Really need help with 4 year old laptop

SpartenOmega117

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SpartenOmega117 on 24 February 2010

well i also use internet on it. i just want the laptop to be a little bit more fast and have better multi tasking. will 2gb of ram help with that?

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twesterm on 24 February 2010

SpartenOmega117 said:
well i also use internet on it. i just want the laptop to be a little bit more fast and have better multi tasking. will 2gb of ram help with that?

Yes and no. It will help some, but not really enough to care.

Seriously, your best bet is to back everything up, reformat, and install Windows again. That will be a much larger and much cheaper difference than adding 1.5 gigs of ram to a machine that doesn't need it in any way at all.

Unless you have 10 browser windows open all running different huge flash files, 7 copies of Word, itunes open, and zipping up half your hard drive all at the same time adding that ram isn't going to make that much of a noticeable difference.

Note-- I also wouldn't bother with Linux. It's easier on your system but it's also a pain in the ass. Reformat your computer and then google how to optimize XP.

Hell, I would even do that above Google search before reformatting and seeing if that helps.

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averyblund on 25 February 2010

twesterm said:

SpartenOmega117 said:
my laptop is not a gaming PC it is just something i do work on. my desktop is my gaming PC

Ah, then what's the trouble with it? What do you use on it?

If you're just using Word and things like that and it's being slow enough that you think upgrading will help, it probably won't help a lot. Just giving it a good cleaning/optimizing and removing crap would probably help more than ram.

If you're using things that actually need power, it will help some but it won't make it like new again. Generally just optimizing everything helps more than just adding ram (though that does help too).

I'm assuming you have XP, or at least you better have XP with that laptop, a good reformatting every 4-5 years does wonders.

I would certainly recommend a solid reformat. That being said Ubuntu Linux has a liveCD that will likely be agood example of Linux and its (potential benefits). A clean XP reinstall is a must every year for me.

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