CHEAP upgrades needed to revive my MK1 CF-19

The orange beast is acting up again. Not sure if it is software or hardware issues. I kinda want to save it. Right now I mainly use it to hook up to Tuner Studio for my car. IE diagnose, tweak, and tune MegaSquirt standalone engine management. It also has my oscilloscope software loaded up on it (a pain to setup).

I do have the newer, nicer, faster MK5. But I would prefer to keep that one nice. And the orange one matches my toolbox and lives on top or tossed into the car.

Is there anything I need to take a look at and sort out that could be causing long hang times on the software booting side of the equation? I think Tuner Studio is a Java heavy application.

Hardware side? Re-thermal the heatsink maybe?

Anything else before I spend actual money?

I am not really wanting to load linux on this thing... Even if not really used a lot, I like the Panasonic buttons and features to function.

If a hardware solution is needed, I am thinking the only real likely path to take is upgrading to a SSD drive. About $50 would be the max I would want to put into this. Any more than that would likely go much further if spent on the MK5.

 

yeppers ...
get a ssd in that thing .

are you running an antivirus ? if so , what flavor ?
sometimes with updates , the settings get screwed up and it is told to look at every little thing ... this will slow a machine down .
using "task manager" in the "all users" mode will show if there is something hogging cpu time ... well , not always .

does the machine function normally with a cold boot start up ... is it about normal as compared to the old start up speed ?
did the slow/hang time creep up or happen suddenly ?
there are a lot of things in the start up list that are not needed ... a screen shot of if these lists using ccleaner will be helpful .
speaking of that ... have you used ccleaner to keep the junk from building up ?
over time , and i don't give a rat's patoot what anyone says , the windows registry gets clogged with crap entries ... ccleaner's registry cleaner is about the safest one around .
but make sure that you tell it to back up your registry entries before you clean them out .

 

I think that one runs AVG antivirus. My newer one is on Avast and I don't like it. AVG always seemed to be pretty mild abuser of resources.

By cold start, I forced shut it down all the way, twice, and it still wouldn't boot the software. It seems to boot windows like normal. Never did that horribly fast. But it didn't seem to be slower either.

The hang issues I first noticed after a software update to the software suite I am needing (I have also posted up in their forum). But it is hard to say because that laptop doesn't get used very often.

I have not recently CC-d it. Pretty sure I have CC installed on it in my "maintenance" folder too.

Well it has been doing updates and rebooting for about an hour now. Java was out of date along with everything else. I will see if that accomplished anything.

If I get an SSD into it, will it be enough improvement to justify spending that little bit on this machine?

 

Get a used Intel 80gb SSD. I'm paying $104 for 4 of ($26)them, not the fastest SSD's but they run circles around a spindle drive. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-320-S...605080&hash=item33cd7c8828:g:i7IAAOSww9xZAoFZ $35 but I make an offer for 4 at a time.

 

hmmm ...
i quit avg about 5 years ago because of their constant nagging and resource consumption and missing stuff .
i use "avast" , and have found that the default settings (sans the crap one really does not need to use or install) have worked fairly well .

can you roll back the updates ... using the restore function ?
take the machine back to just before it started getting constipated .

yes , hands down , a 128 or 256 gig ssd is worth the investment .

have you looked at the task manager list and the cpu core activity , ram used , etc ?
usually doing a bunch of updates will only compound an issue because you then have to go through those or remove them in order to get the machine back to the original problem state .

try turning off the latest software installs that pooched the machine ...
this can be done in ccleaner via their startup list .

 

SSD, Max RAM and software tweaks... That's all you have. I wouldn't mess with the thermal pad... Unless you have a chronic overheating problem.

 

I still have about three Mk1/2 in the shed. If you go to a SSD the G2 intels are a good deal if you don't need a large drive. My beat around Mk3 19 uses a 40gb Intel G2 ssd, the one I am on right now has a 160gb G2 intel in it.

First lets check the health of your harddrive and see how it's doing.

https://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

How much ram are you currently running? What version of windows 32 bit or 64 bit? It looks like you are running windows 7 by your avatar picture. Also how many processes running does task manager show?

Next go to the windows club website and get there UWT, ultimate windows tweaker.

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate-windows-tweaker-v2-a-tweak-ui-for-windows-7-vista

Just remember to hit apply before you swap tabs on the tweaker.

After that we will see how it runs, have you run anything like ccleaner on it?

 

Comodo is my usual choice for free.
Kaspersky is much better but not free.
Ssd and max ram..
Guessing win7.
Look for a stripped down version. Many on the net. Mucrosoft made a starter edition that

 

Win 7 basic, I have that.