I need help with my laptop...:)?

I have an Inspiron 8600 laptop by Dell. It is running really slowly even though I've cleaned alot of the programs off of it and gotten rid of all spyware, viruses, etc. What would help it speed up? Should I upgrade my memory or my hard drive first if I can only afford to do one at a time? According to the Dell website, my computer has 384 mb of memory and can hold up to 2gb of memory. It currently has 30 gb on the hard drive and can hold up to 80gb on the hard drive. Help!! Also, what kind of hard drive is best if I opt to upgrade it? External or internal?

Also, should I get my memory and/or hard drive from Dell or somewhere else?

If you just want to do a quick check do this:

1) Click on start and go to run
2) Type in msconfig
3) Click on the "Startup" tab
4) Uncheck everything
5) Click apply/ok then restart the computer.

This will disable your startup group items. If you notice your system running faster, then you just need more ram. If it's running the same, format the laptop and reinstall windows (or better yet, switch to Linux, it's always fast)

More memory = drastically faster computer.

I would suggest getting another internal drive.

dells always break.

you need a ram pack

Which Windows system have you got? Vista by any chance?
Cause Vista could even slow down a bullet train. For Vista you need at least 1.5 gb to have the computer run smoothly.

Buy 1.5 gb of extra memory first. Check if your laptop has enough free slots for two memory sticks (you may have space just for one 1.0 gb). If that doesn't work than consider internal changes.

oh definitely upgrade your RAM it is not enough. upgrade it internally if anything. noting external will help with the speed.

buy the memory. get a 1gb stick. that should help a lot. you aren't even using half of your hard drive. that seems fine.

/agree upgrade memory first

External harddrives are great for backing up. But a internal harddrive upgrade would boost your speed a bit. Also maybe you should get a new graphics card. Also try another scan of your computer to remove spyware

first thing would be to get more ram I suggest 2gb. an internal hd is better than an external hd but since you have a laptop the internal may not be an option

harddrive has nothing to do with speed u should get more memory about 1gb, thats upgradable too.

RAM is going to speed it up, hard drive space is only so you can save more stuff on it. Make sure you don't have a lot of programs opening on start up by going to start>run>msconfig>start up. this will speed it up too. Internal hard drives are more convenient, but externals are good for a quick fix plug in and go upgrade, more for secondary files and stuff though, not stuff you use all the time.

That 384 RAM sucks. Upgrade to something like 512 or 1g. Also you can get an external drive for pretty cheap these days. (you don't want an internal drive)

i'm not really sure but you could call technical support! they are really smart and can help you with any computer related issue. here is the number i use it all the time and it works like a charm # 866-234-6020

Well - 384 MB of memory is not a lot.

It would help a little upgrade your memory. The hardware on the computer are not as advanced as the other computers in this time. That also has something to do with it.

Upgrade your hard drive if you wish. The best thing to get would be an internal hard drive, if you don't want to take it with you. With an external hard drive, you can take it anywhere, and get the files on almost any computer! That's why I like them! =)

Good luck!

If you upgrade your hard drive it would have to be an internal drive. However, you can SUPPLEMENT this with an external drive if you'd like. Drives typically come in two speeds: 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm. Obviously, the 7200 will bring up your information and files much faster.

Before you look at upgrading I would make sure you are truly free of spyware and viruses. The next step would be to diagnose what the problem is; otherwise you may replace parts you don't have to.

Finally, upgrading your RAM most often is a cheap and easy way to speed up your computer.

wow ok you most def need to upgrade your memory you barely have any!!! you have a 256mb module installed, the dell website is wrong, you dont have 384mb of memory you have 256mb, what you should do is get rid of that 256mb module and add 2 1gb modules, you need ddr pc 2700 (333mhz) sodimm's.

If you do a lot of Internet surfing, clear your cookies. If you use Explorer you can go into Start> Control Panel> Internet Options and clear from there. Or with Firefox you can go Tools> Options> Privacy> Show Cookies> Remove All.

This helps a lot of the time. I hope it works for you.

well if you want to upgrade hard drives.. the larger the better but external is outside and internal is inside.. i would get internal just because you don't have to carry it around but external is nice too because it is easy enough to hook up an store files. now your slowness could be due to too many programs running in the background. just a ton of small programs that take up memory to run and they add up. i would suggest that you run "clean up" or something like that. empty your temporary internet files as well. this helps but i would suggest faster processor that is just me. but yeah try those!


hope this helped!

A second hard drive wont do too much good. Have you defragged your HD lately? That will help.

Also, it might be a good idea to find your Dell Restore CD that came with the laptop. Once you find it, backup your important files (work, school stuff, music, etc) and then put the restore CD in and tell it to restore. This will reformat your comp which means it will whipe everything (and I mean everything) off the HD, then it will install Windows again and your comp will run JUST like it did when you bought it. Its basically a factory reset.

More RAM might help you, 384 isnt much in today's standards. I suggest at least 1GB (about 1000MBs). But first, try the above suggestion... I guarantee your comp will run faster after you do that. Why? because comps collect a lot of crap whether or not you tell them to... so its good to reformat them every 6 months or so to keep it from bogging itself down.

Good luck.

To make life easy take your Laptop to a major store tell them you need a RAM upgrade to 2GB and ask them to install it for you.

That WILL solve your problem for the time being, when you can next afford to take your laptop to the same said major store have them fit the biggest Hard Drive you can afford into it.

After that if you still want more speed go back get a CPU upgrade, after that maybe even a board change.

Long and short answer is you need RAM and all the other stuff will only help ONCE your RAM has been up-rated to 2GB

Hope this helps

ok well the memory isnt to good, Did you try a system defragmatize? do disc cleanup alo

Especally if your running windows vista and that operating system takes up alot of memory so I suggest that you get way better ram like at least 2 gb.

Also if there is alot of programs that pop up when you start up your laptop there is a way to close all of those...

Start>run>type msconfig>startup>then you uncheck all the ones that you dont want>then you hit ok>then it will ask you to restart and hit say ok>

HOPE THIS HELPED

I found the system spec online and this is what I've found so far:

Type: Gaming, General Purpose, Media
Operating System: MS Windows XP Home
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
RAM: 512 MB
Weight: 7.1 lb
Screen Size: 15.4 inches
Screen Size Type: widescreen
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon 9600
Storage Capacity: 60 GB
Networking Options: 802.11g
Primary Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW (Plus Minus)

If you're running on XP, I'd suggest you get at least 1gb ram. Try splitting your HDD space into 2 partition: C and D. C drive will be for OS and D drive for your data. It'll work faster if your configure your laptop like that.

How many items are in your startup? What services start up when your computer boots? If you click "Start" - "All Programs" - "Startup", how many items are there? This should be EMPTY; anything in here is slowing down your computer.

Next, check the registry key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Wi... and see what is in there. The only item that NEEDS to be in there is ctfmon (and that's debatable). Anything else is slowing down your computer. Before making any changes, be sure to export the registry key so you can restore the original contents if there are errors.

Finally check the registry key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\W... and see what is there. There may be a lot of items. I've seen as many as 30 items in this registry key. Go through them one by one and determine what each one does. Before making any changes be certain to export the registry key so you can restore it if there are any errors. There are certain items that need to be there (like anti-virus, anti-spyware, and certain necessary hardware drivers) but there also may be a lot of extraneous items (like Limewire, instant messaging, etc). Take out all items that you figure are extraneous. Then reboot.