Old laptop working after 24+ hrs of fiddling

[Fizz]

I have a 9yr old HP laptop that died on me last year. It was old so I bought a new one.

Last week came time to do or die for the old one. It would take over 45 min to boot up and be dead slow after that. I would click a choice, go away for 15-20 min waiting for the response then click the next option.
After 5-6 hrs (I swear) I finally reached the update option. It took till the next day, over 24 hrs of run time to get it updated. The screen was blank for hours at a time, do or die.
It's now running as it was new... slow by modern standards but it works.

UPDATE
Still doing updates, five today.
Seems like you have to check for updates after each update even though it's on 'auto update'. It's like they are all sequential and can't do some updates till all previous ones have been done... or something like that.

[Gdetrailer]

ferretgrandpa wrote:
Next time try a Puppy Linux.
They are very small, run very clean, available as 32 or 64 bit, and can run from a usb or cd/dvd. HDD is not needed, and they are priced right at as in Free.
Only drawback is a couple of minor adjustments to the BIOS, which are reversable if you don't like them.

May as well just tell people to buy a MAC..

Linux is not 100% the same as Windows and neither is a MAC..

Not everyone is cut out to deal with the lack of a polished GUI or lack of driver and software support and command line use to install programs that is the basis of Linux.

Yes, there are some "look alike" software that is similar to software that runs on Windows but not all software is covered (IE no full on replacement). Can be fun to play with though.

[ferretgrandpa]

Next time try a Puppy Linux.
They are very small, run very clean, available as 32 or 64 bit, and can run from a usb or cd/dvd. HDD is not needed, and they are priced right at as in Free.
Only drawback is a couple of minor adjustments to the BIOS, which are reversable if you don't like them.

[Gdetrailer]

1492 wrote:
This is where a desktop PC would have an advantage for a longer lifespan as it's more readily upgrade-able.

I would tend to agree.

I prefer to build my own desktop PCs from ground up, less restrictive and much more flexible than OEM prebuilt or a laptop.

Over the yrs I have been able to repurpose a lot of used MBs as my employer removed them from the field use for upgrades to newer MBs with faster processors.. Does mean that my PCs are not cutting edge but thats OK, have been playing with some i3s at 3.3Ghz on industrial MBs which have multiple HDMI outputs and even have a i7 at 4Ghz on an industrial MB with multiple HDMI outputs.. Plenty of speed for me and cost was just a few parts..

Those i3 processors I am playing with easily outperform any laptop with a i7 since most laptops the processors are low power mobile device processors which are speed limited below 2Ghz..

Upgrading the video card is another plus for desktop PCs, just plug in a upgrade card and allow drivers to install and you can vastly improve video performance over a laptop..

Kind of wish I would have grabbed a couple of the retired servers before I left the company.. Had some pretty nice Dells which had two 10 core processors plus 64GB of RAM and a nice hardware RAID controller with memory.. Add in a hopped up video card and be off to the races..

Laptops do have their place, they are nice when you need mobility and as long as one can live with some of the shortcomings (small screen, small keyboard slower processor limited RAM, limited quantity of HDs and in most cases now days no built in DVD or optical device) can be a OK substitute for a desktop.

[1492]

This is where a desktop PC would have an advantage for a longer lifespan as it's more readily upgrade-able.

I have a 10-year old DELL Vostro biz desktop core i7 W10 still used as a daily PC. Have upgraded it with 2-SSDs, fast nVidia GeForce graphics card, USB-C/extra USB3 ports, Bluetooth 5.0, and Bluray writer. Basically, maxing out DELL's rather small standard 350-watt PS. Still cold boots into W10Pro in 15-secs. Can easily handle large Photoshop files, and multiple 2K/1080P HD video edit tracks in real-time.

Only switch to a new DELL Alienware laptop if needing to work with 4K video files for real-time edits. Otherwise, the 10-year DELL works fine.

[Gdetrailer]

lryrob9301 wrote:

Fizz wrote:

theoldwizard1 wrote:

Fizz wrote:
... slow by modern standards but it works.

Now that it is stable, do a backup ! Write down he license number.

Find a "retail distribution" of your version of Windows. Feel free to over write he factory backup partition. You may have to manually install some drivers. Getting rid of "bloatware" makes a big difference.

Install a SSD ! You will be amazed at how fast it will runs.

Thanks but too much bother.
All bloatware is gone, temp, recycle etc all cleaned out.
It is what it is.

Also install as much RAM as the motherboard will take. You will be amazed at how much better the PC performs.

Ram and performance depends on the OS "Bit level" and if the MB BIOS can accept more Ram. Some older MBs may only give you 2GB to 4GB of Ram and or have limited slots.

32Bit OS versions (and yes it is very possible that one may have a 32bit OS on older hardware in Win7, Win8, Win10) can only access and use 3.2GB of the RAM, installing anything above that does absolutely nothing except wast your money.

64 bit OS can access and use memory above 3.2GB and if you have 4GB of RAM, it will most likely benefit SOME by adding in additional memory..

SSD drives can make a nice improvement but on real old hardware memory and SSD will have very limited benefits.

[lryrob9301]

Fizz wrote:

theoldwizard1 wrote:

Fizz wrote:
... slow by modern standards but it works.

Now that it is stable, do a backup ! Write down he license number.

Find a "retail distribution" of your version of Windows. Feel free to over write he factory backup partition. You may have to manually install some drivers. Getting rid of "bloatware" makes a big difference.

Install a SSD ! You will be amazed at how fast it will runs.

Thanks but too much bother.
All bloatware is gone, temp, recycle etc all cleaned out.
It is what it is.

Also install as much RAM as the motherboard will take. You will be amazed at how much better the PC performs.

[joebedford]

Lately two of my W10 PCs have been running 100% disk utilization. I got one of them back to normal by going back to the previous checkpoint; still working on the second. Takes many minutes to respond to a ketstroke.

These PCs are 10 or more years old but there's no reason to get rid of them. Not until W11 becomes mandatory because they probably won't work with W11. Maybe them I'll replace them. OR run Linux.

At least neither of our heavy hitters have displayed this problem. The PC I'm using right now is 12 years old. Still good for everyday activities but I'm noticing it's slow for some simulations.

[BarneyS]

I just gave away my three year old MacBook Pro to my grandson. I hated that thing! It only had two "C" ports on each side and that was all. Had a heck of a time trying to move pictures from my phone to the computer, never did figure out the file system after almost 45 years with a PC, too many things are limited to that machine, and finally the thing locked up on me twice and I had to take it to a pro to get it running again.
I ended up restoring it to factory new condition and giving it away to by grandson. Hope he has better luck than I did.

I replaced it with an MSI gaming laptop that, so far, seems to be of excellent quality and is very fast and fun to use. It gets excellent reviews so I hope it will last for a few years.

I also have two other laptops that I put Linux "Mint" on and they are working well even though they are completely out of date and would be considered junk by most.
I use one of them all the time in the trailer out in the woods and my phone as the hotspot. Works for me.:)
Barney

[obgraham]

I have had them all slowly wither and die: HP, Dell, ASUS, Sony.
So I switched sides, to the evil Apples. I grudgingly admit it is much more reliable.

[Matt_Colie]

I wish my 30 month old HP would do that. It has failed a second time. The first was under warranty and they replaced the Optonic and HDD. It recently crashed again. It behaved like the HDD was in trouble, so I loaded a new OS on another that I had a popped it in....

Still no joy.

I took it to a local shop that does HP repairs. They had it for a week and told me that the device on the main board that does the port management had died. A new main board and installation is different cost from a new laptop by only lunch at a fast food place.

I don't think I'm buying another HP anything.

Matt

[valhalla360]

Backup any files you need and recycle it. It will never be remotely trustworthy from here out.

[Fizz]

theoldwizard1 wrote:

Fizz wrote:
... slow by modern standards but it works.

Now that it is stable, do a backup ! Write down he license number.

Find a "retail distribution" of your version of Windows. Feel free to over write he factory backup partition. You may have to manually install some drivers. Getting rid of "bloatware" makes a big difference.

Install a SSD ! You will be amazed at how fast it will runs.

Thanks but too much bother.
All bloatware is gone, temp, recycle etc all cleaned out.
It is what it is.

[theoldwizard1]

Fizz wrote:
... slow by modern standards but it works.

Now that it is stable, do a backup ! Write down he license number.

Find a "retail distribution" of your version of Windows. Feel free to over write he factory backup partition. You may have to manually install some drivers. Getting rid of "bloatware" makes a big difference.

Install a SSD ! You will be amazed at how fast it will runs.

[Lwiddis]

That's great that the old guy is still in service.