Sluggish Mini Laptop

[Greg mgm]

My wife has an HP mini laptop with an Intel Atom processor N270 1.6GH, 1GB ram, 15 GB HD 3/4 full, Windows XP SP3. Yes, it's antiquated. She uses it for word processing and online research for her writing. No surprise, it has really bogged down since she bought it several years ago. There are no photos, videos or music on it...just necessary programs. We've done maintenance, but doesn't help. She plans to replace it with a newer laptop or Ipad. Question...is this old laptop beyond repair considering the weak specs?

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

It is likely a case that it just won't be economical to do anything with it.

I don't have an iPad or any kind of tablet but my instinct says be wary of trying to use any tablet to do extensive word processing.

[Steve Grisetti]

I agree with John. The Atom processor seems to indicate that this might even be a Netbook rather than a laptop -- and those are really low-power machines.

Nonetheless, if she wants to continue to use it for basic online functions, like e-mail, YouTube and browsing the internet, you can probably tune it up and clear off the junk.

I used this free program to tune up an old netbook with similar specs and I'm able to use it while traveling. It still takes 5-10 minutes to boot up -- but once it's up and running I can do pretty much anything online.

Here's a tune-up program I use. Just be sure to decline the search bar it tries to install during installation.
http://www.iobit.com/advancedsystemcareper.html

Also, with a 15 gig hard drive, it might be a good idea to try to keep at least 8 -10 gigs of it free.

[Bob]

The Atom processors were designed to be low power for Netbooks and such. It's a single core and only half the performance of a Pentium M with the same clock rate.

Sometimes, the problem with slowing is hardware related. If that's the case here, you may not be able to speed it up.

Since she is doing word processing, be sure to check out the office software available for the replacement platform before deciding. Blue Tooth keyboards are readily available and recommended if you choose a tablet.

[Greg mgm]

My wife was going through deleting file she thought wasn't needed and now it won't reboot. It tries for a couple seconds but kicks back to bios. It didn't come with an OS disc or disc drive, so we're moving on. She's researching something new.

Steve, I just tried using that tune up program on our old Gateway desktop and it completely messed it up. It went from pretty slow to unusable. No idea what happened. The program went through registry, performance, etc like it should, but made the issue 50 times worse. I plan to contact that company and see what they say.

[Peru]

My wife was going through deleting file she thought wasn't needed and now it won't reboot. It tries for a couple seconds but kicks back to bios. It didn't come with an OS disc or disc drive, so we're moving on. She's researching something new.

Kind of like the TV commercial where the guy spills coffee on his laptop so his company will buy him a new one?
We have two netbooks similar to that. One is at home and one is at work. We never use them.

If you get a new one, be sure to either make a clone or a system image so that you can easily recover from a similar problem.

[Steve Grisetti]

Really am surprised and sorry to hear the program messed up your computer, Greg. I've used it nearly a dozen computers over the past five years and have only had positive results.

In any event, you should be able to restore Windows to a previously saved restore point.

And, again. Sorry for the fubar.

[Greg mgm]

Quote "Kind of like the TV commercial where the guy spills coffee on his laptop so his company will buy him a new one? "

Exactly! She had "new computer on the brain" as she was deleting!

Steve- Years ago, I recommended a Centerforce automotive clutch to a friend (worked great for me) and of course when he installed one in his truck it was nothing but problems.

No worries about the computer issues. It was an old computer that is collecting dust that I experiment with occasionally.

[Steve Grisetti]

If you're interested, I'd love to have a whack at trying to revive it, Greg. If it's small enough that you don't mind shipping it to me. But that's up to you.

[Greg mgm]

If you're interested, I'd love to have a whack at trying to revive it, Greg. If it's small enough that you don't mind shipping it to me. But that's up to you.

Surprised to hear this Steve...that's very nice of you.
Were you referring to the mini lap top (netbook) that my wife deleted too much on,
or the desktop that was sluggish?

[Steve Grisetti]

Either. I'd do it just for the fun of it. Or the challenge.

I'm kind of geekish that way.