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Hi all... I'm hoping you guys can help me out. I have a year and a half old HP Pavilion dv5000 with 1 gig RAM and an upgraded videocard. Ever since my laptop was about 6 months old, the boot up time has increased (pretty suddenly, it wasn't a slow increase), my music won't play well from itunes or WMP (skippy and repeats... completely unlistenable), and DVDs and streamed video from places like Youtube also don't work well (also skippy). I'd had my laptop checked out and there are no viruses or anything like that but the computer guy suggested it might be a soundcard issue. I was planning on upgrading my laptop sometime next year to a laptop able to handle publishing video diaries of my travels, but I was hoping to keep this one until I run it into the ground while abroad.
Do you think it could be a soundcard problem? Is it worth it to get an external sounddrive? I'm not really in a position to reformat and the computer guy just told me the soundcard but didn't offer to fix it. Any ideas?
Open taskmanager and start looking at the individual processes and checking what they do by referencing them on the internet. Then start closing them one by one until the system starts to speed back up. There are only a few processes that will lock-up or shut down the computer if closed.
Next you'll want to find all of the programs that automatically load on start up and start trimming them out of the queue.
This type of diagnosis takes time and patience, and you'll need something like spybot to keep programs from rewriting deleted entries into the registry.
Open taskmanager and start looking at the individual processes and checking what they do by referencing them on the internet. Then start closing them one by one until the system starts to speed back up. There are only a few processes that will lock-up or shut down the computer if closed.
Next you'll want to find all of the programs that automatically load on start up and start trimming them out of the queue.
This type of diagnosis takes time and patience, and you'll need something like spybot to keep programs from rewriting deleted entries into the registry.
About 4 years ahead of you. :P I know what all of my processes do and I cut out excessive ones, so that's not it. Programs running music or video seem to hog more than normal resources though, sometimes shooting my CPU up to 100% when it never did that before the sound started having problems. I also have spybot and run the checker once every other day or so.
Normally it WOULD be a resource issue but I can have nothing running but windows and iTunes and it's the same problem. Heck, my laptop even can run the Sims 2 with expansion packs smoothly, just not the sound.
Excellent! It is refreshing to find someone who has already worked through the basics.
I gather you verified that the memory is good and have run benchmarks to see how the system compares to the specs? Verified that the files and drivers are current?
If all that checks out, a sudden dropping of speed very well could be a hardware problem as you suggest. How about cooling issues? Fans working OK? No dust build-ups on vents? Is the upgraded card running hot?
One crazy thought might be to see if you have an old restore point prior to the slowdown. I don't usually suggest using restore, but it might eliminate a few remaining possibilities.
FWIW, I have an ancient laptop that did a similar slow-down process, and after stripping out all the excess, I eventually came to the conclusion that it was decrepit enough that it was likely the error checking routines and somewhat likely the overheat prevention were slowing it down, but (for a while) still keeping it functioning enough that I wasn't losing data. It wasn't worth the time or money to investigate further and I offloaded my data and moved on. Probably not what you'd like to hear. Good luck, and hope your problem is less extreme. Maybe someone else has some ideas?
Thanks! Yup.. I've done all of that. My computer guy also upgraded something on my CPU- he replaced a part of it with silver or aluminum because he said the other part had melted? I don't exactly remember what the specifics were, but he also cleaned out the laptop at that point. It cut down the start up time (it was up to 20 or 30 minutes at one point, now it's at 5 which is still much longer than it was when I got it but I can deal) but it didn't change the sound performance. Everything else is good.
With a restore point (assuming I have one since this was over a year ago), what would change? I wouldn't lose programs or files, correct?
I'm hoping to stretch it out at least through the end of this year, the summer, and the first part of next year. I have $50 to spend on either a ipod dock to play my music or a soundcard, but I don't know which would make more sense. I was considering springing for more memory too but 1 gig should be enough (split between two sticks) and I don't want to buy anything for the laptop if it's not going to get better.
How is virtual memory set up? Handled by Windows or custom?
If you haven't yet you might try increasing it.
If you haven't tried it go to Start/Run/msconfig (bet you've been there a few times already...) and click on the general tab. Choose Diagnostic Startup and reboot.
Notice you can start/stop startup items here by playing with the check boxes. Does turning off one section help?
Don't ignore boot.ini. There are web sites that will explain what should and shouldn't be there.
Is the boot time better? If boot up is quicker and you have your Startup trimmed down take a close look at Services. Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services.
Five minutes startup? Melted parts? You are W-A-A-Y more tolerant than I am.
If I wanted to invest a few bucks, I'd try replacing the CPU and bonding it to a cooler attached to a glacier. Seriously, an overheated CPU might be the core (sorry for the pun) problem. Some MBs allow you to reduce the voltage and hence CPU temp, but I haven't fooled with that stuff in ages and would be talking out of my hat if I said more than that on the subject.
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