Laptop dilemma

Luke_Bowman · 13 Apr 2014 at 16:50

We have a very old laptop that my mum has recently decided to use for her very minimal use which basically consists of browsing the Internet.

The laptop is very slow and unresponsive and hangs a lot.

Can I justify buying a new (maybe second hand) laptop for her use or will a new SSD and a fresh install of Win7 have the old girl back up and running nice and smooth?

postmanfw · 13 Apr 2014 at 17:30

Fresh install will get it running good as new

Probably wont be worth buying ssd for it as it wont be able to take advantage of faster speeds but seek time would make a difference.

Run memtest to check the ram and hdd regenorator (free trial version) to test the hard drive for any bad sectors

Luke_Bowman · 13 Apr 2014 at 17:55

ALSO:

The laptop currently runs Vista (i know).

I can put win7 on the laptop and do a fresh install, but will the higher system requirement actually negative affect the speed?

postmanfw · 13 Apr 2014 at 18:02

Nope...will run windows 7 much better than it presently runs vista.

How much ram has it got? 2gb or less then 32bit w7... 2Gb or more then 64bit w7 presuming cpu is 64bit of course

Considered free linux os? ubuntu etc?

Luke_Bowman · 13 Apr 2014 at 18:09

Have a copy of Win7 home premium laying about from a 3pack I bought a while ago so that's not an issue.

Think I'll do a fresh install, defrag and clean the HD and maybe look at if I can add more RAM

postmanfw · 13 Apr 2014 at 18:18

Clean install will sort out any defrag problems anyway

Just dont do an upgrade install....make sure it formats and installs from scratch...just remember to backup anything you want to keep first

Might need to visit makers website to get some w7 drivers once done though w7 pretty good at getting them via m$ updates