Updating laptop....

Bought a new Lenovo G50 laptop in March last year and been very pleased with it but inevitably it's starting to slow down when switching on first thing. However not familiar at all with what needs to be done regarding drivers and anything else or where to get them from. Done a thorough clean out with CCleaner and Malwarebytes but it's still slower.

All I'm looking for is to liven it up again as much as possible which I would assume meaning updating drivers and so on, so any thoughts and advice much appreciated but please keep it as non technical as possible as it rarely means anything !

Thanks :)

Hi,
1. Are you concerned about the time from boot to lock/login screen, or the time from logging in to desktop display and PC being useable?

From switching on the laptop first thing to it being usable.

2. About how long was the boot time (to login screen) originally, and how long is it now?

Originally about 20/25 seconds starting March '16 until about 4/5 months ago when it dropped down to 60 odd seconds on average and is still the same.

3. Are you using a HDD or a SSD?
Sorry haven't a clue as not been asked that before.

I find the time from logon to all start-ups running is the one I most notice- that depends much on what you have set to start up. That's the relatively easy phase to deal with.

Yes I know about the add on devices that have to start up first and how they can delay the pc before it becomes usable. I've pruned down a few of them but since they've all been there more or less since the beginning I felt it wasn't that that was causing the problem.

Perhaps if you were to follow the instructions here, and post more info,
BSOD - Posting Instructions - Windows 10 Forums
that would let anyone see what is running on your PC if they wished to try to hazard a guess.

I'd rather not thanks as I'd be bound to mess something up....

The simplest answer is: if your PC is running ok, don't do anything about drivers - MS updates these for you.

Ah thanks never knew that so definitely won't touch.

slicendice said:

I think you have a 500GB 5400rpm Mechanical Hard Drive. Upgrading this to a Solid State Disk would boost performance a lot.

But before that, I would start by running checking how much free space you have on your C-drive. Second thing you could try is to run disk defragmenter on C-drive, if your HDD has more than 30% free space.

There are a lot of things you could do to improve the boot time and overall performance. But most things are quite involved. The 2 things mentioned above would get you started.

I would also suggest you stop using CCleaner as most of what is does can be a bit dangerous for people who are not that good at computer and operating system internals. It for instance removes registry entries it thinks are bad or wrong, when Windows actually need those "empty or wrong" entries. Don't get me wrong, CCleaner is a great tool, but the user must know what he's doing.

Thanks

Discovered that the defrag has been set automatically on a weekly basis since new and that all's ok.

Is the SSD expensive and not being a techie is this something my local computer guy would do as he could order it at the same time ?

I've used CCleaner for years and it's fine however only ever removing temp files....

spunk said:

CCleaner is a fine program, as long as you stick to just removing the Temp files, and do not use the Registry cleaner, as this causes more problems then it fixes.
You have not told us how much Physical RAM (Memory) you have. Right click This PC and choose Properties. How much Installed Memory do you have? Adding more RAM helps a lot.
Also, as has been stated, to improve boot times replacing your Mechanical HDD with an SSD drive will speed your computer up dramatically.
As for maintenance, go to Search and type Disk Defrag and press enter, then Defrag your C: drive.
You should also run Check Disk on the drive.
Press the Windows key+X and select Command Prompt (Admin) in the Elevated Command Prompt type chkdsk /R and press enter. Now type a Y for Yes and Reboot the computer. Check Disk will check for Bad Sectors, this will take a while. This may slightly improve performance.

As above Defrag done automatically on a weekly basis since new and just checked no problems, also CCleaner is fine but only ever for removing temp files.

More RAM sounds interesting, as in the pic above RAM is 4.00 GB so what are the options and any idea of the cost ?

Think that's everything....

dalchina said:

.

[/I]If you install a SSD you might expect about 13s from boot to login screen. You will probably not notice much of an improvement unless you do things which are disk intensive; launching larger programs can be faster.Check the cost of a SSD- prices per Mb have been falling, as you might expect. However, if you are asking a computer shop to effect the transfer, this will add substantially to the bill. Note: it is quite feasible to do this yourself.

I have not noted a change in this time: I have a lot of programs installed. Could be driver or service related; analysing this requires using the appropriate (techy) tool.

Thanks, far beyond my abilities so if a new RAM is an option could do both at the same time with my computer guy who works from home, quite the opposite of PCWorld and their expensive like....:)

Your 4Gb RAM and an SSD should be super rapid.

The beauty of swapping the drive is that you can leave your present windows installation intact... because its on the old drive... and that would allow you to have a go at clean installing W10 onto the new SSD which is normally the best option as it removes all superfluous junk that all new PC's come with.

Typically a swap of the drive simply involves removing the purpose designed access cover on the underside, unscrewing and removing the HDD and slotting the new one in. There are lots of videos around that show how.

The gains from an SSD in my experience are truly massive. From hitting the power button to the fully populated desktop screen appearing takes around 11 seconds on my laptop, add another 2 or 3 seconds and I could be here typing away... its that fast. Programs such as LibreOffice open near instantly, full image backups take under 3 minutes. Its just win win win every which way you look at it.