• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

Laptop advice please...

NickTB

Alan Hutton
... So I have an Acer V550c Review and specs here

I've had the thing for around 18 months, it was originally bought for my wife to use on maternity leave. Since day one it's been incredibly slow and laggy. Boot up takes an eternity, moving between tasks is slow. This is all compounded by the fact that I have a Lenovo M30 from work which is incredibly fast, so it's hard to stop comparing the two.
So other than using it as a doorstop, what can I do to speed it up? It has minimal programs on it, but quite a lot of Acer bloatware. Should I replace the 1tb hard drive with an SSD? Is this difficult to do? New processor? more memory? or am I looking at so much money, it's not worth it?

Any advice would be really appreciated as it's doing my head in.

Cheers,
 
assuming it running Windows...

have you checked for malware and virus's?

have you got rid of all the bloatware that was preinstalled on it?

lastly I'd recommend a clean OS install and see how it behaves then before adding the software back on
 
assuming it running Windows...

have you checked for malware and virus's?

have you got rid of all the bloatware that was preinstalled on it?

lastly I'd recommend a clean OS install and see how it behaves then before adding the software back on

Running Windows 10.... I'm in the process of deleting the bloatware now, and running C Cleaner to clear old files and also tidying up the start up process. I'm pretty sure this came with OS installed with no back up disc. Would that be normal?
 
It will have a partitioned OS backup. It is normal not to have a CD-ROM backup these days.

Open the task manager and see what processes are running - may identify malware. In which case a hard reset is best. If no Malware (and a scan may not find it) then remove all but essential start up items - e.g. track pad software etc. you need the all the other legit things running. Search each start up programme online if unsure if its needed.

What is the processor and RAM?
 
i7 2.5GHz processor should be plenty fast. It will have 4+ GB RAM no doubt. There is something wrong with the computer therefore. Is it less than a year old?
 
That really shouldn't be chugging under anything but gaming or photoshop type stuff.

I'd go for a reinstall to a virgin OS and a BIOS flash too.
 
That really shouldn't be chugging under anything but gaming or photoshop type stuff.

I'd go for a reinstall to a virgin OS and a BIOS flash too.
What Scara said, but I'd add that you might want to open it up and carefully get all the dust out of the case, as (judging from the fact its been laggy since the start) it might be a cooling issue.

Also a lot of these budget, mass made laptops massively skimp on the qa process when it comes to cooling and thermal paste application so you might want to clean off and reapply that - or get someone else to, either a friend or a pro.

The components are fine, probably just needs a tune up.
 
looking for a laptop for a grandchild!
for 12 yo for school work and gaming not arcade so much.
£500 tops
light as possible with decent battery life

thoughts?
 
looking for a laptop for a grandchild!
for 12 yo for school work and gaming not arcade so much.
£500 tops
light as possible with decent battery life

thoughts?

I suspect @Charliedup is selling a 4 year old Acer V550c on the cheap.

One careful lady owner.

Runs like brick a dream.
 
As its a 15,6 inch screen, it's quite big, and might have space for an additional hard drive. You should really get an SDD and have the OS on the SDD. it will more than half the startup and loading times. Also, 6Gb RAM? seems a weird number. Usually its 4 or 8 or 16. If there is a spare memory slot, I'd add 4/8 GB of ram. Ram works best in pairs. 2x4 is better than 1x8. It makes a massive difference.
If there isn't a spare slot for extra hdd, I'd swap the disk drive with a ssd. You can mirror the old one the new. SDD usually comes with the necessary cables to do that.
 
As its a 15,6 inch screen, it's quite big, and might have space for an additional hard drive. You should really get an SDD and have the OS on the SDD. it will more than half the startup and loading times. Also, 6Gb RAM? seems a weird number. Usually its 4 or 8 or 16. If there is a spare memory slot, I'd add 4/8 GB of ram. Ram works best in pairs. 2x4 is better than 1x8. It makes a massive difference.
If there isn't a spare slot for extra hdd, I'd swap the disk drive with a ssd. You can mirror the old one the new. SDD usually comes with the necessary cables to do that.
I’m thinking he might have bought a new one by now, as it’s 4 years on from his question.

;-)
 
looking for a laptop for a grandchild!
for 12 yo for school work and gaming not arcade so much.
£500 tops
light as possible with decent battery life

thoughts?

Want to be nice and include a graphics card so they can game?

SSD is a must. 8GB ram would be good. Both will future proof it. i5, 8th generation or better ideally. PM me and my company can sell you one cost price [emoji5]


Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
 
If its to be used for ANY kind of games, the absolute minimum Gfx card is MX150/250. The built in Gfx on Intel processors isnt useful for anything other than basic use.
And if 500 is the budget, I don't think u can get anything better than MX150/250. Even that will be difficult to get in that price range.
Think you'll be looking at around £700 for any usable laptop with a decent Gfx card.
Asus aspire 5 might be worth a look. Should be around 700 with GeForce MX250, Core i5-8265U Quad Core,8GB RAM,256GB PCIe SSD, and Windows 10
 
Last edited:
Back