Upgrade from XP to Windows 7 - Problems !!

[Yiknaa]

Dell Inspiron 630m laptop. Converted to Windows 7 Home Premium SP 1 32 bit, from XP. Ram 512 MB; Disk C -41.6GB free of 55.7GB.
Things worked reasonably well since I received the laptop 5 days ago. Yesterday I added more progs. but found things began to slow down considerably, and causing programs and browsers to freeze. In the last 30 mins. I have removed IO Bit programs, and it seems that the laptop is beginning to quicken up.
I now have only 11 progs installed C Cleaner; Glary Utilities; Crypto Prevent; Intel Wireless software; Mozilla +Maintenance;TalkTalk SuperSafe Boost.
Is it a case that too many programs WILL slow things down considerably?

Also, in the last 5 days there have been 192(yes, 192) Microsoft updates installed. Is this the norm ?

Hoping someone can give advice and guidance re this 7 laptop, as I am finding it slower than my Windows Vista, and also slower than a 2nd hand Windows XP laptop, which I also use.

 

[MoxieMomma]

Hi:

Dell Inspiron 630m laptop. Converted to Windows 7 Home Premium SP 1 32 bit, from XP. Ram 512 MB; Disk C -41.6GB free of 55.7GB.

Until the smarter folks arrive, that RAM is the problem.

For 32-bit Win7, at least 2 GB is needed.
(For 64-bit Win7, 4 GB is advised.)

So, you'll probably need to see if you can add RAM.

As for the number of updates, yes, that's normal.
And there will likely be more of them after that round.

Me 'thinks you're probably going to run short of space on your hard drive, too, eventually.

IOW, it might be a losing endeavor to try to upgrade this system to Win7 and expect it to work well.

I'm sure the more expert folks will have additional advice.

MM

 

[Yiknaa]

MoxieMomma, Thanks for that information. I will wait for others to come in, hopefully. I did not upgrade the laptop myself. It was done by a local IT firm, and given to me free. Basically, I will only be using it for browsing the web.

 

[jc836]

You really need a minimum of 1 Gig of RAM with 2 being better for Win-7 32 Bit. Your list of utilities is also important. Did you completely remove ALL of the IOBit programs, registry entries and the folders? If not then that needs tended to. You do not need the Firefox Maintenance Service so uninstall it. I have no idea what TalkTalk is and would advise removing it as well. If you want to have it available then uninstall Glary but keep the setup file. You will find that running CCleaner and its companion DeFraggler are usually all one needs to maintain a machine. The caveat here is that you NEVER use a defrag program with an SSD drive.
Last thing - If you are so inclined an SSD will improve performance a lot. This an the added memory will keep the machine happy for some time.
Finally: The 192 Updates are normal and there will be many more, including this weeks offerings. BE VERY CAREFUL as you may find several that should NEVER be allowed as to Windows 10 and a Microsoft desire to do Diagnostics and Telemetry.
Others will offer their input - this is my experience with a lot of years in IT tech support.

 

[AddRAM]

Get rid of all those maintenance tools except Ccleaner, the rest are garbage and do more harm then good.

You may have already destroyed windows by installing them.

You`re trying to take an XP laptop to W7 without upgrading the hardware, max out the memory, add a solid state drive.

You didn`t mention what CPU it has.

 

[MoxieMomma]

Get rid of all those maintenance tools except Ccleaner, the rest are garbage and do more harm then good.

You may have already destroyed windows by installing them.

Excellent point!

The hardware (especially RAM shortage) caught my eye -- I totally overlooked the garbage utilities.

Thanks for catching that.

MM

 

[paul1149]

Yes to everything said. I would NEVER touch anything iobit. Ever. I used two optimizers on a regular basis - ccleaner and auslogics defrag. Go to services.msc and make sure there's no resident iobit service hiding there. They're good at that. Then go to ccleaner / tools / startup and get rid of a lot of autoruns. Set Windows updates to install weekly, on Wednesday.

Netbooks run win7 on 1gb of ram and 1.6ghz of cpu, so it's possible. Going to 2gb makes a huge difference.

 

[Yiknaa]

7am here, and logged on to see if any replies and guidance. Thanks all. I do not have time at the moment to sit and digest all your points, so I will close and return later today to implement your advice. Query re TalkTalk - it is my telephone and ISP, they also provide security- "Super Safe Boost" which has anti-virus, etc.
Thanks will get back later today.

 

[paul1149]

SSB is made by F-Secure, which has been around a long time. But these ISP packages typically are monstrosities regarding resource usage, and this alone can put a weak system in the tank. They are marketing toward the user who knows only how to press the On button. Do a web search for 'SSB slow' and see what you find. Many here like MSE, but I prefer Panda Free.

 

[torchwood]

more tips

I'd shoot over to Blackvipers website, have a look at what he recommends to turn/off dissable.
DO not use the bare bones settings.

can you also screenshot your start-up and services from
ControlPanal>admintools>SystemConfig>services(tick hide microsoft) and Startup

Roy

 

[MoxieMomma]

Hi:

Software and utilities aside, is it not the case that trying to run Win7 (albeit 32-bit) on a platform with 512 Mb of RAM (and a tiny hard drive and (as of the moment) unknown processor) is the limiting factor here???

IOW, there's only so much "tweaking" one can do to software and settings, without upgrading the RAM, swapping out the HDD for SSD, etc.???

OTOH, it may be throwing good money after bad with an old, old CPU. And the $$ might be better spent on a new computer???

<just asking, trying to learn>

MM

 

[Yiknaa]

I have now removed all things appertaining to IO Bit, including a download folder of 43,000kb. Using CCleaner I also found 14 registry issues, about 10 of which were related to IO Bit. The laptop seems to be running quicker now.
I have IE, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome installed. Then CCleaner; Glary Utilities; Foolish IT; Intel Proset wireless; and TalkTalk (phone and broadband). Some other progs. which I ran on an XP laptop, and were functioning properly and without problems, I have removed.

Torchwood, as regards a screen shot, at the moment that is beyond my capabilties. I will try eventually.

Concerning an upgrade 'kit', I have visited uk.crucial.com, and they have the following which I think is what is suggested in earlier posts in this thread : 2GB Kit DDR2 PC2-5300; Unbuffered. Non ECC; 1.8v; 128 Meg x 64.
Price is £21-59p. Is this what I should be looking at ?

 

[paul1149]

If that's the correct denomination, here are some other prices.

PC2-5300 -512 2gb in Computer Memory Ram | eBay

 

[Yiknaa]

Paul 1149, Thanks for that link, and I have had a look at the prices.
torchwood, I have visited Black Vipers website, but it looks too complicated for me to attempt anything.

I assume that fitting the upgrade would mean that the machine would be back to square 1, and would have to be reset ? At the present time I do not have any files, photographs, documents, etc. on this computer, other than the programs I mention above.
Perhaps my best course of action would be to buy the upgrade part and get someone with professional expertise to fit it and re-install everything.

 

[paul1149]

Do you mean the memory upgrade? That's a simple matter of physically replacing or adding to the existing. You can watch youtube videos that show how it's done. You only need access to the RAM slots, usually with a small phillips screwdriver. This has nothing to do with Windows or any software installation. Just make sure you get the right memory.

 

[Yiknaa]

Paul, Thanks for clarifying that point. I may just give it a try myself. I have found the 630m manual on line and there is a section showing how to get into the laptop. I will also have a look on Youtube, as you suggest.

 

[Yiknaa]

Visiting the Dell Community forums, I have been informed that installing a 2GB memory will only increase performance by about 10% ?? Would that be correct ?
And I gather that the next step, if performance does not increase dramatically, would be to replace the hard drive with another hard drive, or even with a SSD.
Any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[LMiller7]

Going from 512 MB to 2 GB RAM would improve performance much more than 10%. How much more depends highly on the nature of the workload. There are many aspects to performance, some of which are greatly influenced by RAM size, some that are not. There is no meaningful way to quantify this.

512 MB RAM is half the minimum supported RAM for 32 bit Windows 7 and I believe the minimum that will allow installation. I understand Windows 7 has run on as little as 256 MB RAM but that is a stunt, not a usable configuration.

 

[Yiknaa]

LMiller7, Thanks for that. I would be using the Dell 630m with 7 just for browsing, etc. Nothing like a big workload. I feel my first step would be to upgrade the memory and try that. If it responds reasonably well then I do not see the sense in spending £60-100 to upgrade the hard disk.