Slow start up

[Anoosh]

My laptop is so slow to start up that I could go and make cup of tea before it loads.
I’ve done all I can in order to reduce unwanted apps loading, and it’s still slow.
CPU: intel i3 370M
Ram: DDRIII 4 G.

Any suggestions?

 

[yodap]

Off the cuff, I would respectfully say your hardware is long in the tooth. CPU was released in 2010. Win7 era. Both CPU and ram were considered low end but doable for 7. If you had a clean install on Win 10 at some point it probably ran alright for you, but now after some time it‘s getting cluttered. Short of getting a new machine, I’d suggest doing a clean reinstall of Win 10 after you save all your data.

 

[Steinie]

Hi Anoosh, I have managed to increase the speed(s) of similar old laptops a lot by replacing the hard drive with a Solid State Drive.
Increasing the RAM will also make a difference, but replace the hDD first and see how it goes.

 

[sjoblom]

increase the speed(s) of similar old laptops a lot by replacing the hard drive with a Solid State Drive

Yes, thats the single best step to do, the performance diffrence will be HUGE

 

[richard6]

I would also upgrade the memory, assuming the motherboard can handle more than 4GB.

 

[Walldoo99]

Personally I'd be looking for a used Lenovo T series laptop or a Dell Latitude with an i5 or i7 and at least 8 Gb ram and put an SSD in it. The i3 processor you have is the economy processor. Amazon has decent 250Gb SSD's for $30.

 

[pjaj]

Whilst I agree that adding more RAM and upgrading to an SSD would improve matters, even doing that you'd still have an old machine. You may well be better off putting the money towards something more modern. Maybe shop around for a good second hand one. Does it have to be a laptop? Usually a desk top PC will give you more bang per buck.
However, if you have to stay with your existing machine, a clean install should speed things up. Obviously changing to a SSD will force this on you, but you could try a full backup followed by reformatting your existing hard drive and a clean install. Don't forget to have the key available and a MS login to gain full benefit.
I remember when Windows 10 first came out and the automatic update from W7 took place my PC ran like a dog with 3 legs. It took ages to boot and shut down. A reformat and clean install fixed that, so if you are still running on the update it's definitely well worth trying.
The other obvious downside of a clean install is that you also have to reinstall all your apps as well, but again you get clean copies, not ones possibly hamstrung with junk files, settings and registry settings.

 

[Walldoo99]

Whilst I agree that adding more RAM and upgrading to an SSD would improve matters, even doing that you'd still have an old machine. You may well be better off putting the money towards something more modern. Maybe shop around for a good second hand one. Does it have to be a laptop? Usually a desk top PC will give you more bang per buck.
However, if you have to stay with your existing machine, a clean install should speed things up. Obviously changing to a SSD will force this on you, but you could try a full backup followed by reformatting your existing hard drive and a clean install. Don't forget to have the key available and a MS login to gain full benefit.
I remember when Windows 10 first came out and the automatic update from W7 took place my PC ran like a dog with 3 legs. It took ages to boot and shut down. A reformat and clean install fixed that, so if you are still running on the update it's definitely well worth trying.
The other obvious downside of a clean install is that you also have to reinstall all your apps as well, but again you get clean copies, not ones possibly hamstrung with junk files, settings and registry settings.

I'm not sure they can upgrade the ram, they might have a home version. I'd like to know how old you consider old. Also running Ccleaner and it's registry tool, normally has the same affect as a fresh install after you reinstall all the software you will use.

 

[pjaj]

I'm not sure they can upgrade the ram, they might have a home version. I'd like to know how old you consider old. Also running Ccleaner and it's registry tool, normally has the same affect as a fresh install after you reinstall all the software you will use.

More RAM will cut down on Windows having to page swap data to disk when it runs short of memory. That slows things down considerably.
It doesn't matter what version you are running, Home or Pro they will both benefit from adequate memory, 8Gb minimum. I'm running W10 Home simply because I didn't need the extras Pro gave me (although I would have likes Sandbox).
Well 13 years is really old. I don't know how many generations of CPU Intel and AMD have gone through since 2010. I have tended to build myself a new PC about once every 5 years usually using the CPU one step below the current bleeding edge one as it is often half the price for 90% of the performance. You requirements may vary.
I tried all sorts of tools, including some MS logging ones that detailed every step, with timings, of shutdown and start-up but never traced the cause for the slowness. CCleaner was my first port of call. Good though it is, in this case it did nothing.

 

[Walldoo99]

More RAM will cut down on Windows having to page swap data to disk when it runs short of memory. That slows things down considerably.
It doesn't matter what version you are running, Home or Pro they will both benefit from adequate memory, 8Gb minimum. I'm running W10 Home simply because I didn't need the extras Pro gave me (although I would have likes Sandbox).
Well 13 years is really old. I don't know how many generations of CPU Intel and AMD have gone through since 2010. I have tended to build myself a new PC about once every 5 years usually using the CPU one step below the current bleeding edge one as it is often half the price for 90% of the performance. You requirements may vary.
I tried all sorts of tools, including some MS logging ones that detailed every step, with timings, of shutdown and start-up but never traced the cause for the slowness. CCleaner was my first port of call. Good though it is, in this case it did nothing.

If they have the windows 10 HOME it's won't support more ram without upgrading to pro. Considering it's an i3 processor, there's a really good chance it's the home version. If it says on the system page then it will have the pro as the home won't report 4 gig. Now if they have the pro version then they really do need 8 GB of ram.
But as it sits with an i3, I'd deal with that problem first and stop thinking about ram and SSD's.

 

[pjaj]

If they have the windows 10 HOME it's won't support more ram without upgrading to pro. Considering it's an i3 processor, there's a really good chance it's the home version. If it says on the system page then it will have the pro as the home won't report 4 gig. Now if they have the pro version then they really do need 8 GB of ram.
But as it sits with an i3, I'd deal with that problem first and stop thinking about ram and SSD's.

I'm running a Ryzen 7 2700 8 core processor with Windows 10 home, and the system page reports the full RAM content, 16GB.

 

[Walldoo99]

I'm running a Ryzen 7 2700 8 core processor with Windows 10 home, and the system page reports the full RAM content, 16GB.

Sorry, I've been sick and confusing home with 32bit os vs 64bit so you're right. I meant to say it could be a 32bit instead of 64 bit and that would be an issue.

 

[pjaj]

Sorry, I've been sick and confusing home with 32bit os vs 64bit so you're right. I meant to say it could be a 32bit instead of 64 bit and that would be an issue.

Of course, I'd forgotten about 32/64 bit versions. But then, maybe a 2010 vintage machine might have been set up using 32 bit version. So a reinstall with 64 bit and more RAM might do the trick.

 

[Walldoo99]

Of course, I'd forgotten about 32/64 bit versions. But then, maybe a 2010 vintage machine might have been set up using 32 bit version. So a reinstall with 64 bit and more RAM might do the trick.

I blame covid