You might be wondering why your laptop doesn’t work like when you first bought it. The lightning-fast speed, decent bootup time, and heavy multitasking without breaking a sweat. But as time passes, it seems to have lost those magical abilities. You’re now left worrying if it is time to replace it as it is not performing up to the mark or you can revive its old potential.

Well, there is some good news for you! Though a laptop ages like we do, you can revive its novelty, unlike humans. You need not to spend moolahs on buying a new machine just yet. We have brought you some simple tweaks to speed up your laptop even if you do not have any towering skills.

With the help of these genius tricks, you can improve the speed of your old laptop. If you want to unleash the true potential of your old laptop, you can follow this simple yet effective guide on improving the laptop’s speed.

Ways to Improve Old Laptop Speed

 

Does your laptop take a long time to boot up? Do you keep pressing the refresh button hoping it would speed up your laptop? Are you tired of watching that damn spinning wheel or hourglass? You are not alone.

We have all been there, and at some point, all of us struggle with the sluggish machines. But before investing your money in a new laptop you need to check out these tricks and try if you can make wonders again with your old laptop.

Clean up Your Digital Workplace:

It’s not rocket science. As a cluttered desk turns your work into a mess in real life, a cluttered hard drive can slacken your laptop. By cleaning the unnecessary files in the hard drives you can send your laptop on a speedy journey. We all have installed a dozen apps that we never actually use. You can begin with uninstalling those unnecessary programs that you do not intend to use. Once you get rid of irrelevant apps, head to your documents, pictures, and videos. Delete what you don’t need, keep what you use frequently, and move the rest of them to an external hard disk or cloud storage. Also, check your downloads folder and clean out the needless files.

Optimize Your Startup:

Have you ever wondered why your old laptop takes a lot of time to boot up? The reason must be lying in the list of programs that try to launch at startup. There are some essential programs that are needed for a startup, then there are many that just slow down the laptop unnecessarily. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open the Task Manager. Check out the “Startup” tab to see the list of all those programs that launch when your laptop starts up. You can disable the unneeded programs. You can again enable them when needed. Once you follow this step, you will see a noticeable difference in boot-up time of your old laptop and its overall performance.

Stay Up-To-Date:

Many people keep avoiding the updates, which is not a wise thing to do. Operating System and software manufacturers release frequent updates and put a lot of effort into improving their current versions. In every update, there are major bug fixes and performance improving upgrades. Not just this they are also crucial for keeping your security up to the mark. You need to be sure that your laptop is always up to date. You can check the Updates tab in your software to see if the latest version of that program is out. For Operating System updates, head to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update. Also, the preinstalled apps launch their upgraded versions, don’t forget to check those too.

Grab the Power of SSD:

SSDs are remarkably faster than traditional hard disk drives (HDD). If you can spend a little money on upgrading your old laptop with an SSD, you can significantly improve the speed of your old laptop and its overall performance. It takes a little technical expertise to do this upgrade. You can reach out to a laptop repair shop in your area and check out the available options for your old laptop.

Amp Up Your RAM:

Random Access Memory (RAM) also known as short-term memory is crucially responsible for the speed of multitasking. The more RAM, the more tasks your laptop can maneuver simultaneously without being sluggish. If your laptop slows down while you multitask, upgrading your RAM is the right option. Then, there is a catch. Every laptop has a limit of how much RAM it can support and different laptop models need different kinds of RAMs. With professional help, you can assess the responsiveness of your laptop and the budget required for this upgrade. Most local laptop repair shops offer this kind of RAM upgrade for old laptops.

Keep It Cool:

In India’s generally hot weather, overheating can be a major issue that slows down old laptops. To keep your laptop running at optimal speed, you need to keep it cool. If you notice any overheating issues with your laptop, check out whether its vents and fans are clean or not. You can use a laptop cooling pad or a laptop stand to improve air circulation. Also, avoid keeping your laptop on surfaces that can block the airflow of its built-in fans.

Embrace the Power of Cloud Storage:

Cloud storage can come as a savior of your old laptop when it comes to decluttering the rarely used data. Services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive offer secure, reliable, and easily accessible cloud storage. You can even opt-out of free storage space for now, all these services offer affordable upgrades if you need more space in the future. Moving old data to cloud storage will make enough space in your laptop to handle its tasks.

Disable Visual Effects:

Those blingy visual effects might look bewitching but they can put a load on your laptop’s resources. You can improve old laptop speed significantly by disabling them. Head to the Start Menu search bar, type “Performance” there, and then select “Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows.” Choose “Adjust for best performance” to disable all visual effects.

Scan for Malware:

Viruses and malware squeeze the resources of the laptop running in the background and you do not even know about it. Regular scans can help you to keep your laptop clean and efficient. Though Windows’ inbuilt ‘Windows Defender’ does a decent job, you can also use third-party antivirus and malware remover software.

Optimize Your Browser:

Most of the time you use your laptop is spent surfing on a web browser. To keep your browser efficient and speedy clear your browser’s cache and cookies regularly. You can also use an ad-blocker to save your browser’s resources to improve its speed.

Defragment Your Hard Drive:

As time passes, the abundance of data lying in your hard drive becomes fragmented, and your laptop struggles a lot while accessing them. Windows has a built-in defragmentation tool. Regular defragmentation can help improve old laptop speed. Head to the start menu, type “Defragment” in the search bar, then select “Defragment and Optimize Drives” to start the process.

 

Optimizing your old laptop for a better speed doesn’t have to be a daunting job. With a little effort and the right technique, you can improve your old laptop’s speed and overall performance dramatically. In some cases, simple cleanup tasks may help, while in others you need to make advanced technical upgrades depending on your budget.

 

Try the above tips one by one, and you will see a significant improvement in old laptop speed. If you feel your current laptop has become too old-fashioned with the change in generation of technology and does not match your requirements, you can easily sell it. You can get the best price for your old laptop if you sell it on CashMartIndia.

 

You have to list your device’s model and specification on CashMartIndia’s website. An authorized executive from the company picks up your old laptop from your doorstep, which means you need not to go anywhere. The payment against your old laptop is then credited into your bank account through a secure payment gateway, keeping you safe from all kinds of money transaction frauds.