How to make a laptop p4m better

blitz_syd · 14th April 2005, 3:37 AM

hey guys,

i have a P3 1ghz laptop with 256mb ram.
i find that the laptop is some what slow with loading up programs, and loading up new windows of IE.

what can be done to fix this?
the HDD is a 20gb, and i'm not sure what the RPM is. so could that be the problem?
i do a defrag frequently, and cant really think of anything else i can do.

thanks

Julz · 14th April 2005, 10:43 AM

yep quite possibly the hard drive.... i noticed a significant improvement when i upgraded my hdd from 4200rpm to 5400rpm... And this was on my P4 2.8ghz machine. Ideally it would b nice to have a 7200rpm drive in my laptop but they're rare and expensive i think?

Its kinda unfortunate cause i think laptop performance is let down by the HDD speeds (unless u have 1gb+ of ram i guess)

Midnight Rider · 14th April 2005, 6:06 PM

More memory might help you.

I have a Compaq Armada Celeron 466 which originally had 64mb ram. I installed WinXP, and the performance was less than stellar, taking ages to boot up, and it slowed to a crawl if I tried to run an antivirus program.

After adding 256mb ram, it's been totally transformed into a very useful and usable machine.

Varuna · 14th April 2005, 7:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Julz

deally it would b nice to have a 7200rpm drive in my laptop but they're rare and expensive i think?

60GB Hitachi travelstars go for around ~$220. Not that expensive at all.

Leopard · 14th April 2005, 9:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blitz_syd

hey guys,

i have a P3 1ghz laptop with 256mb ram.
i find that the laptop is some what slow with loading up programs, and loading up new windows of IE.

what can be done to fix this?
the HDD is a 20gb, and i'm not sure what the RPM is. so could that be the problem?
i do a defrag frequently, and cant really think of anything else i can do.

thanks

wow, sounds exactly like our Dell c610's at work. An extra 256MB of RAM is good if you find yourself swapping to disk a lot. of course, disk access is about the worst thing ona laptop, a 2.5." 7200rpm drive with 16MB of cache would help a lot!

14th April 2005, 3:37 AM	#1
blitz_syd Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: sYd Posts: 2,456	How to make a laptop p4m better hey guys, i have a P3 1ghz laptop with 256mb ram. i find that the laptop is some what slow with loading up programs, and loading up new windows of IE. what can be done to fix this? the HDD is a 20gb, and i'm not sure what the RPM is. so could that be the problem? i do a defrag frequently, and cant really think of anything else i can do. thanks __________________ OCAU Extreme Cooling Club H2O Member LianLi PC-75B Case Owner Swiftech Apex system

14th April 2005, 6:06 PM	#3
Midnight Rider Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Newcastle Posts: 1,253	More memory might help you. I have a Compaq Armada Celeron 466 which originally had 64mb ram. I installed WinXP, and the performance was less than stellar, taking ages to boot up, and it slowed to a crawl if I tried to run an antivirus program. After adding 256mb ram, it's been totally transformed into a very useful and usable machine. __________________ Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get me.

14th April 2005, 10:43 AM	#2
Julz Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Doncaster East, Victoria Posts: 2,674	yep quite possibly the hard drive.... i noticed a significant improvement when i upgraded my hdd from 4200rpm to 5400rpm... And this was on my P4 2.8ghz machine. Ideally it would b nice to have a 7200rpm drive in my laptop but they're rare and expensive i think? Its kinda unfortunate cause i think laptop performance is let down by the HDD speeds (unless u have 1gb+ of ram i guess)