Love your laptop

Small, portable, powerful ­ no wonder laptop sales are booming. And with low-cost mini laptops appearing by the bucketload, portable computers are more affordable than ever. But if you’ve taken the plunge and bought one, you might have encountered a few niggling problems. Perhaps it’s a little slow, the battery doesn’t keep it running long enough, or perhaps you’re worried about security. In any case, we’ve got some good news: there are many simple ways to make a good laptop better, or perk up the performance of an ageing portable.

In this article, we take you through the process of getting your laptop running like it did the first time you took it out the box. We will also show how to make it more productive, as well as keep it safe from harm. Best of all, there’s no need for any advanced technical knowledge to put our tips into action. And, in many cases, you won’t need to go anywhere near your wallet.

As good as new?
Laptops are great but brand new ones have something really special about them. Windows starts at lightning speed and programs load almost instantaneously. Sadly, a few months later and it’s often a totally different story. Suddenly, even starting up the computer takes ages and opening multiple applications seem to bring everything to a grinding halt.

There are, however, a number of ways to get a laptop running smoothly once again. Perhaps the quickest is to spend some time uninstalling software that is no longer used. Even if these programs aren’t obviously open or running, they may be running constantly in the background, wasting the computer’s resources.

Open the Start menu, then the Control Panel and choose either Programs and Features in Vista or Add or Remove Programs in Windows XP. From here, go through the list of software installed on the computer and remove any that you no longer require. It’s also worth taking a look at the notification area of Windows, which is sat in the bottom-right corner of the screen, just to the left of the clock. All the icons here indicate programs that are running in the background. Hover your mouse over or right-click them to get more information ­ you may find programs that you have forgotten and which can be uninstalled safely.

Selective memory
If removing unnecessary programs hasn’t provided the speed boost you were looking for, it might be necessary to spend a little money. Fortunately, there’s a simple and inexpensive way to give speed up most laptops: adding more memory. If your computer has 512MB or 1GB of memory, raising this to 2GB will normally give both Windows XP and Vista a significant boost.

Installing laptop memory modules is far simpler than many people think. Crucial’s Memory Advisor tool, online at www.crucial.com/uk, makes things even easier ­ all you need to do is tell it what laptop you have and it will explain what type of memory it accepts.

Actually fitting memory is normally a case of unscrewing a panel on the underside of the laptop, unclipping the old memory if necessary and slipping the new module into place. If you’re nervous about replacing memory, you can watch our online video that that shows every step of the process. Your laptop’s manual should explain where the memory slots are located and how to get to them, and it’s a good idea to check this out before buying any new memory.

It’s also a good idea to see how many modules are fitted and if there are any spare slots: upgrading from 1GB to 2GB, for instance, could be a simple matter of adding a second 1GB module into a spare slot, or it might involve removing two 512MB modules and adding two new 1GB modules. Note that opening the laptop case may invalidate the warranty.