Laptop Help!

[Mrski1]

Well i have been having problems with my Dell laptop for a while now, it was genrally running really slow but as well as that seemed to stall every couple of seconds, best description i can give is if i moved the mouse around the screen the mouse pointer would stop then jump to the place it should be, also while playing music it would also stall then jump to where it should be playing. Ontop of this i had a message saying 'device in the system modular bay cannot be found' or something similar, and also the battery wont last any longer than 2mins on a full charge.

The laptop was put into a local computer shop where he scanned for spyware and found 120 instances, even though my security software seemed to be running fine, so he cleared all of this and then re-formatted the hard drive, this seemed to do the trick and the computer ran really well, but a few weeks on and its back to its old trick, giving me the same warning and also running slower than it should, what could this be?

Am i best just giving up and buying a new laptop? or should i persevere and try rescue the current machine? Its 80Gb HD and 512 RAM, with a Intel Pentium M processor, fairly basic really.

If i should buy, where is the best place to look, and what brands should i stay away from?

 

[Nickyboy]

spybot search and destroy is great for removing spyware and blocking them from getting back
i`ve used it to sort out quite a few ppl`s sluggish PCs
And it`s free!
http://www.safer-networking.org/
Worth a shot eh

 

[imported_Ransoman]

What security suite are you using?

If you are forced to buy another (i wouldn't think so), spend no less than £500 and avoid anything called ACER.

 

[Nickyboy]

personally i use AVG and i`ve never had a problem

 

[Mrski1]

I use Norton.

I was considering buying another Dell but im unsure, our desktop at home is also buggered after a few years, almost as if Dell in build a self destruct button.

I almost certainly need a new battery for this laptop though.

 

[M21MFS]

I use Norton.

I was considering buying another Dell but im unsure, our desktop at home is also buggered after a few years, almost as if Dell in build a self destruct button.

I almost certainly need a new battery for this laptop though.

Norton in itself is slow. Go with AVG or similar and it'll do the job (possibly) better and using less system resources.

Norton is a waste of processor and usually ineffective anyway!

 

[imported_Ransoman]

My company exclusivly uses dell. i can tell you for a fact that they all stop working when they are 7 years old. Either the Motherboard dies or the power supply dies. Still, i keep them alive swapping bits between them (yes, my company really is that tight)

You could possibly revive the battery by using the laptop on battery mode, when the low battery alert comes up, plug in the power cord, when the batttery is fully charged, unplug. Rinse and repeat. That technique usually secures me some extra life.

Regarding internet security. The only ones i trust are Sophos and AVG. I refuse to use what i have to pay for ( ) so i stick with AVG anti-virus and anti-spyware for all of my machines. Update the definitions. Then fun a FULL system scan from each of them (antivirus and antispyware) while you are in SAFE mode.

Then scan disk, defrag and bob's your uncle!

This should help to some extreme.

 

[imported_Mark]

Hey mate.

With regards to purchasing a new laptop system I would recommend getting another Dell, i know my opinion may be some what biased due to working there however I have always found their notebooks to be pretty good - providing you know what you are looking for,

I picked myself up a Dell Latitude D620 recently, 1.8 Dual Core Proc, 2Gb Ram, comes with wireless as standard etc for less than £500.

Norton - Remove it, I despise Norton and I wouldn't recommend it to my enemies. It is as Martyn says a virus in itself, it slows every single system down to snails pace and causes more problems than it solves. I have a feeling that if your system is having the same problems after a complete re-install that the issue could possibly lie with sites or software that you are using on the system as it appeared to be running relatively "normal" for a few weeks before the problem reoccurred.

With regards to the battery, batteries are consumable items. They will need to be replaced after a few years of usage. As Andrew says there are a few steps which you can take to try and get your system back-up and running the way it was before.

 

[M21MFS]

Norton - Remove it, I despise Norton and I wouldn't recommend it to my enemies. It is as Martyn says a virus in itself, it slows every single system down to snails pace and causes more problems than it solves. I have a feeling that if your system is having the same problems after a complete re-install that the issue could possibly lie with sites or software that you are using on the system as it appeared to be running relatively "normal" for a few weeks before the problem reoccurred.

For a second there I thought I was gonna read it was the greatest thing ever and that it was just me! Thank fook for that! :lol:

Running Norton is like running AOL..there's just no need!

 

[Mrski1]

I dont especially have a high opinion of Norton due to the fact the computer guy found so much crap on my machine, i think something was blocking the updates too as when he had a look it was months out of date even though the live updates were performing every so often telling me everything was ok.

I will give the battery trick a bash and see how it works, like i say though it only lasts a few minutes before it dies so i wont get my hopes up!

Is AVG free then?

 

[M21MFS]

I dont especially have a high opinion of Norton due to the fact the computer guy found so much crap on my machine, i think something was blocking the updates too as when he had a look it was months out of date even though the live updates were performing every so often telling me everything was ok.

I will give the battery trick a bash and see how it works, like i say though it only lasts a few minutes before it dies so i wont get my hopes up!

Is AVG free then?

Yes <--- click for link!

 

[Mrski1]

Cheers, will try it out tonight.

 

[mountainmachine]

Which norton, anti virus wont protect you against spy wear etc, i use Norton corporate and its great and minimal, I have very few problems with spy wear as i always watch what i install and download, i use spybot but tend just to get the usual tracking cookies, nothing malicious.

I just got a Fujitsu Siemens Core 2 5500 2gb Ram 120Gb SATA, ATI X200(nothing special) dual layer dvdrw 15.4 £349

 

[Mrski1]

Not bad price, where was that from?

I would quite like something with a slightly smaller screen than 15" but cant be too choosy really.

 

[mountainmachine]

http://www.buyit247.com/acatalog/Grade_2_Laptops.html i went for a grade 2 one as it was super cheap, comes with a full 6month warranty and will be stress testing it to check for any problems, the one i'm getting just needed new RAM and was returned as new. Get it 2morrow.