Why has my cw series gone slow?

[hannah__X]

Recently my cw series has been going really slow and i have no idea why. If i play music itll start skipping and everytime i go on firefox it freezes. But i have 228gb free space out of 286gb. At one point i know there was a bing search engine on firefox which made it go slow so i deleted it. But unfortunately my laptop is still going quite slow. Any ideas?

[Blencogo]

Without knowing what your Vaio is running in the background, it is difficult to point to the exact problem.

The most commom causes are: -

1.  Registry problems where the Vaio is looking for links to software that has been moved or deleted.

2.  Junk files and cookies.

3.  Programs and processes running in the background that are unnecessary.

Probably the easiest  way forward is to download a free trial version of a registry cleaner - something like System Mechanic - and run the registry optimisations and the junk file remover.

You can download the free trial version here: -

http://www.iolo.com/system-mechanic/standard/download.aspx

Don't bother to enter any personal details in the Name and email address part, just uncheck the box "Keep me up to date ....." and click on Download Free Trial.  When downloaded, let it carry out a system analysis and let it repair any problems.

[mathewlisett]

unless iolo (the makers of System Mechanic) have sorted their issue with the high resource hogging software, i woudlnt touch it. they used to be a great uttiliy but few years ago they i believe went to v10 and things went wrong.

i personally have used tuneup utilties for the last few years and its been great.

MsMpEng.exe.

if you have the microsoft essentials installed and active, have the task manager up with the processes showing and click twice on cpu so that it then shows the process that is using most the cpu power.

if the above .exe process is hogging all the power, this means that the system is being slowed down by the msn live essentials protection, so for that moment right click on the .exe and select end process, and i can bet you near 90% that youe system becomes more responsive.

[Blencogo]

By all means try Tune-Up Utilities if you can find a free trial.  I used to think it was great with XP but it did some odd things with Vista and I stopped using it.  It is probably OK now.

I moved to System Mechanic then and find it reliable and quick. As long as you turn off any auto-features it does not use any system resources until you run it.

[hannah__X]

The thing that is using the most is firefox at 256, 696k

Im pretty sure it didnt use to be that much? Its been like it ever since i had the bing add on but deleted it.

then the next would be itunes at 32,000k

theres quite abit of difference! But i just dont know why firefox is taking up so much space?

Could it have anything to do with norton? I noticed when norton was running background checks my music kept skipping again and laptop was going slow

Also sometimes when im on firefox my laptops screen goes black.. then the screen pops back one once all the programs running have maximised then go back to how they were

Not quite sure whats up to be honest

[Blencogo]

In Firefox, click on Tools in the top menu -> Add_ons and select Plugins.

You will see a list of the 'extras' that run every time you open Firefox.

You can go down the list and disable anything you no longer use - you can usually disable quite a lot.

You can also try opening Firefox with ALL Add_ons disabled.  Hold down the Windows Key and press R.  In the Run Box type

firefox -safe-mode

In the next window check 'Disable all add-ons' and click 'Make changes and restart'.  This will open Firefox 'naked' - see how much memory this uses and if it is much quicker.

Close and reopen normally to load the add-ons again.

[hannah__X]

I did that! and now my firefox seems to be going slow haha!

this is a pictute of the windows tasks...

and then heres a picture of all the add ons i had..

minus adobe acrobat because it wouldnt fit on

its definitely not using as much now though!! but im not sure if i should of kept any of the add ons on