speeding up laptop

[kalessi]

Ok so I was trying to speed up my buddies laptop.... When I first started it up it was super slooow.... So I did the following...I disabled the startup programs....ran disk clean up....downloaded malwarebytes....and scanned with norton and finally defragged the hard drive.....It still takes a while to start up but is a little bit better...it only has 3 gigs a ram and is 4-5 years old....does age slow down computers? I was very happy for how much I was able to speed it up...I know an upgrade is prob the best soulution but i was just wondering if there was anything i was missing.,,,,,

thanks

 

[carnageX]

Yes, age can slow down systems...but usually because the OS is getting bloated over time. HDD's can begin to wear down as well.

Reinstalling the OS fresh would definitely speed it up. IMO, get rid of Norton as it's a resource hog. Replace it with a free AV such as BitDefender Free, Avira, or Avast!. If you prefer a paid AV, then use Eset's Nod32, Kaspersky, or BitDefender Pro.

I'd also recommend running a disk check:
Start -> type 'cmd' (without quotes) -> right click -> run as admin -> in the console window that pops up type:
chkdsk C: /f /r
Press Enter and it will say it cannot lock the current drive and to run on next reboot. Type Y and hit Enter -> Reboot your computer and let it run through the check (it may take some time, depending on how big your HDD is).

Replacing the HDD with an SSD would definitely speed up the everyday/general usage of the laptop as well.