PC Repair Program Suggestions?

Magister

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Had to recover my laptop and now the damn thing is running really slow. Could barely get on here. Anyone know of a good program to buy(Or Free) that does the scanning and fixes the problems? Tried Defragging and all that but hasn't fixed the problem. Was thinking of getting PC Pitstop.


Mike
 
I would back up any data that you need and reformat the drive. Start over with the OS disk.

Word of warning be sure to get everything off the drive/computer that you want to keep before you reformat. All will be lost with a reformat. but the computer will run just like it did when you first got it.
 
Didn't come with a OS disc. The OS was pre-installed on the laptop. Already did the reboot. Like I said, the system was running great before I had to do a recovery on it.
 
well theres your problem right there, your running vista and its crap, i was having the same problems with vista and then i upgraded to windows 7 and i have been very happy :)
 
If it didn't come with an OS disc, then there should be a partition on the HD that you can make a back-up copy of the OS from. Most PC manufacturers are doing this rather than sending CD or DVD's these days.
 
Ever wonder why you can undelete a file? Ever wonder why the FBI can find incriminating data on a drive? Both questions are simply answered by saying - because you data is never truly removed by selecting delete or reload. Which in essence means you don't have 100% reclaim on the drive. The best answer is indeed to format and reload. As also mentioned most manufacturers use the recovery partition but "should" have a utility to make recovery CD's as well. Here's a nice utility for hard drive performance tweaking. Try it before you do anything else. http://www.hdtune.com/

And as far as Vista goes - the only people that bitch are the ones that suckered into the whole "Vista ready" push. In case people don;t know what that actually meant - it meant it was "capable" of running Vista. It didn't mean the machine would run it well. I ran Vista and personally loved it. I realize Vista is an over bloated resource hog, but I also had a system that was NASA approved lol.
The point is Vista was great if you had the horse power to drive it.

And FWIW - next time use the correct thread. This has nothing to do with arcades ;)
 
Vista is basically just an upgrade to Windows XP and didn't really do anything besides slow certain systems down.

Go to Gizmo's Freeware Review page and download and try what is the recommended FREE application for your needs.

No reason to pay for anything to do what you want done.

If you want to start over from scratch, format your drive but not just by 'formatting'...use Darik's Boot and Nuke to completely wipe your drive clean.

Also, you should have a Microsoft label somewhere on the computer case that has the registration key. Using that key may allow for you to install a new copy of the 'exact same' operating system.

Or, you could find someone that could send you a legal copy of Windows 7 and you could just install that.

-Tim
 
Download ccleaner (yes, two c"s) from cnet.com. Run the cleaner, then the registry fixer. Don't save your registry fixes. This helps a lot. If you have less than 1 gig of memory in your computer, upgrade it to 2 if you can. Look at all the programs that are starting when windows starts. (you can do this under tools in ccleaner) disable everything except your antivirus and anything else you deem important that you "need" running at startup. You really don't need acrobat reader running all the time. This is the #1 memory hog I find on people's computers. Personally, I uninstall acrobat and install foxit reader instead. Let me know if this fixes your issues.
 
Also, you should have a Microsoft label somewhere on the computer case that has the registration key. Using that key may allow for you to install a new copy of the 'exact same' operating system.

Or, you could find someone that could send you a legal copy of Windows 7 and you could just install that.

-Tim

FYI - OEM PID #'s aren't going to work with an "off the shelf" version of Vista.
It's the same reason you can't use an MSDN ISO and use the OEM PID with it. They are manufacturer specific - so unless you can find an ISO on the net that is the same manufacturer as what you have it won;t work. HP's and Toshibas are even worse because the resto CD's actually look at the model of the unit and if it doesn;t match won;t work either. Dells are very leanient in the "sharing" dept. And as far as a legal "copy" of 7 .... isn't legal copy and oxymoron? :D

@ Komodo - I agree about Acrobat but to eliminate the issue simply run msconfig and disable any adobe crap from startup.
 
If you can stand the slow downloading, download Malwarebytes and Spybot - Search & Destroy. After running those, a registry fixer would be good (you can probably download one of those from Microsoft's site for Vista).

After that, which might take most of a day to catch and run everything, see if it runs any better. If not, then you can either put up with it being slower than all get out, purchase a new laptop or purchase a new OS (Seven has the advantage of being stable...there's a reason Vista was killed before XP was) with a valid ID# and just blast out the old HDD and reinstall.

-C
 
FYI - OEM PID #'s aren't going to work with an "off the shelf" version of Vista.
It's the same reason you can't use an MSDN ISO and use the OEM PID with it. They are manufacturer specific - so unless you can find an ISO on the net that is the same manufacturer as what you have it won;t work. HP's and Toshibas are even worse because the resto CD's actually look at the model of the unit and if it doesn;t match won;t work either. Dells are very leanient in the "sharing" dept. And as far as a legal "copy" of 7 .... isn't legal copy and oxymoron? :D

Hmmm, ok. I was told that if you got the exact same copy that was used in the original install it would work...I've never tried it though. But I was told that if it's a Dell, or whatever, you must get the Dell, or whatever copy and it would work (as long as it was the correct Home, or whatever version).
I guess I heard wrong, oh well.

I get legal copies of Windows 7 and other operating systems every semester at school. I think I have gotten four legal copies of Windows 7 so far and should have another one this September. Or should I have said legal downloads?

-Tim
 
Hmmm, ok. I was told that if you got the exact same copy that was used in the original install it would work...I've never tried it though. But I was told that if it's a Dell, or whatever, you must get the Dell, or whatever copy and it would work (as long as it was the correct Home, or whatever version).
I guess I heard wrong, oh well.

I get legal copies of Windows 7 and other operating systems every semester at school. I think I have gotten four legal copies of Windows 7 so far and should have another one this September. Or should I have said legal downloads?

-Tim

Hey Tim no worries.
And I have to say the two best programs I've used for Anti Virus and such is Avast (free) and Malwarebytes (also free) - so kudos to conroyva for bringing up Malwarebytes.
 
Vista is basically just an upgrade to Windows XP and didn't really do anything besides slow certain systems down.

Go to Gizmo's Freeware Review page and download and try what is the recommended FREE application for your needs.

No reason to pay for anything to do what you want done.

If you want to start over from scratch, format your drive but not just by 'formatting'...use Darik's Boot and Nuke to completely wipe your drive clean.

Also, you should have a Microsoft label somewhere on the computer case that has the registration key. Using that key may allow for you to install a new copy of the 'exact same' operating system.

Or, you could find someone that could send you a legal copy of Windows 7 and you could just install that.

-Tim

Now will the Nuke program completely wipe Vista off my laptop? This came pre installed, so would I have to buy a new OS?
 
Now will the Nuke program completely wipe Vista off my laptop? This came pre installed, so would I have to buy a new OS?
Nuke will wipe everything off the hard drive, everything...probably even any dust that may have accumulated on it (just kidding).

It is a program to only use if you want to completely clear your hard drive and never be able to get information off of it.

We were told (in my computer class) that this program is the only one of its kind to clean hard drives this good.

-Tim
 
Nuke will wipe everything off the hard drive, everything...probably even any dust that may have accumulated on it (just kidding).

It is a program to only use if you want to completely clear your hard drive and never be able to get information off of it.

We were told (in my computer class) that this program is the only one of its kind to clean hard drives this good.

-Tim

Hmmm....Might use that as a last resort then. I've tried the ccleaner and a few other ones posted here, but the laptop is still slow at loading pages. Hell, it took forever to DL the ccleaner and the other programs. But since they are limited for free trials they didn't do much. Might have to just go out and buy a cleaning program. Would love to just wipe the system clean and start over with W7. But if I'm going to pay that kinda money for W7, I might as well just buy a new laptop. :(
 
I wonder if you could get the free download of Windows 7 that Microsoft put out? Should be available somewhere, like a torrent, but I don't know if it would still be active or not.

I might have a 32 bit copy of Windows 7 around here someplace with a good key, that I've never used. I believe that I installed the 64 bit on both my desktop and laptop.

I can't find the key at the moment but I can burn a copy of Windows 7 for ya and I can hunt for the key.

-Tim
 
We were told (in my computer class) that this program is the only one of its kind to clean hard drives this good.

-Tim

It's one of many that do a DoD approved multi-pass overwrite algorithm BUT it's the only one I know of that is the combination of being SO easy to use AND free.

Be prepared to wait a couple of DAYS if you want to do the multi-pass overwrite. It's the only way to be sure your data is gone if you want to donate a system to charity.
 
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