4 year old Laptop - How are the specs?

[EdwardC]

I'm running a late 2008 Macbook Pro (4gb ram, 2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo) and it's still more than fast enough for my every day uses - web browsing, email, documents, even video playback. I did upgrade to an SSD a few years back. It probably helps a bit.

Good luck with the upgrades! I think you're computer will feel great afterwards.

 

[Ethan1]

Originally Posted By: GMFan
over time it has gotten very slow, it blue screens sometimes and is very sluggish. It acts up sometimes meaning if I put some load on it such as running Netflix or copying photos it sometimes freezes and I have to reboot to bring it back to life. I'm not sure if it is overheating or is just tired and likes to crash.


These do sound like software issues. Windows 7 is very easy to reinstall, so that's the best way to go. And, as others have suggested, an SSD is will breathe new life into the machine. An added bonus is that you can save your old mechanical hard drive as an additional backup of your system, or you can buy a cheap enclosure and use it as a USB HDD ( they're $6.99 on Amazon).

Originally Posted By: GMFan
but what is the best way for me to reinstall Windows 7 once I install a new SSD?


By far the best way to reinstall is to use vanilla Windows 7 installation media. Why? If your system did come with a built-in recovery partition, it's the perfect hiding spot for malware. And if your system shipped with OEM-branded recovery discs, they're probably full of bloatware. You can download officially-sanctioned Windows 7 installation media here (see the first reply): http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windo...cf-662b56ef408c

 

[AandPDan]

Originally Posted By: GMFan
I found a program called "OneKey Recovery 7.0" and it does have an option to Create Recovery Disks and is says "Create a bootable recovery disc from system backup or factory default image file. These recovery discs are used to boot your computer and will guide you through the entire restoration process."

This leads to another question - will these recovery disks be looking for the recovery partition on my HD? Will this still work with a wiped drive in there?


I put in a bigger drive a few years back and the recovery disks worked just fine, they even created the recovery partition.

 

[spackard]

I have a Lenovo W510 that I went from a HDD to a SSD.

1) Have to shrink the C:\ partition to under 256GB in order to try cloning. Mine's 216.6GB.

2) Had problems trying to migrate with clonezilla. Maybe I used Samsung Magician, I don't remember.

3) Used Paragon Alignment tool to properly align the partition for an SSD.

Sorry for the brevity, but number 1 is necessary if your SSD is smaller in size than your HDD, and if you can't get that done you can't migrate. Plus, you'll need a USB drive dock to help with the cloning.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Your machine is fine. Re-install Windows and it'll run like new, until it doesn't. Repeat. If the "repeat" part bothers you, check out Ubuntu. :^)

 

[wrcsixeight]

My can of compressed air ran out several months ago. It was always good for a good sized cloud of dust.

Recently, I noticed the laptop getting warm and the fan running louder. I typed in how to clean fan on my model laptop. There was a you tube video on my exact model.

Basically 1 screw to remove then slide the bottom plate. 2 screws to remove the fan.

When I did so, there was a 1/4 inch thick piece of dryer lint covering 90% of the heatsink.

I removed the heat sink and cleaned it thoroughly with mini bottle brush cleaners in between the fins.

I had some Arctic Silver 5 thermal grease to reinstall on the mating surfaces of heatsink and cpu.

The lid that came off of the bottom had some metal sheeting with dozens of spring loaded fingers which made contact with the metal frame internal to the laptop. Several of these were rusted or grey with oxidation. I sprayed them with Deoxit D5 and buffed them with q tips. Many Q tips turned black.

I had to use a small file to remove the rust on some of the fingers. I re bent all the fingers to exert more pressure when lid is reinstalled.

The fan also got a full cleaning and a drop of MMO on the bushing under the sticker.

I pulled out the 2 Ram memory chips and used Caig Deoxit gold on some precision micro q tips to clean the connector edges, and they actually turned grey too. I thought gold does not oxidize. Perhaps they are not gold.

Anyway, I buttoned it back up, and can no longer hear the fan run. In the 5 years I've owned this laptop, when playing music, it would occasionally freeze and buzz during audio playback which of course is very noticeable and annoying. reloading/updating audio drivers did nothing

It has not done this freeze and buzz since my cleaning several hours ago, and I believe it was the grounding of the bottom plate.

Perhaps it is a bit snappier too, but the initial power up certainly took a long time.

 

[901Memphis]

In repairing laptops over the years of I've noticed awful performance drops when the hard drives age. They still pass the diagnostic testing for a "good" hard drive but every time I get performance complaints and replace the hard drive wish a new one the system is always like new again.

In these situations even a full NTFS format and re install didn't fix the problem that the new hard drive did, and these are just new 5400/7200 rpm drives I usually replace. Upgrading to a proper SSD makes them feel better than new.

 

[demarpaint]

I recently went through this and did a re-install of Win & for a friend. I cleaned out the dust from inside the machine, wiped the HDD and did a clean install of Win 7 pro which I downloaded and burnt the ISO image from the MSFT website. After the installation I took the Win 7 key from the machine, and validated the installation using this method. Make sure you have the product key first, otherwise your installation is only good for 30 days. My friend's product key was behind the battery, some are on a tag on the back of the machine.

Activate using the telephone

If Windows isn't able to activate online, you'll have the option to activate Windows 7 using an automated phone system.

Open Windows Activation by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, right-clicking Computer, clicking Properties, and then clicking Activate Windows now.‌

Click Show me other ways to activate.

Type your Windows 7 product key, and then click Next.

Click Use the automated phone system. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Click the location nearest you from the drop-down list, and then click Next.

Call one of the available phone numbers listed. An automated system will guide you through the activation process.

When prompted, enter the installation ID that's listed on your screen into your phone's keypad.

Write down the confirmation ID that the phone system gives you.

Type the confirmation ID into the space provided under Step 3 in the activation dialog, click Next, and then follow the instructions.

If activation isn't successful, stay on the line to be transferred to a customer service representative who can assist you.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/activate-windows#1TC=windows-7

A good friend turned me onto this. As long as you use the same version of Win 7 you're golden, have a fresh install and ZERO bloatware. It was well worth the time!

Those registry cleaners can be a great way to hose an OS. Be very careful with them.

 

[Doog]

I only buy computers off lease on the Dell auction website. I will but the precision series workstations that have larger mother boards and 256mb or ideally 512mb video cards. Then I install a new 7200rpm HDD from Best Buy and max out the physical RAM. Before I do that all I will get a carbonite subscription and do a complete back up. Then I install all the hardware and OS and do a full restore from the carbonite website.

Total cost is usually about $600 for a high capacity workstation computer that is usually 4 years old. I just did the same thing to my daughters college HP laptop. Runs great.

 

[Cardenio327]

Originally Posted By: GMFan
I downloaded the program and finally found the temps. It says my maximum temps are:

Core #0 - 72.0 degrees C
Core #1 - 69.0 degrees C
Core Max - 72.0 degrees C

Average is 50 degrees C. A quick google search says the chip is good until 105 degrees C.

WDC WD5000BEVT-24A0RT0 - 40.0 degrees C


IMHO 72 °C (162 °F) is way too high. 105 °C (221 °F) is the absolute maximum for the chip, it should never run anywhere near that. Under 50 °C should be what your aiming for.

At the moment my machine is at 29.8 °C core and 27.8 °C motherboard with one lonely stock fan running at the stock speed, with nearly 3 hours of uptime.

demarpaint's tutorial on doing a clean install using an ISO image from Microsoft/Digital River is great advice, and it's totally free other than your time.

 

[Hokiefyd]

72 deg C does sound awfully hot. Laptops certainly run warmer than desktops, but I have a fairly old Compaq laptop with an Intel Celeron M 430, and the core will typically cycle between about 45 deg C and about 55 deg C. The cooling fan comes ON at 55 deg C, and shuts OFF at 45 deg C, and you can hear the cooling fan cycling on and off as the processor load and, thusly, temperature dictate.

This Celeron M 430 is paired with 2 GB of RAM and it was pretty slow before I added a Samsung 840 Evo. I didn't even do an OS re-install -- I used Samsung's software to transfer my entire mechanical drive over to the SSD. The SSD made an incredible difference in how this computer runs. This is a Windows 7 install from about 4 years ago, and it runs like a champ.

By the way, I love the HWiNFO app mentioned prior. I was using some apps from CPU ID for similar info, but HWiNFO combines all diagnostic and sensor data into one app, and the list of information it compiles is fantastic. I never knew before today that my Compaq laptop's display is an LG Philips LCD.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: Cardenio327

demarpaint's tutorial on doing a clean install using an ISO image from Microsoft/Digital River is great advice, and it's totally free other than your time.

Thanks, a good friend steered me in that direction. For now on if I buy a new Windows machine and decide to keep the OS I will do that unless they change something up. The additional free space, ZERO bloatware, the time it takes plucking the junk from the OS. Then there's the remnants that remain in the registry [Win 7 in my case] even using the best software for removing those unwanted programs makes the time involved well worth it for me.