Tech help with laptop

[Cajuncowboy]

I have an older HP laptop, about 4 years old, It was window vista installed. 2GB Ram, 1.60 GHz and 142 GB HD.

I haven't used it much but my daughter has a friend who needs a laptop and wanted me to give it to her but I don't want to give her something that is having issues.

The problem is that the laptop is slow to open programs surf the net. Also, it gets real hot fairly quickly and it makes a lot of noise like a fan is blowing constantly. But I think it might be the hard drive spinning but I don't know.

It also shuts itself down after a while. Maybe it's getting too hot. I don't know.

Any PC gurus out there who can give me some self fixes for this?

Also, I m thinking about just restoring the pc to the original settings and wiping off everything else. Would that solve the problem?

 

[casmith07]

I have an older HP laptop, about 4 years old, It was window vista installed. 2GB Ram, 1.60 GHz and 142 GB HD.

I haven't used it much but my daughter has a friend who needs a laptop and wanted me to give it to her but I don't want to give her something that is having issues.

The problem is that the laptop is slow to open programs surf the net. Also, it gets real hot fairly quickly and it makes a lot of noise like a fan is blowing constantly. But I think it might be the hard drive spinning but I don't know.

It also shuts itself down after a while. Maybe it's getting too hot. I don't know.

Any PC gurus out there who can give me some self fixes for this?

Also, I m thinking about just restoring the pc to the original settings and wiping off everything else. Would that solve the problem?

If you're going to give it as a gift that's a smart bet anyway, and it might repair some of the issues if they're related to the OS.

Sounds like it might have some motherboard issues though, with the overheating, etc. I would wipe it and see what it does -- if it's still acting up after a wipe, then it's got some bigger hardware problems.

A small bump in the RAM from 2GB to 4GB wouldn't hurt either, and shouldn't be expensive at all.

 

[Cajuncowboy]

If you're going to give it as a gift that's a smart bet anyway, and it might repair some of the issues if they're related to the OS.

Sounds like it might have some motherboard issues though, with the overheating, etc. I would wipe it and see what it does -- if it's still acting up after a wipe, then it's got some bigger hardware problems.

A small bump in the RAM from 2GB to 4GB wouldn't hurt either, and shouldn't be expensive at all.

Can a motherboard be replaced as well in a laptop?

 

[Yeagermeister]

Can a motherboard be replaced as well in a laptop?

Yes but you have to dismantle the body of the laptop.

The running slow is more likely an OS issue like Cas said. The overheating could be a simple as the vents being clogged with dust or the cooling fans could be broken.

A can of compressed air can clear the vents.

 

[Signals]

I'd like to suggest that you buy your daughters friend a new laptop. You can get an awesome deal for 250-300 bucks. Don't give important people left over junk, give them new things.

Your Father will repay you.

 

[Reality]

Laptop internal fans can get noisier over time due to wear. They are usually over-priced and sometimes difficult to replace depending on the manufacturer and laptop design.

They can also get noisier if there is a heating (or over-heating) problem on the the motherboard because they have to run at higher speeds. Most heating issues in laptops are usually related to air flow.

Laptop cd drives can also be noisy so make sure you do not have a CD in the drive except when you need it.

First thing you need to do is get a can of compressed air and with the laptop off, blow air into every opening of the laptop specifically look for the air vent for the CPU/heat sink and concentrate a lot of air in to that opening.

If the drive is louder than the fan, odds are good it wouldn't boot or keep running without crashing in a laptop.

Vista is a horrible and bloated OS so you will get poor performance from it. There are a lot of web sites with tweaks you can perform to it from within Windows that will help improve its boot time, make it run faster, etc. Do a google search for it something like "vista improve performance" or similar.

#reality

 

[67CowboysFan]

Yes but you have to dismantle the body of the laptop.

The running slow is more likely an OS issue like Cas said. The overheating could be a simple as the vents being clogged with dust or the cooling fans could be broken.

A can of compressed air can clear the vents.

I had a power supply fan go out once and it took out the hard drive, cd drive, caused shut downs, etc. Those would be the first two things to check.

 

[tupperware]

What does she do with her PC? If it's just general browsing, youtube, etc. You might want to look into a a version of Linux that is easy to use such as Mint.

Vista is a resource hog and will chew up a gig or more of memory by itself. This leaves very little room for other applications.

 

[Cajuncowboy]

Is it possible to load another OS in the laptop like a different windows OS other than vista? Will vista go away completely?

 

[Cajuncowboy]

What does she do with her PC? If it's just general browsing, youtube, etc. You might want to look into a a version of Linux that is easy to use such as Mint.

Vista is a resource hog and will chew up a gig or more of memory by itself. This leaves very little room for other applications.

She will need to keep the Microsoft office products as well. Using some spreadsheets along with the web browsing.

 

[Yeagermeister]

Is it possible to load another OS in the laptop like a different windows OS other than vista? Will vista go away completely?

Absolutely I do it all the time

 

[Cajuncowboy]

Absolutely I do it all the time

I am going to load another OS on this laptop. What are the best OS available that doesn't eat so much resources like Vista? Are there any that are free?

 

[roughneck266]

You can still use spreadsheets and such with out MS Office. Open office will pretty much do anything.
If you are compelled to keep vista, do some research and see what services you can kill in order to get the most you can from it. Blackviper.com has a pretty comprehensive list of those. Still wont be as nice as using Win 7 but it will definitely make it more usable. If the above mentioned cleaning of the vents doesn't stop the overheating issue, you might also need to blow out the heat sink on the processor. Also it could just be a bad stick of RAM causing it to shut off, does it give a blue screen or anything when it does this?

 

[roughneck266]

Linux. There are lots of different versions. Ubuntu is my favorite. Your mileage may vary. You can have a look at some of them here: http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

 

[Cajuncowboy]

You can still use spreadsheets and such with out MS Office. Open office will pretty much do anything.
If you are compelled to keep vista, do some research and see what services you can kill in order to get the most you can from it. Blackviper.com has a pretty comprehensive list of those. Still wont be as nice as using Win 7 but it will definitely make it more usable. If the above mentioned cleaning of the vents doesn't stop the overheating issue, you might also need to blow out the heat sink on the processor. Also it could just be a bad stick of RAM causing it to shut off, does it give a blue screen or anything when it does this?

Nope. It just shuts down. It happens when it is on for long periods of time.

Also, I am thinking I might replace the MB and add RAM. Not sure how to tell if I can add RAM but I am going to look into it.

 

[roughneck266]

Crucial.com has a configurator that will tell you what RAM you have and how much you can actually use.
MB replacement is a bit of a pain in the keester. lol It can be done and I have done a lot of em. Alot of the time though it is mroe cost effective to get a new laptop though, greatly depends on what the original cost of the laptop was and obviously what the cost of the MB is.

 

[Cajuncowboy]

Crucial.com has a configurator that will tell you what RAM you have and how much you can actually use.
MB replacement is a bit of a pain in the keester. lol It can be done and I have done a lot of em. Alot of the time though it is mroe cost effective to get a new laptop though, greatly depends on what the original cost of the laptop was and obviously what the cost of the MB is.

I just found out it is maxed at 2GB and that's what I have now. Someone mentioned the MB could be the reason it is shutting down. I might just ditch the whole deal if It doesn't make sense and just buy her friend a new laptop. But either way, I want to put another OS on it.

 

[roughneck266]

Thats a good plan. Nothing lost by downloading a Linux distro and at least giving it a shot. You will definitely get more bang for that 2GB of RAM out of linux.
Incidentally, does the laptop restart by itself after it shuts down, or do you have to restart it to get it going again?

 

[Cajuncowboy]

Thats a good plan. Nothing lost by downloading a Linux distro and at least giving it a shot. You will definitely get more bang for that 2GB of RAM out of linux.
Incidentally, does the laptop restart by itself after it shuts down, or do you have to restart it to get it going again?

It does not restart on it's own. I have t power it up.

 

[Cajuncowboy]

Thats a good plan. Nothing lost by downloading a Linux distro and at least giving it a shot. You will definitely get more bang for that 2GB of RAM out of linux.
Incidentally, does the laptop restart by itself after it shuts down, or do you have to restart it to get it going again?

Hey. question about the Linux. Can you still use Microsoft programs like Excel and office and such? Are there any programs that you can't use on it?