Computer geniusus help please

[Cottis]

Can you get laptops with ssd's already installed? I was looking at replacing mine soon the battery life is tragic

Yep definitely but it might be quite costly. I've not looked for a while but last time I looked, machines with pre-installed SSD's seemed to be priced too highly for my liking. Could well have come down now though but not sure. My guess is they prob put the premium drives in machines with better processors and other components, hence the higher price. I am in the middle of playing poker and watching the City game, otherwise would have a quick look.

[mackenzie50]

Well that was helpful to me too ,Cottis , as altho' I use computers/laptops all the time I'm still ignorant of what's out there for upgrading...and of course keeping at least 2 ancient cars on the road, I like the olde fashionede idea of refurbing+revamping where feasible..not just chucking away +wasting potential. Cheers!

[Rikki Kitto]

It's quite an old computer dell optiplex but has windows 8 also had an extra 1 terabyte hard drive fitted for storage space the original drive is still in it which is 160G think it has 2G ram, use Avast Pro anti virus which seems fine, done the usual stuff defrag clean up delete temp files but having issues with some graphics running slowly, iTunes visualiser for one
Will defo think of the ssd option this sounds good and probably need a better graphics do da, I've heard people are having problems with windows 10 so might leave that for a while

[sidrick]

Not really. Rikki (with all due respect) sounds like he knows how to use a computer but like most people, doesn't know how it works.

He has mentioned that anti virus has been disabled and a drive cleaner attempted, so whilst assumptions are the mother of most balls ups, we can assume he is on some form of Windows, likely to be 7. If not, you could do with upgrading Rikki.

By all means, offer some pearls of wisdom. The boy needs help.

Well, yes really, IMO. Folk advising to defrag the HD when using an OS which defrags the HD itself doesn't really get us anywhere. Establishing the facts first will lead to a quicker resolution.

I'm not sure advising an SSD and clean OS install really helps (though I do agree it's potentially the right course of action before we address other bottlenecks once the SSD is in place. I.E. why fit an SSD if we're working with a P4 processor, 2gb RAM and the actual complaint is about graphics?) if the user in question doesn't know A) What an SSD is, and B) How to speed up his current configuration (sorry to be blunt, OP, we can't all be good at everything!)

Vorsprung durch Technik offers the most sensible answer. Give it to someone who knows what they're looking at; a friend, relative or even a forum member who can do it for you for some beer tokens. IMO.... it's time to upgrade.

[Cottis]

Well, yes really, IMO. Folk advising to defrag the HD when using an OS which defrags the HD itself doesn't really get us anywhere. Establishing the facts first will lead to a quicker resolution.

I'm not sure advising an SSD and clean OS install really helps (though I do agree it's potentially the right course of action before we address other bottlenecks once the SSD is in place. I.E. why fit an SSD if we're working with a P4 processor, 2gb RAM and the actual complaint is about graphics?) if the user in question doesn't know A) What an SSD is, and B) How to speed up his current configuration (sorry to be blunt, OP, we can't all be good at everything!)

Vorsprung durch Technik offers the most sensible answer. Give it to someone who knows what they're looking at; a friend, relative or even a forum member who can do it for you for some beer tokens. IMO.... it's time to upgrade.

Which is what I suggested really. An SSD is a real term upgrade. I also suggested Rikki give it to a friend in the know if that is possible. It is/was merely a suggestion and comfortably an attempt at being more helpful than your post but meh.

As you have said, VSDT amongst others have offered some advice and attempts at help. Rikki can ignore or use the info as he sees fit. Good luck with it Rikki.

[Rikki Kitto]

😳we'll have no shouting here, all advice will be pondered over for a few weeks then probably forgotten about then I will post another thread in a few months going over the same old stuff, I would rather upgrade than renew as the computer seems to be fine for most things but if I were to renew it it's important to buy a system that is hi quality audio friendly, any advice on this guys😊

[irishs2]

Check your cpu cooler, it could be blocked with dust. This leads to thermal throttling which can slow your pc quite a bit.

[sidrick]

You can be as helpful as you want by telling him to get an SSD, but if that's not actually causing his problem then it's not much use

I'm not having a go at you, just reiterating that getting the details of his PC before advising saves a lot of wasted time and potentially money.

Meh, as you were....

[S2central.net]

P4 processor and 2GB ram - lol - I don't get out of bed for less than a 3GHz quad core i7 and 16GB.

In all seriousness though - an SSD is a great upgrade from mechanical disks.

[Cottis]

P4 processor and 2GB ram - lol - I don't get out of bed for less than a 3GHz quad core i7 and 16GB.

In all seriousness though - an SSD is a great upgrade from mechanical disks.

That it is. They literally breath new life into old machines and installed into modern tech, the speed is absurd. HDD are what gives older machines the treacle treatment which is what the overwhelming majority of us have suffered with over the years. You know the score, you buy a machine and it begins slowing down the first time you ever boot it up. It is always backwards from there on in.

I personally think from experience that not having one is like running an engine without oil.

[diesel des]

An ssd and another 2 gb ram to bring you to 4. Your pc is low on ram so it continually writes to your slow hard disk temporary page files. More ram means less disk action and the ssd gives much faster read times when it's needed.

We are just guessing here though as it's hard to diagnose from a distance. But ram and ssd make a big difference to many old pc's.

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

Check your cpu cooler, it could be blocked with dust. This leads to thermal throttling which can slow your pc quite a bit.

Irish2 is right.

Again as i complete novice and after learning the hard way i now go to a high street store.I was given well meaning advice from an IT expert (not a friend just a random meet and chat over an eBay item i bought) but his advice might as well been directed to a 5 year old as i had no idea what he was talking about and in a vein attempt to understand i just wasted hours of my time whilst my own thermal fuse was about to blow.

My laptop dell attitude D830 which has already been upgraded profesionally over a year ago all of a sudden just started shutting the screen image down.Then the graphics were awful and unusable. I shouldn't have ignore the fact that my fan had been working overtime for months and months and that was the reason why my computer shut down. After a check with youtube irish2 is absolutely right.I managed to lift the base of my laptop to enable greater airflow therefor enabling the computer to work reasonably well albeit slowly as it seamed to be just under the ceiling temperature where it would shut down. Go on youtube and discover this clip its amazing how blowing out the dust and making some adjustments to system usage or something like that which says if you dial in 99% just 1 percent less than normal you gain a good degree of temperature drop allowing the computer to function much better. I know this because i am a complete cave man when it come to computers.Thats why i turned to you tube and more importantly just bought a 21 iMac 2.7 ghz quad core i5 processor 8gb ram,1 + b whatever all that means. I at least understand that the 2.7ghz is good and basically double the entry one at 1.4 ghz. So my problem solved and my sanity for now.


All the best with it,but do take it to the experts who can advise impartially what best for you.If yours is fairly old it's probably time to buy another.Mine was 8 years old and annoyingly it still has all my photos on and documents,so thousands. That will be another youtube tutorial to explain how to transfer it all or if i run out of patience i will just pay the £50 to the high street store and be done with it.Probably best and much better for the blood pressure!

[andy10v]

annoyingly it still has all my photos on and documents,so thousands. That will be another youtube tutorial to explain how to transfer it all or if i run out of patience i will just pay the £50 to the high street store and be done with it.Probably best and much better for the blood pressure!

I would consider buying an external USB hard drive, you can just plug it in and copy all your pictures onto it very easily (kind of like a massive USB memory stick), and then access them by plugging it into any computer. Also you dont clog up your new computer with pictures.

They are now very cheap to buy for massive storage space.

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

I would consider buying an external USB hard drive, you can just plug it in and copy all your pictures onto it very easily (kind of like a massive USB memory stick), and then access them by plugging it into any computer. Also you dont clog up your new computer with pictures.

They are now very cheap to buy for massive storage space.

Thanks for chiming in Andy. Have you got a link to something to give me an idea?
Cheers mate!

[andy10v]

Thanks for chiming in Andy. Have you got a link to something to give me an idea?
Cheers mate!

Something like one of these

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/comput...-criteria.html

I will leave the computer guys to advise what kind, I just got a £50 or £70 one from PC World or Currys, plug it in, and you can drag and drop or copy stuff into it like its a folder on the computer. I think you can also set it up to back up your computer when you plug it in, which would be sensible, but we just use it for picture storage.

Handy when a computer dies as you dont loose all your pictures.