What degrades my laptop's performance?

On the 30th, let's have a 1-2-1 about the natural history of file allocation tables, from FAT8 through to FAT32 and beyond... 

Ooh Martin, don't rant at me! I am having a bad day as it is!  Thank you for your patience. This is an old laptop. When it was my main one, I used to have it checked over quarterly (remotely)  and it worked great.  then the IT business wrapped up and I got a new one. But  I kept this laptop just in case. So I had it checked over 12 months ago - and it was pants (in fact it was better before I had it checked). Then I had it checked over again by another IT company shortly after and they put on a link to defrag and C Cleaner and told me I had to run them periodically - is that not the case then??

The operating system is windows XP home, which is odd because it was pro - so it must have been totally rebuilt.  Maybe I am just trying to make a silk purse out of a pigs ear so to speak.  I know it's old, but 12 months ago I was told it was fine and worth keeping for emergencies.... but maybe it's not worth maintaining it and it should be sent to laptop heaven????

apologies for hogging the thread :)))

Sound like you may now have a pirate copy of windows.

The sticker on the bottom of the laptop will tell you which XP home or Pro should be loaded.

Your not the only one having a bad day

Adam you are funny FAT 32.

What about a 1-2-1 on the basic input output system.

Sure, how about, "The changing role of BIOS, and assignment of interrupts."

Sounds good! (and I'm aware that NTFS was developed in 1993, but thought that I could leave that bit out considering the audience! )

Adam now you are taking the P

The problem with safe mode is that unless the problem is severe you are unlikely to get any insight into problems like occasional freezes or slowness. Thanks for the offer Martin but I don't want to take up your time for what's currently a minor irritation. However if it gets worse ........

No-one's commented on whether in general these cool mat things make laptops run any better by lowering their temperature, do they work?

The fans on the mats don't make much difference. The main benefit is that they make sure the  vents on the laptop are clear.

Have you checked power options in control panel? I've had one of two where they have decided to make spontaneous changes and reduce performance.

Yes, but you are treating symptoms, not the cause - it is not a solution.

A bit like taking statins for high cholesterol, you're still gonna die from heart disease, it's just gonna take a bit longer.....

Its set at Balanced. What do you recommend given normal use for multiple browser tabs, email and office apps? And also for these settings in Performance Options:

Visual effects - let Windows choose/best appearance/best performance
Advanced - adjust for best performance of programs/background services
Virtual Memory - is there any benefit in deviating from letting Windows manage?

I'd leave those as they are.

If you use the computer on the mains all the time, try the high performance plan

Otherwise go to 'change plan settings' and then 'change advanced power settings'

Have a look at 'wireless adapter settings' and 'processor power management' among others

BTW, the point about start up programs wasn't so much that the computer takes longer to start as that they hang around in the background eating up memory and CPU time

Thanks all for your useful comments. By the way John I noticed your gliding link. In my youth I got my licence (at 16 in fact before I could drive) - still have it in a box somewhere!

Chris,

good stuff. We try to send a 16 year old solo every year - in fact we have a scholarship on offer!