We've got a HP Media laptop which is quite frankly dying a death.

It's probably 7 or 8 years old and a decent enough spec but seems to be slow doing the standard tasks - like turning on and/or booting up openning closing pages.

It also runs super hot all the time with the fans going crazy about 10 seconds after turning on.

 

It's running Vista which i know is a poor start but what can i do to speed it up

 

I've run CCCleaner and Defraggler and uninstalled everything superfluous I can.

 

I have "got" a copy of Windows 7 that i've just installed on a brand new media PC and am wondering if a full format ans starta again will help or if installing 7 instead of Vista will help?

so a few questions

 

• What's the best way to make sure everything that should be backed up before a format is backed up?
  All media/music/photos are on an external hard drive and NAS Storage so those aren't too much of a worry but i'm thinking everything else
• If i run Windows 7 install from USB boot up will it over write Vista tidily or will it dual boot or not remove Vista etc?
• If I do "upgrade" Windows will it remove all programs that i have on Vista or do they get ported across?

Any help appreciated

1 - Backup files... If you've got your personal stuff on an external drive already I wouldn't be too fussed. But to be on the safe side, go to c:\users\YOUR NAME and back up the whole profile to the external drive as well.

 

2 - Install... When you're going through the win 7 install it'll tell you what drive it can be installed on. Odds are, it'll be the same one that Vista is on and will therefore end up being a dual boot. If you want to get rid of Vista then when you get to the drive selection for the win 7 install, select the relevant drive, select drive options and then select format. This will completely wipe the drive ready for a fresh install so make sure you've backed up first.

 

3 - Upgrade... If you go for a full format and install of win 7 you'll have nothing carried over at all. Literally nothing, it'll be like the machine is being turned on for the first time and you may find some interesting driver issues as well (I've found graphics and WLAN to be the biggest culprits on older laptops).

 

As for the fans, if the laptop is that old the thermal paste has probably dried out an needs replacing. Not a job for the faint hearted as you'll need to take the laptop completely apart....

Havnig used the laptop again last night it seems its in a massive catch-22 no win cyle of overheating 

 

I keep it plugged in cos the battery life is so poor, but if you unplug the power cable it stops overheating

Is it likely the battery is struggling to keep cool when there is current flowing through it?

Is it worth buying a new battery? I did that on an old Sony Vaio I had.

 

 

My Asus netbook is in a similar situation - just seems to have really slowed recently. Not sure whether to upgrade to a new netbook or not?

 

Is it likely the battery is struggling to keep cool when there is current flowing through it?

 

Charging will cause the battery to get warm and to the best of my knowledge the fans are there for cooling other internals on the lappie, batteries generally don't get any other cooling than the air around the outside of them.

 

A stand with built in fan might be some use.

Havnig used the laptop again last night it seems its in a massive catch-22 no win cyle of overheating 

 

I keep it plugged in cos the battery life is so poor, but if you unplug the power cable it stops overheating

Is it likely the battery is struggling to keep cool when there is current flowing through it?

 

if the battery is knackered, remove it, see if temps improve running solely on mains... If it's sensible enough to allow that.

 

Apart from that, tehre are almost certainly tutorials decribing how to get into the case. Initially, have a look for fluff, hair, dust and remove any from the vicinity of the fans or cooling ports and any heatsinks. if you have access to the CPU heatsink, consider re-doing the thermal paste but read up a bit beforehand for the best process.