Faulty components, or just something else?

T

ThomasJW

New Member
Let's just say I'm not what some would call "Laptop Savvy", I do understand tower PC architecture better, but I haven't really done nearly enough research to actually understand the in's and out's of laptops.

Anyway, I bought two £800 laptops near around 2008 (I think, maybe 2009, I really can't remember that well) as an upgrade to a pretty slow unreliable laptop I just bought for simple usage a few years prior, the new laptops I planned to use just for simple gaming here and there with the other going to family seeing the graphics processor was "apparently" quite powerful around the time. (Nvidia GeForce 9600M GS 512mb)

I've stuck with this for quite a while, I only seriously started using it when my other computer died out about 2011 and since, well, I have noticed a range of issues.

For one, I can't even view say a YouTube video for fairly long without the picture stuttering with the sound carrying on like nothing's wrong, even on some cases both stutter uncontrollably, then popping up with an error and flash crashes even though I have the latest version installed and everything.

Another issue is when I bought this laptop as an avid history buff I bought the game 'Empire: Total War' to simply play now and again although granted it never fully played brilliant on this card, but with the later release 'Shogun 2: Total War' I could say the game ran as smooth as butter on low, however now I feel that I can't even get better than around 10 FPS even with just small skirmish battles. I have tried numerous times to upgrade the driver over time yet no real improvement, much as the "recommended" driver for the 9100M card, even some other games such as Civilization V play in a horrible unchangeable boxed resolution barely getting past 20 even 30 FPS.

Much like my first point, a lot of things are just plain slow on here, my mouse as always has been as smooth as butter but when the computer has been turned on and I'm letting some of the settings load, windows load reasonably slowly and when I run a lot of different tabs (Which I rarely do anyway) firefox or really anything else is just so slow.

I regularly clean my laptop out and even for a hard drive just 289GB in size I have only used 57.3GB, but I have noticed notably the computer fan has become increasingly louder, when turning on the laptop it's not to bad, then it just turns up.

What's everyone's thoughts?

(I can post full system specs if needed)
 
Last edited:
Hi mate

Welcome to CF.

Lets start with the basics. We will ensure you have the latest drivers, cleanly installed and a stable OS core without any malware. Then we will do basic maintenance to ensure its all running well. These instructions rely on you doing everything in order exactly as described without skipping steps ;)

  1. Set a restore point to ensure we can 'undo' anything.
  2. Fully update Windows and restart.
  3. Download the following to your desktop (save them, don't run anything yet)
  4. Install and run Driver Uninstaller. Run it for nvidia ensuring the check boxes are selected as per figure 1.
  5. Restart.

index.php

Figure 1.

Once back in Windows
  • Run the nvidia driver you downloaded previously.
  • Once installed, restart.

Now go to intel dowload drivers and ensure everything is updated. Where it finds out of date software, download it to the desktop and install each individually. Restart as necessary. Restart once last updated is installed.

Once back in Windows (after last restart),
  • Right click on Computer, select properties, select tools, select check disk. Checking all checkboxes, run it and confirm a check disk on next restart.
  • Now type command in the search bar (start button). Find Command Prompt, right click on it and select "Run as Administrator"
  • In command prompt type sfc /scannow (noting the space between sfc and the /)
  • Let it run and finish.
  • Restart. It will now complete a checkdisk, let that finish.

  • Now navigate to Control Panel\System and Security\System and select Advanced System Settings.
  • Under Performance, select Settings. Then select the Advanced Tab.
  • Under Virtual Memory, Select Change.
  • Un-select Automatically manage paging file for all drivers
  • Select C: and choose Custom Size making the amount in each box identical to the recommended value. (This will prevent fragmentation).

If all is well, set another Restore Point.

Now download Auslogic Disk Defrag. Install and run it. Defrag your HDD by selecting defrag and optimise (slower option). If you have an SSD, skip this entire step.

Once the defrag is completed, restart once more.

Now download
  • Malwarebytes, install it and run it. Run a full system scan after ensuring you have the latest updates.
  • Fix / remove anything detected and restart.

Once restarted, download [UR
    • CCleaner. Install it and go to Run Cleaner.

    If all is well,
    • Set another restore point.
    • Restart.

    Once back in Windows, try your gaming and other uses, see if there is any improvement. If not, download PC Wizard from my signature, install it and run it. Go to FILE, SAVE AS and click OK. Save that text file to your desktop and copy its contents into this thread.
 
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