Laptop slow with everything and I get blue screens. What's going on???

[Foxxy]

My laptop is having a bad hair day... actually one constant state of bad mood!

It's slow! Slow to start up, slow to open programs, slow to do anything. I have an idea that it's either a heat-related problem (I keep my laptop on my bed most of the time), a dust problem (again, the bed.), or just general virus problems (although my Norton guru buddy says its clean), but even when its been off and cool, its slow to start up.

Also, occasionally, as in once or twice every two days, I'll get the blue error screen that says it's shutting down to protect my files.

Any idea why this is happening?

[Chris]

Hi Foxxy -

There are two schools of thought as to why Windows computers slow down. The first is it just gets clogged up after about a year or two - this is solved by defragging the hard drive, clearing out unused programmes or a complete wipe and reinstall.

The second is that there is a virus, which is probably the more likely. What will happen is one virus will get around your computer's defences which will then open the flood gates. The damage that they cause is what slows the computer down and causes blue screens.

No antivirus programme is 100% effective, some are better than others and Norton is a middle ranking antivirus. They make excellent firewalls and hardware diagnostic software but there are much better antivirus programmes.

Since you are getting blue screens, then a virus would have corrupted some system file. The only way to get around this is to either do a system restore - to a point when your computer wasn't slow (and hopefully before you were infected with a virus) or to do a complete reinstallation. Obviously the restore is the better option!

First though, are you using XP or Vista and what antivirus/firewall programmes do you use?

Chris

[Foxxy]

Thanks Chris

I am running XP, Comodo firewall and AVG8. I don't think I have a virus as I am very careful and make sure I am up to date all the time. This laptop is about 9months old now so do you think its needing a clean and defrag? Isn't the defrag really slow?

[Chris]

I can't imagine it being a virus either - not with that much protection. When did you first notice it running slowly? Was it after a programme installation or did it happen gradually?

Laptop temperature shouldn't affect speed, especially if its only 9 months old. But it might account for the blue screens - do they only occur when you use it on a bed? What processor do you use? If its a relatively modern dual core, they tend to run a lot cooler than the old P4 or Pentium D processors.

[Foxxy]

It is a dual core, 1gig RAM. This has been a gradual thing and not after installing anything. I can't decide if the blue screens are from it being on the bed because it doesn't only happen then but sometimes I will be at the diningroom table and *poof* blue screen! Its so annoying!

[Chris]

Dual-cores do not pump out that much heat unless they're overclocked. Is it overclocked? Too much OCing will cause instability.

If its a gradual thing, then tbh if it were me i'd just wipe and reinstall. Hardware or installation would provide an obvious date of incident. I realise its a harsh solution, but there are soo many things that could probably be causing it if its not a virus - or maybe a virus that was on there until deleted by your av software. Or better yet, first try doing a sys restore to the earliest date that you have.