Laptops all around

You probably got a old laptop, which is probably slow and very sluggish. It is a single, double, or quad core low megahertz system and you really can’t do much with it because it is so unbearable slow. I grew up with 9600 baud rates, for the younger generation that is very slow internet. It can be very disheartening to have to just wait for the system to boot or a program to run. You could of even bought this laptop from a yard sale. So what can you do with this laptop besides make it a door stop? This article will tell you how I refurbish my laptops to make them faster and more responsive when I don’t want to buy a better laptop.

2x or 3x more RAM!

If your laptop can support another laptop memory module then you should install another RAM module. It however is dependent on what speed of ram you currently have installed. If your laptop only has one module slot you will need to go buy a bigger ram and install it instead the one you have. So you need to know how big you can install into the laptop. You can easily Google it and find out how much you can add to your laptop. I wouldn’t install anything to big, something like 8 GB to 16 GB will do to make it even faster. The faster the ram speed the faster the system will respond but it must be capable with the current module so I suggest installing the same speed if you aren’t going to replace the module.

Replace the HDD with SDD

If you’re considering doing this, I strongly recommend you backup your current system. Remember the rule of 3. You should always have at least 3 different ways to restore your current system. What’s is an SSD? It is short for Solid State Drives and don’t use mechanical plates to write data. Think of a HDD has having several layers of DVD plates that are much smaller and use magnetism to read and write data. SSD are almost like RAM and have no moving parts and thus are more responsive to reading and writing which makes booting the system way faster than you probably ever realize. You can find some SSD at Amazon if you need one. You can find some really cheap SSD because you probably don’t need a lot of space for your old laptop,\.

Install Linux

I’ve talked about this before but I will say this again. If you are using a really old laptop you probably can’t use Windows 10 and since Windows 7 is at it’s End of life. You really can’t go wrong, by going to opensource operating system. I personally love Linux Mint but I am sure there are other Linux system that might be better for your laptop because it might require a very simple Linux desktop. You want your system to boot up and be able to use your laptop with ease this is definitely the best recommendation I can give you. If you are planning to install windows 10, you should make sure your laptop can support it.

Got a favorite Linux system? Or maybe something else to make your Laptop speed up and more responsive why not leave a comment and let me know and others.