How to speed up my incredibly slow computer (laptop)?

best gaming laptops summer 2011 image

cman14

My computer is incredibly slow. iTunes acts as if it buffers while playing songs. Typing words (much like right now) in Microsoft Word or on a website address bar, for example, occasionally take forever to process. Games run slowly and often lag (I have confirmed it is not an internet connection problem). Videos such as those on youtube take millenia to load, and even when completely buffered, will not play smoothly (even on the lowest quality). Web browsing, as in simply typing in a web address and waiting for it to load can often take minutes at different times. It is all incredibly frustrating.

This computer is a laptop, an Acer Aspire 5000 series (5253-BZ602 to be precise) that is running Windows 7. It has a dual core processor (AMD E-350), 4 gigs of RAM (I added two of these, yes I made sure they were meant for a laptop and yes I made sure that I a) installed them correctly and b) the laptop recognizes they are in and uses them), 250 GB HDD (61.3 GB of which are currently free at this moment, I don't think that is terrible), and an AMD Radeon HD 6310 video card. My step father has an Acer with relatively the same specs but not the same issues. I have had this laptop since Summer of 2011, beginning of June to be precise.

I have run multiple scans and various cleaners, all of which are completely up to date. I use Microsoft Security Essentials as my antivirus software, and I run Malware Bytes probably a little more often than once a month. I have just finished with a registry clean and whatever else CCleaner by Piriform offers (both scans). I have run Smart Defrag 2.0 by IOBit (as Defraggler by Piriform builds the file list until 29% and then will not continue, a process I have let run for as much as four days) successfully and it says my computer has good health. I have also gone through and weeded out a majority of the bloatware the laptop is loaded with and also properly uninstalled many programs I no longer use via the Control Panel. As far as web browser, I default to Mozilla Firefox, but also use Google Chrome whenever Firefox seems slow.

Needless to say, I am incredibly frustrated. I cannot possibly fathom what is wrong with this thing. It is no different than any other computer of its kind, yet it behaves so poorly. If there is any kind of help anyone can offer me, that would be incredible. Please ask questions if you need more information about my system and or its specs and I will be happy to add that to my question. I just want to be able to have a computer that runs smoothly and properly like it is supposed to.

Thank you so much.
A few more details-

1) All my updates are...well, up to date (Windows, Java, etc.)
2) My laptop was NOT like this when I first got it, it has slowly gotten worse
3) I have made sure that on startup, the computer is not running a bunch of programs it doesn't need to, and I rarely have anything I don't need running in the background.
4) I hardly call 4GB of RAM "not enough RAM", especially when I know people with computers containing only 2GB of RAM that don't experience the problems I experience.
5) As I have already mentioned, I have run CCleaner, which is just a better form of a Disk Cleanup.

Answer
There are a couple possibilities, but some will be beyond your ability to diagnose.

1) hard drive falling out of DMA mode

If you check in device manager, and IDE channels, all of them should be in Ultra DMA or DMA mode. If any of them says PIO, they're in fallback mode and thus very very slow.

2) You just have too much stuff loaded

Run Soluto (soluto.com, of course) and when prompted, restart the computer. It will take inventory of your startup process and let you know what can be removed and what needs to stay. Seems every program wants to leave something in the startup nowadays.

3) Your hard drive is dying

Download a tool that tells you the hard drive's "SMART" status. A dying hard drive would act very slow. A thorough scandisk may or may not detect it. (i.e. right click, properties, tools, check for errors) If it's showing warnings, you'll need to replace the HD.

Should I buy a macbook pro now 2011 or wait for the 2012 version?

RuddyMoua

Don't tell me to buy something else different because I want the macbook pro for school.
Is the Macbook pro 2012 version going to be faster?
What do you think about bootcamp and games?
Games like
Lower end games
DOTA
LOL

Higher end games
Starcraft 2
Diablo 3 when it comes out.

Answer
for gaming, I would be better off having a PC, preferably an Alienware because its graphics are much better and more powerful than macbook pro.

But....

If you want a macbook pro for gaming, yes you'll have to dual boot (bootcamp), the 15" and 17" are better for gaming, 15" high end 2.2Ghz has much better graphics and would strongly recommend that for its GPU speed and processor speed.

I bootcamp my macbook pro for dota allstars (game is very addicting) and as far as I can tell, its not as bad as you think. It will work almost like a PC, but it gets hot, thats my only concern ( I have a cooler pad for mine. ) My macbook is able to handle the games for hours, tested intensely over the summer.

If you want to game on macbook pro, I strongly recommend a cooler pad because your mac will get extremely hot. Keep your laptop cool so the battery will long last and so is your laptop (clean it regularly from the inside, ie clean the fan from dust)

don't wait for 2012 because it will not change much, just some software updates and thats about it. Get it now if you want to.

if you want to save money on macbook pro, buy it from internet because you can save over $200. Don't buy one from apple store, they will rip you off.


EDIT: A 15" mac will be able to handle that, your a dota fan as well? nice, I thought I was the only one.

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