Slow laptop help

[Dalinkwent726]

Okay so my dad's friend, who is an older lady, is having computer issues and since I am the closest and cheapest (free) thing to a Computer Technician and the honor of fixing it falls to me. While I will admit it's extremely fun doing things like this, I don't have experience of a CCT.

So her computer was running extremely slow, so I went and deleted all unnecessary BS, this chick had about 10 different toolbars, and a **** ton of adware. Then I ran CCleaner, and a Defraggler. So I'm wondering if there is anything else (free) that you would suggest I do. The laptop is some 4 year old Acer so it isn't going to run all that fast regardless, just wondering if there is something else should be doing, thanks

 

[Yevrag35]

If she has/had a bunch of adware, then my next step would be to look for other malicious software running. Run Malwarebytes in safe mode w/ networking, and see if that turns up anything.

 

[Dalinkwent726]

If she has/had a bunch of adware, then my next step would be to look for other malicious software running. Run Malwarebytes in safe mode w/ networking, and see if that turns up anything.

Thanks, I did a full scan with the program and it turned up 2 malwares in the registry. Also I have Norton 360 and Norton utilities on my personal computer and decided to put the trial versions of both on hers. When running the initial scan with NU, and it uncovered over 4,000 registry errors and it was able to fix/repair about 2,000 of them.

With all of that done, the damn thing still take almost 8 minutes to start up. Do you have any other suggestions? I would really appreciate it, thanks.

 

[carnageX]

Thanks, I did a full scan with the program and it turned up 2 malwares in the registry. Also I have Norton 360 and Norton utilities on my personal computer and decided to put the trial versions of both on hers. When running the initial scan with NU, and it uncovered over 4,000 registry errors and it was able to fix/repair about 2,000 of them.

With all of that done, the damn thing still take almost 8 minutes to start up. Do you have any other suggestions? I would really appreciate it, thanks.

Get rid of Norton. That'll be one of the biggest resource hogs.

Also, disable other unneeded things on startup in MsConfig.

 

[Megatron]

SUPER AntiSpyware
Spybot
Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit

Go into the control panel with the Add/Remove programs. There remove anything that hasnt been used in a year or 2. It is highly unlikely that she will use it in the future if she has not used such programs in the past year or more.

Cleaning up the MSConfig as well as the Startup Folder will also help. But depending on the specs of the machine, you might not be able to reduce the startup by all that much. If it is a first generation Pentium CPU or something that old, then yeah it is gonna take time to startup.

 

[Yevrag35]

Get rid of Norton. That'll be one of the biggest resource hogs.

Also, disable other unneeded things on startup in MsConfig.

This. Get a lighter weight AV, like MS security essentials.

 

[Dalinkwent726]

Get rid of Norton. That'll be one of the biggest resource hogs.

Also, disable other unneeded things on startup in MsConfig.

SUPER AntiSpyware
Spybot
Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit

Go into the control panel with the Add/Remove programs. There remove anything that hasnt been used in a year or 2. It is highly unlikely that she will use it in the future if she has not used such programs in the past year or more.

Cleaning up the MSConfig as well as the Startup Folder will also help. But depending on the specs of the machine, you might not be able to reduce the startup by all that much. If it is a first generation Pentium CPU or something that old, then yeah it is gonna take time to startup.

This. Get a lighter weight AV, like MS security essentials.

Okay so I got rid of Norton and I downloaded Microsoft Security Essentials, cleared out some junk in MSConfig, and deleted what I could from the Add/Remove Programs list. The thing is still slow, but I am also used to booting with an SSD so I'm a smidge spoiled.

Acer Aspire 5253-BZ684
AMD E-350 (Dual Core)
3 gigs of RAM
320GB HDD

So after everything is said and done it boots between 3 and 4 minutes, which considering the age and the specs of the laptop I think is pretty dang good. Thank you guys for all your help and (if possible) I will be clicking your THANKS buttons.

 

[takumi]

On her web browser, get a adblocker if not already done. This will probably help her in the future, as stuff like popups and accidental (or purposeful, doesn't matter) clicking of ads can result in stuff like malware, spyware, viruses, etc.

 

[FeruFeru]

I would Format, Reinstall, and delete unneeded starter programs,

NOTE:YOU WILL NEED TO REINSTALL WINDOWS WITH THIS, But it will delete all the adware and malware and registry errors,

 

[steve10765]

also dont forget to run CC cleaner again now that you have deleted and uninstalled a bunch of stuff, it will find a lot of errors. Then use defrag and it will speed things up more. I use Ausologics disk defrag because you can set it to put things you use everyday in the fastest part of the disk, and the stuff you use once a week in a slower part of the disk