How can you speed up even an old laptop?

Good day!

Unfortunately, many users have to work on old or low-performance laptops, solving certain problems (after all, our capabilities do not always coincide with our desires). But even the operation of such devices can be done a little faster if everything is configured correctly and a few pieces of hardware are purchased.

I think that many more than once or twice noticed how laptops that seem to be similar in performance work in completely different ways: one - all the time freezes, slows down, and the other - instantly opens programs, quickly performing user tasks. This is a confirmation of the above.

Actually, in this article I would like to give some tips and tricks that will help improve the performance of a laptop (and if you make small investments and upgrade, then the device can be made much faster!).

So...

How you can improve productivity

Upgrade

In general, laptops are "poorly" upgradeable, there is little that can be replaced. However, in most laptops, you can expand the amount of RAM and install an SSD drive.

Moreover, I will immediately note that the upgrade will make your laptop more efficient and faster than it can be achieved with the help of software optimization. Actually, that's why I put it in the first place in the article.

1) Solid state drive

Solid state drive (looks like a regular HDD)

This is the first thing that I would recommend installing on a laptop (and on a PC too). Many users, by the way, underestimate SSDs and believe that there will be no big gain and convenience in work. However, I hasten to assure that even with the naked eye it is noticeable how the laptop starts to work an order of magnitude faster:

Windows loading is accelerated (instead of a minute or two, loading occurs in 7-10 seconds);
accelerates the launch of programs: the same documents are opened immediately, and not with a pause, which happens when using the HDD;
after loading Windows there will no longer be 100% load on the disk (this often happens when you have a large number of programs at startup).

In general, the laptop becomes much more responsive. In addition, I note that now the prices for SSD drives have become more affordable: almost every user can afford a disk for a 100 GB system.

Addition!

If you catch a promotion in Chinese online stores and use cashback, then memory or a disk can be bought much cheaper than in ordinary stores. I recommend to get acquainted - //ocomp.info/kitayskie-internet-magazinyi.html

If you decide to install an SSD, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with these articles:

1. if you have a more or less modern laptop, perhaps you have a dedicated M2 port for connecting an SSD drive. How to choose an SSD M2 drive and what "subtleties" you need to consider when choosing, this article will tell you: //ocomp.info/ssd-m2-kak-vyibrat-nakopitel.html

2.if you do not have an M2 port, then the second disk (including it may be an SSD) can be connected to the laptop in other ways: //ocomp.info/2-diska-v-noutbuke.html

2) Installing an additional strap (RAM)

A1278 A1286 DDR3 SODIMM 4GB / Bracket of RAM, as an example

In laptops, you often encounter a lack of RAM. For example, most laptops on sale (today) have 4-8 GB on board, which is often not enough ...

For example, I will give a trivial situation. You have, say, 3 GB of RAM on your laptop and you decide to launch a toy that requires 4 GB to work properly. Some of the textures, game data, etc., naturally, could not be loaded into RAM and were placed in the swap file (which is located on the hard disk).

The RAM speed is tens of times faster than that of a hard drive. Naturally, when this data is required in the game and it starts loading, the brakes will start (and, usually, you will immediately notice that the hard disk activity has increased).

In general, adding memory always has a positive effect on performance.However, I note that if the difference between 3 GB and 8 GB of RAM (for example) is noticeable to the naked eye, then between 8 GB and 16 GB - not every experienced user will notice. This I mean that the measure is important everywhere, and not always low performance rests on RAM.

You can find out how to add a RAM bar to a laptop from this article: //ocomp.info/kak-uznat-ddr3-ili-ddr4.html (there are some "subtle" points, without taking into account which, you can waste money ).

Software optimization

By this I mean "tweaking" the Windows OS and the applications you are using. Thanks to this "shamanism" it is possible to slightly increase the speed and performance, reduce the number of lags and brakes. Even if you have an old laptop, all the same, its operation speed (albeit not by much) should increase ...

1) Checking OS startup, removing unnecessary software

To begin with, I recommend removing all unused programs, leaving only the minimum that is used. If some programs are not removed, I recommend this article: //ocomp.info/programma-dlya-udaleniya-programm.html

After that, check Windows startup: it often contains a large number of programs that you rarely use.

In Windows 10, to view startup you need to open Task Manager (combination of buttons Ctrl + Shift + Esc ). Next, in the "Startup" tab, disable everything that you do not need (note: even if you disable all programs here, your laptop should work).

Disable unnecessary programs at startup

You can also see autoloading in the AIDA64 utility: program / autoload section (an example is presented below).

AIDA64 - programs, startup

Addition!

Utilities for viewing PC characteristics (including AIDA64) - //ocomp.info/harakteristiki-kompyutera.html

2) Cleaning Windows OS from "garbage"

The next thing I would recommend is to clean the system from "garbage" (various temporary files, empty folders, shortcuts, erroneous entries in the registry, etc.). All this together can significantly affect the performance of the system.

Addition! I recommend using the specials. utilities for cleaning Windows (any of them does the job better than the built-in Windows tools) - //ocomp.info/programmyi-dlya-ochistki-musora.html

Cleaning my laptop helped remove about 6 GB of junk! // Advanced SystemCare Utility

3) Power supply - select the maximum performance mode

With laptops, power is often the cornerstone. Some device manufacturers add several modes to their software, for example, one for maximum battery life (but with low performance), and the second mode - high performance (in which the battery drains much faster).

By default, most often, either the lowest power consumption mode or the balanced mode is enabled.

How can you check the power supply parameter and change it, if necessary:

in many cases, it is enough to click on the "batteries" icon in the tray, next to the clock (example below);
Diet
you can go to the Windows Control Panel at: Control Panel \ Hardware and Sound \ Power - in this section, usually, several modes of device operation are available: high performance, balanced mode, etc.
High performance
pay attention to the special software that comes with your laptop drivers. Often in such control centers there are additional modes for adjusting the operation of the device. Example below: Sony VAIO laptop.
High Performance - Sony

4) A few words about drivers

I would recommend that you also pay attention to the drivers that you are using. Often, when the version of the driver, for example, on the video card could significantly drop FPS in some games.

I would recommend checking the system and updating the drivers for those devices for which there are "updates". To automatically search for and update drivers for all hardware on a laptop, I recommend using the special. utilities: //ocomp.info/update-drivers.html

5) As for games ...

If your games slow down, then in addition to the measures taken above, I recommend setting up the video card and the game itself accordingly. Those.in the driver settings for the video card set the maximum performance, in the game settings, on the contrary, set the minimum settings. Thanks to this, you can add up to 20-30% FPS (which is very important)!

All recommendations for setting up the game and video cards (AMD, IntelHD, nVidia) are given in this article: //ocomp.info/pochemu-tormozyat-igryi.html

6) Use specials. Software with low system requirements

By the way, pay attention to the software you are using. For example, if your antivirus or browser is terribly slow, then you can replace them with analogs, for those programs that have much lower PC performance requirements.

I have a couple of articles on this topic on my blog (but I will add that analogs can be found for many programs!).

Antivirus for weak computers / laptops - //ocomp.info/antivirus-na-slabyiy-pk.html

Browsers for weak computers - //ocomp.info/brauzeryi-dlya-slabyih-pk.html

7) What else can be optimized ...

Additionally, you can turn off the indexing of files on the disk, some services in the OS that you do not need, perform disk defragmentation, etc. True, I would not hope that these measures will significantly increase performance, but nevertheless.