I have a small issue with my laptop. It will load up quickly and be ok for a while but then all of a sudden it will start to slow down. This happens mostly when watching videos on youtube or iplayer or playing zoo tycoon. It will slow down for a while (approx five-ten mins) and the videos playing will be very jumpy and sometimes slow right down to a halt but the sound will usually carry on at the normal speed. Then all of a sudden it catches up with itself and everything moves very quickly until it gets to the point where the sound is at. and then it will be ok for another hour or so depending on what it is being used for, less if i’m still watching vids.

What’s causing this to happen? Could it be the RAM is getting used up while its buffering the videos or whatever its does so i can watch them. Will more RAM help? Currently got 1×512 and 1×256 in the slots. if i replace the 256 with a 1Gb will that help? Or is there something else more serious at work here? Do i need to format the disk and start again? could it be a programme i have installed that is causing the slow-down? what could it be?

what OS are you running? getting above 1gb wont hurt most things anyway. Check for all the background apps running, printer cr*p, digital camera cr*p, mobile phone cr*p basically anything that told you the world would end if you didn’t install the cd first has probably put loads of little background stuff on your PC that waits for something to happen. Check the contents of the system tray (bottom right next to the clock) all you really need is networking and the time.

Also what Anti Virus are you running some slow down incoming traffic to do slower checks. Norton is about the worst from memory

Runnig XP Home.

Tried the antivirus thing by uninstalling for a bit to see if that helped but nothing changed. Most memory intensive app running in background is the Advanced Windows Care at about 20meg. might stop that running at start up.

lol you probably have a virus now

As far as Advanced Windows Care goes did you install it? Try AVG and something like Spybot S&D as a combination instead. Performance tune ups ect always sound a bit dodgy. Generally the less running the better

install and run Crap Cleaner. You’ll e surprised how much stuff CC flushed out?

Silly question – are the vids you’re watching being sreamed over the net or being run from your HD?

videos are coming from the net. it seems ok when watching ones from the hd.

Should i not have installed AWC then?

Had AVG before but it made starting up the computer really slow. should i put it back on and just live with the time it takes to start up? I think it may have been worse before i uninstalled it.

Will try CC tonight.

Beefing your RAM will help in running OS and apps but my guess is your Braodband speed its hampering the vids from the net – in turn making you think its your machine thats slow. Upgrade you broadand for flicker free vids

was thinking of changing soon anyway but that doesnt explain why the computer runs slowly when i’m playing zoo tycoon which doesnt require the internet at all.

Like I say beefing the RAM up will help, so will CC. Don’t forget defrag – i use Defraggler – just search for that using Google.

It is always good to make sure you defrag your hdd every couple of months. Also get rid of any temporary internet files.

If that doesnt work get a hammer 😀