Cleaning up a Windows 7 laptop

Forums › Laptops and mobile computers › Cleaning up a Windows 7 laptop

Sunsu

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#173344 20-May-2015 11:03

Hi Geeks

Can you help a non geek who has let her laptop go to ruin please. As a total ungeek I have been happily downloading from Pirate Bay etc with only a free anti virus and now my laptop is now running horrendously slowly. Is there an affordable method or a place with instructions I can follow that use words of one syllable for this totally tech-clueless person?

Thanks

Dynamic

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#1308300 20-May-2015 11:07

One of my favourite tools for this is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html

There are a couple of 'online virus scanners' which download some files temporarily to your machine and then run a scan. TrendMicro and BitDefender are reputable as are ESET and Panda. https://www.google.co.nz/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=online%20virus%20scan

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timmmay

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#1308323 20-May-2015 11:19

A reinstall of the operating system is sometimes the best way to do this.

coffeebaron

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#1308345 20-May-2015 11:49

Wipe and reinstall, maybe a new SSD drive at same time would be my pick.

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andrewNZ

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#1308424 20-May-2015 12:38

Another vote for starting fresh. I never trust a machine that has had a virus removed.

As well as guaranteeing the machine is virus free, there are a stack of other benefits. The main one is not having countless useless programs installed, or the remains of uninstalled crap.

And changing to a SSD will make a HUGE difference to performance too.

sidefx

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#1308431 20-May-2015 12:43

Everyone seems to be assuming virus, but the OP only said the laptop is running slow?

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robjg63

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#1308484 20-May-2015 13:58

If its windows 7 and you have 2GB of RAM that may well be the issue.

Microsoft seem to have done something a bit odd with windows update in the last few months that has been killing a few windows 7 machines.
Had that issue with several laptops at work - they would start up and be ok for a few minutes - then just grind to a halt.
I found a windows forum with many people complaining about it - annoyingly - it didnt affect every PC - but many were reporting issues.
Disabling windows update for a while seemed to point to windows update being the issue - it goes crazy and consumes all the memory.

I managed to grab some cheap laptop memory and bump the slow ones up to 4GB - that actually seems to have fixed the issue.

So of course run malwarebytes first - but have a look at adding some more memory as well.

(I got some generic 2GB laptop memory for around $17 from pbtech - http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=MEMDDR0016&name=Generic-2GB-DDR3-SODIMM-(brands-may-vary) It seems to be memory that has come out of laptop upgrades - but worked fine for me.

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#1309291 21-May-2015 14:01

sidefx: Everyone seems to be assuming virus, but the OP only said the laptop is running slow?

Still, a clean fresh install often fixes slowdown issues. Unfortunately, that often isnt a simple process for the non-geeks .
It could simply be just bogged down with crapware .

On the other hand, it may just be 'slow' regardless. Some laptops just are .

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#1309296 21-May-2015 14:15

https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

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#1309378 21-May-2015 15:59

from what you have posted the ONLY answer is a full reinstall.