How can I breath new life into my pc

Man if your getting rid of that laptop ill take it.

If it was my Lappie all I would do is a Clean Install,
Optimize Windows 7 tutorial and add a SSD.
Those will not improve your cpu but will improve your overall speed of the computer without spending a lot of money. You will think you had a new Laptop.

A SSD compared to a 5400 rpm Hard Drive you are talking light year.

Then when you are done you can give it to Andrew and he will be a happy camper, big time.

gregrocker said:

If this is the Core i7 with 6gb RAM in your Specs there is no reason that should not be lightning fast once you've done a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

Use Win7 Home Premium x64 SP1 English Official ISO download burned to DVD or flash stick using the tool in Step 2.

If still slow after following those reinstall steps then I'd check for overheating and test your hardware from the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7.

Most likely you still have the HP bloatware which is the worst of all brands, throttling Win7 with a dozen useless duplicate utilities that interfere with better versions built into the OS.

You may be able to Clean Up Factory Bloatware to regain some of Win7's native perfect performance, but it will never be the real Win7 performance until you have done a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

the bad thing about this is that yes it should be lightning fast but its far from it im going to try to record a video of its behavior and post it on youtube. It is very slow and sluggish more than normal I have done many factory resets in the past and has not helped much I will do it again in a week and post my results assuming people will still look at this thread. Their is no bloatware on it I installed my own copy of windows 7 on it. Someone on this thread suggested that my processor speed may be slowing down everything what do you think. And you are correct I do have heating issues they have been their sense the first day I got the laptop. As I speak I have a desk fan that blows on it just to keep it cool. my little sister is actually asking me why its not as hot as usual. I have sprayed out the vents with compressed air. Here is an article from someone else who has had heating issues with the maschine sense they first bought it http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Noteboo...334600/page/11

I buy my computer parts locally.
The two brands of SSD's I use are Intel and Samsung. Their are other good brands but those are the ones I own and they work well.
I wouldn't get anything less than 120 gb.
I really don't know if a laptop is different. Never owned a laptop. I believe they are the same but lets wait for a laptop owner to verify.
There are many members here that do and could give advice on such a thing.

I have a much lower-spec Laptop than yours, also an HP, a 4 year old Pavilion Dv7, Dual Core AMD. I think you may have some problem that is affecting the performance, not connected with what appears to be a very good spec laptop. Last year I removed all the HP bloatware, as said in this Thread previously. I reinstalled Windows 7/64 and it now flies.

I think you may have to take a look at other issues, malware or overheating. Might be a silly question, but how do you use it? Laptops should not be called laptops IMHO, they are best used on a hard flat surface so that air can circulate under them. Have you tried taking a look underneath? Maybe the vents are blocked by dust, I strip ours every year and clean out the dust.

Just a few suggestions, I really think that laptop should be faster than you say it is.