RE: Going to Do a Factory Reinstall & would like advice/opinions

Hello All!
We've been having issues with our laptop the past few months & I am considering doing one of those factory reinstall processes.
This is what we have: acer 7535-5020 laptop running Win 7 Home Premium - 64 bit
Current issues: slow, spinning circle on internet use - sometimes screen sort of fades away and/or message that program has become unresponsive (We have IE9, Google Chrome and Mozilla loaded - not big fans of IE9 - seems to behave badly more often than the others)
Windows media player will skip, fade or stop while doing other processes like loading an internet page
Games that we do play will lag, sound will suddenly sound like an old cassette tape slowed down and sometimes become unresponsive. The ones we do play are of course, Facebook - mostly Bejeweled Blitz and Bayou Blast. Our acer had the wild tangent and I have purchased a few of these - Bejeweled 2, 3 and Twist, Collapse Blast and another one - can't remember which. Bejeweled games are the worst problem-wise with the lag and sound - maybe because they are so fast-paced? We play a few of the preinstalled classic ones - solitaire and such and that is for game usage.
Programs that are installed and will be installed again are: Office 2010 Home and Student, several of the Scrapbook and Hallmark programs, a Kodak digital recorder and its associated programs, anytime organzier, AIM (a seven version), and of course, the usual stuff that came preloaded.
I have been running Webroot Secure Anywhere for virus and stuff - paid for until August, I think.

Since we were having so many problems, we installed Advanced System Care - don't think it really helped any and NOW I seem to have discovered that many folks say stay away from such things.

Anyhow, am planning on doing the complete reinstall this weekend and am wondering, after I redo it and after I spend 500 hours uploading Windows updates - what things should we consider as far as installing and/or deleting to keep the system operating the way that it should?

Should we be considering any other virus/malware programs?
What would you all recommend as far as deleting from the preloaded junk?
Any tips on what we should do in a particular order that maybe we haven't done in the past? (We've done 2 reinstalls - about 1 a year since we got it- last year a few weeks before Christmas had a major black screen of death and had to do a recovery from my discs after spending hours trying to figure out to get the laptop to read the disc since it was no longer able to do it from within its own system - yeah - had to figure out how to tell Bios to enable boot from the cd)

oh, we had a prob too with trying to update our ati radeon hd3200 graphics at one point - still not sure if the driver is really updated or not but anyhow.....

Hubby wanted to upgrade to windows 8 since they are now offering it at like $39 something dollars and I did do the compatibility thing but I'm very leery of doing it..not sure we'd like it, not sure how sticky it would be to get win 7 back if we didn't and not sure how much darn tweaking we'd have to do to all things work like we would want - besides I have to admit that I mostly impressed with win 7 and how easy it was to install programs that we needed and/or wanted and most of all - call me crazy - it runs my old Sim City 3000 game like a charm!!! And that's after I read online that many folks weren't able to make it work. And considering we went from a Wind 98/upgraded to 2000 desktop to Win 7, the headaches were very minimal as far as getting the laptop up and zipping to our liking.
Now, if we could just get her back to the point where we're all happy again.

any advice, tips, suggestions would be most greatly appreciated!!!!!

And If I need to provide more info, I will gladly do so - though this post is probably rather long already, LOL.

Thanks again!!!!

You can restore to factory condition using Acer Recovery partition or Recovery disks: Acer Support - Answers, E-Mail, Chat - How do I restore my computer using the eRecovery Management program?

However this is an inferior install loaded with preinstalled factory bloatware and duplicate utilities which have better versions built into Win7, so I'd consider getting the superior Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 with just the Win7 OS you own with the PC. Everything you need is in the blue link including the installer and the tools and methods which will assure you get and keep a perfect install.

Thanks for replying back.
I guess if we would decide to go that route, there would be things that came with the Acer version that would no longer exist. Hmm...I wonder if there is anything really important in it that we would/might want? How would I determine that?
And if so, we would probably be able to save it to my external drive for future use?
So much to consider but for now, I must call it a night.
There was some scuttlebutt awhile back with there being some class-action lawsuit against acer for some laptops not getting a complete win 7 version on them - and ours was 1 of them
Apparently there was no conclusion as of yet and therefore, we did not get any new recovery discs as was stated in that. Perhaps this is where some of our problems come from?
Again, thanks for replying and I shall look into this more tomorrow after work and a good night's sleep.
Have a great night yourself!

Hello MissPunkin and welcome to Seven Forums.

Just my personal opinion and others may very well disagree. But I'd try a Repair Install first. It will try to fix Windows 7 while preserving your user accounts, data, programs, system drivers, etc. You'll have to reinstall Windows updates but it should still be a lot quicker than doing a factory reinstall.

Repair Install

If you really want to do the factory reinstall, I would suggest you not do it. You'd be reinstalling all of the factory bloatware, trial programs, etc that tend to bog down a new system and that you've probably uninstalled as part of the tweaking that goes into a new system. Instead of a factory reinstall I'd recommend a Clean Install. One of the Forum experts prepared this tutorial. And from personal experience, it works very well. I did this to a Dell Inspiron and Sony Vaio.

Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

And for comparison purposes, a traditional clean install:

Clean Install Windows 7

However you decide to proceed, once you get your computer set up to your liking, I'd suggest getting into the habit of making periodic system images. A system image is kinda like a "snapshot" of your entire hard drive and includes the operating system, all updates, installed programs, personalized settings, documents, music, photos, etc. If your computer ever crashes due to a hard drive failure or malware, you could use the system image and get your computer up and running in about 30 minutes. And it will be exactly like it was when the system image was created. The more often a system image is made the more up to date the restore will be.

As far as routine maintenance to keep your computer running smoothly, the built in Windows 7 tools like disk cleanup, defrag, check disk, etc are adequate for most users. A lightweight anti-virus like Microsoft Security Essentials is also recommended. (Don't get too hung up on the never ending debate about which AV is the best. No anti-malware product is 100% effective 100% of the time. If there was such a thing we'd all be using it.) For other suggestions on how to maintain your computer go through this tutorial. Not everything will apply but you may see some tips you haven't used before.

Optimize Windows 7

Thanks for the advice everyone!

I really think doing just a windows 7 install without all the bloatware may be just what the doctor ordered.

My next question will be, do I have to purchase - either online or retail - a Windows 7 disc or are you able to do a download and use the product code that is on the bottom of the laptop?

I've been looking over different sites/posts related to this and have gotten myself confused.

I do know that I need to stay with the same format - a 64 bit and I see no reason to upgrade since I think home premium suits us just fine?

Advice is welcomed and greatly appreciated!!!!

I thought of another question.
Please excuse my lack of knowledge, if you will. I con't consider myself technical by any means when it comes to computer stuff but am willing learn and you all seem to be so kind and helpful! This site rocks!

Anyhow, if we choose to download the Win 7 install from a site, where would you all recommend saving it to?

The laptop drive?
My back up hard-drive? I can check and see how much room is left on it.
A USB drive? And, if so, what size should I get? I currently have an 8Gb that has stuff on it but I can transfer that over to the back up hard drive, if need be.

Or should I consider cd or dvd?

Any suggestions would be more than welcomed and appreciated!

Thanks everyone!!!!

You can visit Digital River, an official Microsoft download site. Download the ISO for your version of Windows 7 that was installed on your computer at the factory. Your 25-digit Product key on the bottom of the computer is tied to that particular version.

Once the ISO is downloaded to desktop you'll have to burn it to a DVD. Burn at no more than 4x speed for optimum reliability.

Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life

For now, just download it to the pc you`re using. It only takes up 3.09 gigs and it will be done, then you can burn it to a dvd. Do you have a dvd burner on this machine ?

When you have burned your Windows 7 DVD, you could burn the drivers disk.

Great idea.:)