Should I be looking for a new one? Or can I eek a couple of more years out of it...I'm thinking it's 4 years old. It could be older than that. I basically use it to store pictures (backed up), Quicken Money, and light internet surfing (none of those naughty sites):


Toshiba Satellite L505D
AMD TurionII Dual-Core Mobile M500 2.2GHz
4GB of RAM
64 bit
Windows 7
156GB of 287GB free


I have no idea what any of ^^that^^ means, for the most part but I know the ones that do, would ask.

I've ran CCleaner and Spybot, I'm about to reboot and defrag. What should be my next steps?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: chongosuerte,

Moar RAM! You can't go wrong with more RAM. 4GB ain't shit.

1. very OLD slow cpu from circa 2009
2. low memory also old ddr2 type
3. HD is 5400rpm old drive
4. don't know if any programs, malware etc are contributing to performance

Time to move on.
Not feasible to upgrade
Sorry

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
1. very OLD slow cpu from circa 2009
2. low memory also old ddr2 type
3. HD is 5400rpm old drive
4. don't know if any programs, malware etc are contributing to performance

Time to move on.
Not feasible to upgrade
Sorry

I appreciate the thorough response. I honestly don't remember...it COULD be that old

Where is the price point vs quality X for a light use laptop? What to look for, what to avoid?

... is the Toshiba slow to boot, slow to load programs, shutdown takes a long time ... or it's slow when using Wi-Fi or a hard wired LAN connection?

How much disk space is free?

Agree with airsoft guy - adding more memory maybe the path. Depending on the memory configuration - only one memory slot is used perhaps? - upgrading the memory could be $40-$90.

Other activities such as defrag of the hard disk may resolve the problem.

New machine.

quote:

Originally posted by cjevans:
... is the Toshiba slow to boot, slow to load programs, shutdown takes a long time ... or it's slow when using Wi-Fi or a hard wired LAN connection?

How much disk space is free?

Agree with airsoft guy - adding more memory maybe the path. Depending on the memory configuration - only one memory slot is used perhaps? - upgrading the memory could be $40-$90.

Other activities such as defrag of the hard disk may resolve the problem.

The former, but it's sometimes slow to load sites. More so, it's slow to open programs, then forgets what it was supposed to be doing.

This seems to be a recent thing. I really only use it to surf sigforum, keep my money straight, and type the occasional email, word document, or excel sheet.


Hell...it won't even defrag at the moment. May be in its death throes.

quote:

Where is the price point vs quality X for a light use laptop? What to look for, what to avoid?

There is a glut of slightly old technology that is light-years ahead of the Toshiba (Toshiba is Ok it is just that model is old).
You should be able to spend min 4-500 and get quite a bit.
Maybe a less if a refurbished unit.
Find an Intel I-3 or I-5 gen 4 at minimum.
Get 8gb ram DDR3 (newest ones use DDR4)
GET ONE WITH A SSD ~ note a bigger drive is not faster than one with less space.
If you are not downloading tons of video and music then 120gb could easily work.
Win 10
Shop around there are lots of inventory now.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

quote:

Where is the price point vs quality X for a light use laptop? What to look for, what to avoid?

There is a glut of slightly old technology that is light-years ahead of the Toshiba (Toshiba is Ok it is just that model is old).
You should be able to spend min 4-500 and get quite a bit.
Maybe a less if a refurbished unit.
Find an Intel I-3 or I-5 gen 4 at minimum.
Get 8gb ram DDR3 (newest ones use DDR4)
GET ONE WITH A SSD ~ note a bigger drive is not faster than one with less space.
If you are not downloading tons of video and music then 120gb could easily work.
Win 10
Shop around there are lots of inventory now.

Thank you

You can get a good brand of laptop with pretty good performance from Office depot on sale for less than $400. That's the direction I go.....it will blow that old laptop away. I just buy the cheap laptop and replace every 2-3 years....the battery and fan's go to hell on them in that time period anyways. I've had good luck with HP/ There are NEW not refurbished.

Here's one $389 with eligable trade in, HP AMD A12, 1TB HD, 8GB ram.
http://officedepot.shoplocal.c...number=1&mode=single

Here's a dell I3 intel, 8GB ram and 1tb HD for $279.99 after trade in
http://officedepot.shoplocal.c...number=1&mode=single

Don't forget to take all of the porn off before trading the old one in!

Woot.com has lots of refurbed laptops for sale now

If it running slower than it used to, have you tried cleaning the fans and cpu cooler? If it was never fast, replace it.

Edited:
Never mind. I don't know how I missed the specs in your first post. Replace it. It was never fast.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
If it running slower than it used to, have you tried cleaning the fans and cpu cooler? If it was never fast, replace it.

Edited:
Never mind. I don't know how I missed the specs in your first post. Replace it. It was never fast.

Lol...it's all relative. It didn't used to be THIS slow...8 years ago

I didn't realize just how antiquated it really was. I suppose I tend to hang on to things. I believe this is only my third laptop. I believe I had it before my divorce, I think it crapped out on me in 2012 and I had a friend fix it.

I got my first in 2001. A Toshiba Satellite Pro, that lasted until 2008. Then another that didnt last very long. So maybe I bought this one around 2010.

Thank you all for the information.

For what its worth. I bought my son a similar laptop for college because he's hard on electronics. That laptop is still doing everything he needs to do. And this place is located in Charlotte so you might be able to swing through and check it out.

Dell Lattitude 6430

chongosuerte ,
If you want to keep using that laptop , go online and download Ubuntu 16.10 64 bit operating system ( it is free ) - burn it to a dvd , insert the dvd into the dvd drive and load it . Follow the instructions ( easy peasy ) and you will have SPEED to burn . There are thousands of videos on Youtube showing how to use it and it is very simple . No viruses - no malware - no endless bloody Microsoft updates .
If you ever get Windows 10 on a laptop it will drive you nuts , plus Microsoft has free access to ALL of your information on that laptop - this is outlined in their End User Licence Agreement or EULA . By the way , you don't own Windows 10 , you only lease it , also as per their EULA .
Best .

Time for a new one. If you have the time.. check woot.com and wait for a good refurbished. I have 2 from there both bought for just a bit over 300 bucks. Good machines although almost disposable after 4 years or so. If I see a good deal I will email you a link. They have them every couple weeks.

They had a really good deal this past weekend that was linked here.... I will keep my eyes open.

Can't read. duh. try making a larger page file if you don't add more ram.

Start up CCLEANER, clean your registry.
Check your startup items. Make sure you don't have a bunch of junk starting.

Post of screen shot and we can tell you what's garbage.


download and run:

JRT
ADWCLEANER

then Malwarebytes AntiMalware (free version)

You only have one antivirus running?
Try turning off different parts of it. Only run the file scanner and website scanner.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Phelen_Kell,

CCLeaner is a good start.
Check the video and audio drivers. My audio driver on this machine was out of date, and slowing down the computer.
What anti-virus are you running? McAfee is a horrible system hog. And I've heard Norton isn't much better. I use Windows Defender, and it works fine.

Aaaargh! Does anybody actually read anymore? Is that a lost skill? Is our educational system deteriorating that badly?

Several responders in this thread asked how much free space is available on the hard drive.

Mr. Suerte ("Chongo" to family and close friends) said, in the very first post

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
156GB of 287GB free

I read the thread title as "47 year old laptop running sloooow..."