random.?
if so, you need to fix your fan

oyb v1.01:

another possibility
i have a toshiba satelite
theres a design issue with the fans. is your laptop hot.dos very hot air blow out of the fan vent?
if you run process exploere, do u see 'DPCs(deferred procedure calls) ' taking up to 70% CPU?
does the laptop shutdown at random.?
if so, you need to fix your fan

I also have a satellite too. Like someone above said, it's mostly your ram.
But eventually, windows becomes a b***h at some beyond "too long" that you have no choice BUT TO BACKUP/REFORMAT UR SYSTEM

it's usually the most drastic/reliable cure for sys low performance

You'll fall in love with ur system all over again _{(, and again, and again, again, )}

The slowness of your computer could be caused by a lot of things.
Low amount of memory available, virus or Trojans/ worms, could also be caused by programs you have installed on your system. Some applications are resource monsters. The type of AVP (Anti Virus Program) you use could also be a problem. Norton used to be very good in the old days, but these days there are a lot of much better AVP's. Norton is very resource hungry, and i think they only leave on past Glory. You could do a lot of things to improve the performance of your system.

Uninstall unwanted applications or applications you do not use at all
Increase the amount of ram you have on your system,
Get a better antivirus to scan your system for viruses, worms and Trojans
Try to work on your virtual memory.

Or click HEREto see how you can tweak your computer for home, office and gaming performance.

Thanx richboi.

I use 512 Mb RAM

Thanks Malleq

have tried defraging too.

He brume.

Now that u have mentioned it, i can't play dvds no more. Will troubleshoot more on this

Gracias

Ima 1

Great suggestion.
Will try it out

Why are u in a foul mood ?

OVYB

Man u are good!!!!

Wil try all that u said

cheers

Emad

Yeah i do wear glasses

But why do i feel u fly around on a broom, hate water and girls called Dorothy