Processor speed increase
 

I suspect I may know the answer but with many people here with far greater IT experience there may be options that can be considered.

I have an Acer Aspire One, with an Intel Atom processor and running Windows 7 starter. Although about 3 years old it has been rarely used and at the time of purchase it suited my needs.

I like the size and weight of it yet the the speed of "activity" can best be described as methodically measured. I do not use it for heavy duty work just over the counter financial program (Quicken) / basic Excel spreadsheets etc and a little internet surfing in airport lounges etc.

Is there anything that I can do that will speed things up without incurring huge expense or am I better off ditching it and getting a better specc'd laptop?

I will appreciate any advice offered?

Changing the processor is not going to be worth it, but increasing the RAM would probably help. The sites I've quickly looked at suggest it will only have 1GB installed - apparently 4GB can be fitted, but Win7 starter will only "see" a maximum of 2GB.

But even before you consider that, have you had a look at the usual "slow running" suspects, such as unnecessary start up items? There may also be running services that you don't use or need, which can be disabled.

TFP

Thanks TFP that sounds like a good place to start, I think my perspective has been distorted by having used a high-ish spec company laptop for years.

With a looming change of employment I am having to look at what I have rather more than what I would like :*

Use MSCONFIG from the Run (or search) box to see all the startup items and running services. Assuming it's in Windows 7 Starter edition...

If it's a single core CPU then ditch it. Dual core, it might be worth giving some memory to it - although if both slots are already occupied you'll have to lose the existing.

There's a lot of different Acer Aspire One models, with huge variation in CPU and RAM, so a bit more info would be helpful - msinfo32 should work from the Run box.

SD

My wife has a little Acer and uses it for a surprising number of tasks. As I lugged my 16" Vaio across the Atlantic I envied her the compactness of her machine. However, I paid some young chap $275 for this quad i7 beastie and I'm sure there must be the equivalent deals over here - albeit, pound for dollar. Prior to that I picked up an Asus i5 exec toy, $1,400 new, for $295.

Both were fully advertised and the owner's companies found to be real.

The Asus was fantastic, but had no DVD on board. But 6 hours running and a 17 second boot from its SSD drive was kind of neat to have. And that was after I partitioned the disc and got rid of the Fast Boot partition! W8.1 was the bugbare for me, though it flew on W7 which sadly was not a valid copy so I sold it with the 8.1 that MS sold me for $45 with full key. Even MS can be nice sometimes.

So these deals are about despite the need for a bit of fixing now and then. This one had fluff in the heat exchanger and that may well be the reason I got it cheap - but once I found time to do it was remedied in less than 30 mins.

I feel making the little Acer go faster would be like supercharging a perpendicular Popular. :}

I have the same problem with an ASUS EeePC, tho' it has the dual core CPU it only has 1 GB RAM - with W7 Starter. Totally frustrating, hit a key then go and make a cup of coffee.

My Man Wot Does obtained extra RAM then found that he couldn't fit it, and a call to ASUS confirmed not upgradeable. I guess that's why it was so cheap.

I feel an iPad coming on.

A tool called Autoruns for Windows can help you work out and manage what runs during startup. There's a similar tool which tells you what resources were required during the startup, but I can't remember the name. They're both by MS. For example, any preloader ("I just want to grab all your RAM in case you decide to open Word today") or Adobe anything would be prime candidates for the chop.


Autoruns for Windows

Thanks for the feedback, I am coming to the conclusion that I will be better off spending some money and getting a better equipped machine. Not sure I am ready for an ipad, though they are neat, maybe a Samsung tablet to travel and a laptop for house bound stuff is the way forward.

I also had an atom Aspire One a few years ago, it was a single-core hyperthreaded one. You can try the following things to speed these sorts of machines up:

- Classic theme (no shiny stuff)
- Strict control of startup processes (MSConfig). iTunes, Adobe stuff, etc. are usual culprits
- Sensible antivirus (I like MS Security Essentials)
- More RAM (as much as possible)
- ReadyBoost SD cards
- SSDs obviously

More drastically, here are some different OS options:
- Windows POSReady 2009 (security-updated, fairly light version of XP)
- Windows Thin PC (light version of 7)
- Windows 8.1 update 1 (allegedly runs fine with 16gb storage / 1gb RAM)

Thanks Booglebox, my apologies for the late reply, this work thing is irritating :}

I think the only option is to go for a hi-spec laptop while I am still working. The Acer worked well (-ish) as a travelling companion but with a need for decent processing power etc even in retirement the only option is getting the wallet out. :\

Cheap laptop, cheap processor and 3 years of Windows usage bloat equals recipe for sluggish computing.

Your only hope if you don't want to spend money (and don't value your time at much) is to spend a few days doing a thorough deep clean (or, even better, a reformat and fresh start ... just saving your documents, reinstalling software from scratch, otherwise you'll only re-introduce bloat).

You could also try an SSD hard drive and more RAM... it won't exactly turbo charge things, but it might (possibly) make things a little snappier.

But to be honest, if you look at it as a long term investment (3-5 years) ... new laptop with decent spec is the way to go.

As usual, I disagree somewhat with Mixture :}
It's perfectly possible to have a usable multi-taksing computing experience with Windows 7, an Atom N270, mechanical HDD, and 2gb RAM, as long as you follow some sensible precautions that I mentioned above. I know, because I've done it. :ok:

Says the person who lists SSDs and "as much RAM as possible" in their answer. :ugh:

Do as I say, but not as I do, old chum ?

The earlier Atom processors are limited to a maximum of 2GB of RAM, but it will be worth checking your particular model just in case things have changed.

:confused: If I had the resources to follow all of my own advice, I would be dictating this to a secretary, old bean :}