Problem with my acer 2420 notebook

Hello, I've been experiencing kind of a problem with my Acer 2420 laptop. When I start up its usually pretty fast, but eventually it begins to slow down to the point where I have to restart the system completely. I have it running Windows Vista Home Edition at 512MB of ram, 1.5Ghz.

Its really weird because sometimes when I unplug the charger it works again but after I plug it back in, like 10 minutes later it starts slowing down again. I can't figure it out.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I would definatley think about a RAM upgrade, 512mb is a massive bottleneck in your system using Vista. Vista can sit idle using more than 512mb so this may be a cause.

I've just done a quick search on Google and it says your system can take 2gb RAM Max, so I would look at upgrading to this amount, you will see a massive massive improvement!!!!!

RAM is very cheap at the mo so you could do the upgrade for peanuts and it should be easy to do!!!

 

Would this explain the weird goings on with my charger like I said before?

 

What are the power settings you have when the jack is plugged in and then unplugged????

As is said, 512mb of RAM may be a cause, but can't be certain, but if you upgraded, it would be like having a new system, I guarantee

 

Balanced both out and in. I find that the Best Performance option doesn't work that well.

 

It might be (correct me someone else if i'm wrong) that when the jack is plugged in the system may be using more resources, this would explain why 512mb would be a bottleneck, then when it is unplugged it may cut performance to save battery life hence, cutting the usage on your system resources, which may use less RAM.

If you have a look in the advanced settings in Balanced, does the system reduce performance to save battery life???

 

Yeah, both power saving and performance are the same level (3). There are two more options as well, the power saver which utilizes 6 levels and performance is at 2, and High Performance level which has 6 levels and battery has 2.

 

Sorry, didn't explain myself well!!

If you go to Power Options, go to change plan settings below balanced, then on this page click on Change Advanced Power Settings,

You can change the settings here when the jack is plugged in, and then when on battery. Are the settings different on battery and plugged in.

 

the first thing I would do is run a virus scan. Usually there is a hidden program that is trying to force pop up ads.

 

Almost everything is similar except PCI Express options, USB Settings, Search & Indexing, and Multimedia settings.

 

Change the settings on the plugged in parts to the same as when on battery and test this out, see what happens, see if it slows down when on mains power.

Also, when it slows, go to task manager and check on the performance tab, see what the CPU and Memory usages are, if they are both very high go to proccess and see what is using the most memory and CPU usage.

 

Alright, thanks, I'll get back to you if it happens again. And do you really think adding a gig of ram will do the trick?

 

I definatley think it would be a worthwhile upgrade, you will see a big improvement in overall performance if you add more RAM. Vista can be a resource hog and like i said can use more sitting idle than you have installed.

Another thing that you can do to help improve performance aswell is visit the Vista tips and tweaks guide here at notebook review, it's a real good topic about things you can do to help improve your performance:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532

 

Alright I just had to restart again. A few things I've noticed are that once the cursor starts blinking, thats a sign that a sign the system is slowing down. I've also noticed the bottom of the laptop is unusually hot. Could this be a problem?

 

May be worth having a clean of the fan area where the heatsink fins are, if it's getting unusually hot it may be clogged up with dust.

One way to do this is to get a can of compressed air and spray it into the airoutlet on the laptop.

Another way is what i would do, is to remove the cover from the bottom of the laptop, and physically remove the heatsink and fan, and carefully clean all of the dust and dirt that is clogged up. When you open the laptop up, you should be able to see if it clogged up with dirt.

 

Alright, I'll give it a shot. Its really annoying though because at the start, my web browser (firefox) was working fine but after I quit and entered into movie maker everything just screwed up again.