The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    T400 Performance Degraded

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by perfectchaos180, Jun 14, 2012.

  1. perfectchaos180

    perfectchaos180 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    12
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hello,

    I have a Thinkpad T400 and the performance of the machine overall has severely degraded. I've had it for almost 3 years.

    It can't play video without skipping every 5-10 seconds, and it sounds like the hard drive is making a small popping noise every 5-10 seconds, even if I'm not doing much. Overall the machine has just slowed down a lot.

    Can I save my computer?
     
    perfectchaos180, Jun 14, 2012
    #1
  2. Kaso

    Kaso Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    744
    Messages:
    3,546
    Likes Received:
    33
    Trophy Points:
    116
    1. Back up your valued documents.

    2. Replace the hard drive (buy a new one, maybe larger and faster).

    3. Replace the RAM sticks (buy new ones, as big as the machine can handle and you can afford).

    4. Do a clean Windows installation, with latest drivers.
     
    Kaso, Jun 14, 2012
    #2
  3. mariol90

    mariol90 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    167
    Messages:
    108
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    before replacing hardware, run a virus scan, and check your hard drive status (HD tune or any computer info program will do this). at that point if there's still an issue you can back up your data and restore your computer to its factory state.
     
    mariol90, Jun 14, 2012
    #3
  4. Kaso

    Kaso Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    744
    Messages:
    3,546
    Likes Received:
    33
    Trophy Points:
    116
    Back up your files. The drive will fail any minute now.
     
    Kaso, Jun 14, 2012
    #4
  5. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

    Reputations:
    6,668
    Messages:
    8,224
    Likes Received:
    231
    Trophy Points:
    231
    Eh, I don't know, not all hard drive noise is necessarily indicative of impending failure.

    Before rushing out to buy anything, I'd remove the HDD, reseat it again, and see if the noise continues. Also, check the Active Protection System feature (icon should be in your system tray) and try pausing it and see if your video playback still stutters. Checking the HDD SMART status would be a good idea as well (HDTune, as well as many other similar programs, can give you details about that).
     
    MidnightSun, Jun 14, 2012
    #5
  6. pepper_john

    pepper_john Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    87
    Messages:
    1,391
    Likes Received:
    15
    Trophy Points:
    56
    you can also use the free malwarebyte to remove any malware. Once I had 40 (!) of them which affected my internet connection.
     
    pepper_john, Jun 14, 2012
    #6
  7. nkull

    nkull Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    62
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Umm, before stressing the crap out of a drive that might be failing you back it up FIRST. Last thing you want to do with a drive that might be failing is start running a bunch of scans and diagnostics before you have a backup!
     
    nkull, Jun 14, 2012
    #7
  8. Kaso

    Kaso Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    744
    Messages:
    3,546
    Likes Received:
    33
    Trophy Points:
    116
    Thanks for re-emphasizing.

    I didn't want to sound like a broken record. (Excuse the pun.) I'd rather be safe than be smart with this tool and that tool. Sigh. :rolleyes:
     
    Kaso, Jun 14, 2012
    #8