Hated laptop

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ptonsparky

ptonsparky

Tom
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NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
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EC - retired
I bought my wife an AS.... several years ago. Updates take forever and it generally locks up several times...no response from anything before it finally appears to function again. I see it has a couple slots open for more RAM. Would that help any? It is destined to be a 200 yard target if something doesn't improve.

Opening the Task manager I can see 100% disk usage at times. Right now it's 1-2%. It was 100%. Memory is generally 58%
 
I am not a computer guy, but my laptops always start out great then after a few years they seem to slow up. I think it's a combination of all the spyware (cookies and "stuff"), ads, and engineered obsolescence.

I have had some success in "restoring" it to factory specs, but that's a pain because of backing up data and then all the eff'n updates.

Might be easier just to buy a new one. :(
 
Your best solution would be a fresh system reload from scratch. Check your circle of friends for someone capable of doing it for you.
Even new machines come loads of crapware and are sluggish. A bare operating system with minimal required additional software will perform the best.

Adding the maximum amount of memory certainly will not hurt performance.

Win8 is the last operating system that you can control the updates on, and is what I run and install on older machines that I work on.

Trying to clean out a corrupted or bloated system is very time consuming and usually futile, too many crumbs left behind.

If you get a reload performed, the best thing you can do is before using it is to make a system image file. This image can be used to reload the system fast and easily when it becomes corrupted or bloated again. Acronis is my favorite tool for this. The backup image can be installed on a separate partition on the same drive as the operating system. A couple keys at boot time can replace the entire system when you require it.
 
MTW said:
Your best solution would be a fresh system reload from scratch. Check your circle of friends for someone capable of doing it for you.
Even new machines come loads of crapware and are sluggish. A bare operating system with minimal required additional software will perform the best.

Adding the maximum amount of memory certainly will not hurt performance.

Win8 is the last operating system that you can control the updates on, and is what I run and install on older machines that I work on.

Trying to clean out a corrupted or bloated system is very time consuming and usually futile, too many crumbs left behind.

If you get a reload performed, the best thing you can do is before using it is to make a system image file. This image can be used to reload the system fast and easily when it becomes corrupted or bloated again. Acronis is my favorite tool for this. The backup image can be installed on a separate partition on the same drive as the operating system. A couple keys at boot time can replace the entire system when you require it.
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This is why people get so frustrated with computers and tech. Everyone needs to use them. But to maintain them the level of expertise is unreasonable. The knowledge requirements are always changing. And the expectation is that you just need to use one of your family members or friends. I've never used one of those small computer shops for anything but I would hope that you could find a trust worthy on that could help clean up/reset a computer.

Any new computer I buy, the first thing I do is remove any software I don't need. For the most part I only buy from Dell or Microsoft directly which keeps the crapware to a minimum. I will from time (every few years) to time do a complete wipe and reinstall.

For what it's worth, I would never recommend using software or OS that's not supported anymore. I follow technology enough to know the risk of hacking, viruses, etc. You want to be running software that still gets security updates.

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ptonsparky said:
This thing came with all sorts of bloatware. Never again will I buy one from Best Buy.
Using Malwarebytes.
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I always buy my laptops on eBay, refurbished. The one I'm using now was $528, when it would have been over $900 brand new. When it arrived, I replaced the hard drive with a blank SSD, then installed Windows 10 from scratch. I turned off ALL the settings that cause all the problems that people complain about. Then I installed only the software that I intend to use on a regular basis. I never have any problems getting it to work properly and efficiently.
 
I have a Best Buy Asus. Removing bloat was the first order of the day.

It was my first WIndows 10 computer. The update process made me grumpy. I set it up for dual-boot with Ubuntu. I can do most things with Linux, but I have a couple apps that must run under WIndows. A couple weeks ago, it started getting really squirrely and found I was starting to have hard drive issues. I was able make a disk image, tossed a solid-state drive into it and man...it's plenty fast now!
 
As mentioned above, if the laptop is worth saving I would swap the hd and put in a ssd. A sata drive for it is probably $50 or less. Reload the OS, you should be able to Google that machine for instructions howto. The Windows iso file can be hard to find for some machines. It's a matter of getting the Windows iso for that machine that matches the OS license. License is usually a sticker near the battery. If you have an OS for it and a network connection, you can unbrick it.

Some machines are easier to maintain than others. Last two machines for me were refurb Thinkpads, a T540 for $230. and an X1 Carbon for $414. They have been great.

I would be looking for a new Thinkpad, especially if you can wait to Black Friday.
 
__dan said:
The Windows iso file can be hard to find for some machines. It's a matter of getting the Windows iso for that machine that matches the OS license. License is usually a sticker near the battery.
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If the license is for Win 7 or 8, it will activate 10, which can be downloaded from MS.
 
Regardless of who you buy it from, even if you get it direct from Microsoft, Windows 10 home edition has more bloatware then useful stuff and they make it very difficult to turn it off. Windows 10 professional edition on the other hand tends to have very little in the way of bloatware and you would be probably ahead of the game aggravation wise to spend the extra money and get the professional edition rather than the bloatware edition.
 
petersonra said:
Regardless of who you buy it from, even if you get it direct from Microsoft, Windows 10 home edition has more bloatware then useful stuff and they make it very difficult to turn it off. Windows 10 professional edition on the other hand tends to have very little in the way of bloatware and you would be probably ahead of the game aggravation wise to spend the extra money and get the professional edition rather than the bloatware edition.
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Correct - and regarding my previous comment about activating 10 from 7 or 8, you can only activate 10 Pro if your 7/8 license is also pro.
 
Max RAM + SSD….. I’d say if you’re only going to do one of those, install the SSD. It will be a night and day difference in performance.


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