We have 2 PC's in the hous,e the first is my old desktop machine with a 1.2GHz celeron and 512mb RAM and 120gb HD. The second is a Toshiba laptop with the same processor and RAM but only 20gb HD.

Until this week I'd not realised how slow the laptop is! It takes a good 4 mins from powering it up 'till it is possible to open IE or Outlook, just sits there churning on the HD. It has 8gb HD free.

The desktop machine does the same thing in half the time, as soon as you're logged in the icons are there and you can get working.

Now, the laptop has been on broadband all it's life so has all the latest windows updates etc. and runs Norton internet security. The desktop machine has never been on the web so only has XP SP2 and "Avast" anti virus.

The Laptop never used to be this slow :(

Is it Mr Gate's updates that are killing it?

What can I do to make it faster? - I've already added another 256mb RAM

Is the Windows firewall as capable as Norton? I have a firewall on the 3Com router too so perhaps I could install "Avast" for virus protection and ditch Norton?

Four words:

GET RID OF NORTON!!!

Seriously, It's given my home PC a new lease of life (now on AVG / ZoneAlarm), and Symantec AV's crippling our PCs here at work to such an extent that we're considering ditching it ASAP, despite this meaning that we'll take a pretty big hit on the remaining time we've got left on the licence... :(

I gather Windows Firewall is perfectly adequate if you've got XP, and as for the updates, I'm only aware of one instance where an update has caused problems, and that was to do with Java applications, rather than the performance of the OS itself. If you're short of hard-disk space, running Disk Cleanup has sorted out slowness problems on our PCs here at work in probably 95% of cases. Deleting all the files in C:\Temp and C:\Windows\Temp can also help, as for some reason Disk Cleanup doesn't always get these!?!

you want to try having Pointsec on your laptop, after work installed it it now takes 12 mins to boot up! At least my laptop data is secure, great!

I'd agree about ditching Norton and look at an alternative like Zonealarm. With a properly configured hardware firewall, your PC isn't at great risk (usual disclaimers apply ).

One thing I'd also do is run the Disk Defragmenter over the disk. As you use the PC data is stored "linearly" on the disk. Once it reaches the end of the disk, it then pokes data in any of the gaps (from deleted files) which can lead to files being fragmented which increases disk access times and can cause significant slowdowns.

Chris

One thing I'd also do is run the Disk Defragmenter over the disk.

I use disk keeper, i think its called. Which constantly defrages your harddrive, can also be set to do it when your not using your computer. Or just install OSX or Linux, as these don't get fragmented!

pointsec: sucks absolute goats, doesn't it? also stops you messing about with partitions to put a "home" alternate install on there and dual boot, grrrr!

Fragmented disk will have a massive impact on performance for sure. Laptop HDDs tend to be slow, and the older drives are even more so, new drives have decent data transfer, cache size and rotational speed to help, old ones tend to have virtually no cache (512kbyte or below :eek:, new ones are 8Mbyte on some), rpm of 3800 or 4200 rpm unlike the newer ones that are generally 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm, etc etc.

Norton is a resource hog & if you already have a firewall I'd get shot of it, personally. A sofware firewall / personal firewall does have it's additional advantages but on a lappy the benefits aren't all that great unless you use it on customer premises etc/hotels.

personally, i'd get shot of the laptop.....got a Tosh at home that has slowed down to a crawl over the years. Now it just sits as a huge paperweight.

The Tosh here at work is also slowing down visibly.

I just don't rate Tosh gear anymore.

Thanks for that wallet friendly option Gwilo

Thanks for that wallet friendly option Gwilo

always a pleasure to help you unburden yourself of all that excess financial baggage.....

pointsec: sucks absolute goats, doesn't it? also stops you messing about with partitions to put a "home" alternate install on there and dual boot, grrrr!

indeed, also my harddrive failed... So normally if it wasn't encrypted there were ways of getting the data off... Cannot even hibernate my laptop now...

Norton Internet Security is an appalling piece of bloatware!! Ditch it ASAP! Combo of the 3com router & Windows firewall is more than adequate. Remeber also that Norton updates itself as well - these tend to come in the form of new definitions etc which are invariably larger than previous ones and thus it uses even more resources as it goes along.

Other points would be how old is the install? If it's quite an old one than a re-install may be worthwhile.

If all this still doesnt solve it than another potential issue is the harddisk in the laptop, many old laptop HDs run at lower RPMs than desktop drives for power reasons - if the machine isnt used on battery very often it might be worth getting faster drive.

PS: Bit of a geek note but Linux filesystems DO fragment - it just doesnt become a significant issue untill the drive is 80-90% full!

The laptop is never used on battery as it died long ago, the battery is in the drawer.

Install is nearly 2 years old and I've installed/uninstalled lots of software lots of times as well as transfering gigabytes or photos etc. from cameras to CD.

I really want to avoid re-installing the whole thing as I could do without the hassle TBH.

Will remove Norton this evening and see how it goes.

I really want to avoid re-installing the whole thing as I could do without the hassle TBH.

The Disk Defragmenter is a Windows app (Start->Accessories->System Tools on XP) and if you close down all your open programs, and kick it off before you go to sleep, it'll hopefully be done by the morning. Depends how fragmented it is lol!!

Chris

Chris - I was refering to Karak's comment above relating the the age of the install

Combo of the 3com router & Windows firewall is more than adequate.

who told you that? Both of these firewalls only limit in coming traffic... Zonealarm will also stop out going traffic, stopping random software from dialing home..

It is outboud traffic I was wondering about. Norton has twice flagged outgoing traffic (one was from MS mouse software I'd told not to register )

I assumed Wondows would stop these just not flag them up.

I take it ZoneAlarm is easy to configure etc. and is less demanding than Norton?

pointsec: sucks absolute goats, doesn't it? also stops you messing about with partitions to put a "home" alternate install on there and dual boot, grrrr!

Do we think Vista's per-sector encryption will be better? Has anyone tried it yet? (Can anyone even remember what it's called? )

re norton removal: in case of problems, there's a norton clean tool available from the symantec website. it has a horrible habit of not uninstalling cleanly - if it doesn't you may need to do it in safe mode...

I assumed Wondows would stop these just not flag them up.

I thought window's firewall blocked incoming only?

I dont have a clue TBH. I've used norton products for the last 6 years.