Need a Netbook, recommendations??

[Viper69]

I have an "older" HP netbook, Pavillion DM1. When I bought it new some years ago it ran great. I haven't installed all that much software on it. A few utilities, MS Office. It runs Win7 Home Premium.

About a year ago it just started running more slowly. I scanned it with KAV, Malewarebytes both came up clean (not a guarantee mind you- but good results) yesterday. I ran CC cleaner on the registry, deleted anything it found, still slow.

The HD is only 3% fragmented. It's about 250megs in size, and 156megs are free.

I'm at a loss as to why it takes a while to open software generally. Just doesn't seem to be as fast as it once was.

Either I have to reformat the drive and install everything all over again, OR, get a new netbook.

W/that said I'm open to any suggestions, be it a new netbook OR ways to improve what I already have now.

I like my HP because the keyboard is 92% full size, and at the time I purchased it had every bell and whistle a netbook could have (far and above other netbooks out there at the time).

So if I could make it run faster, I'd stick with what I have.

If I have to get a new one so be it.

It's just a bit frustrating because it's always worked fine until somewhat recently.


Needs for a New Model:
1. Word Processing, MS Office etc
2. Internet surfing- basic PDF downloads at times. I don't even download music.
3. Email

 

[bob4933]

Planned obsolescence unfortunately.

Anyway what's your budget boss?

 

[Viper69]

Planned obsolescence unfortunately.

Anyway what's your budget boss?

I was thinking the same thing as well. However, nothing I use on the computer is obsolete. Same software, same everything, except newer version of KAV and Firefox. I can't figure out why it would run fine back then, and slower recently.

I could understand if I have installed a lot of updates, new software and "filled up" my registry file with all sorts of things, but I haven't done it. I've kept it the way it was bought really. So how does one explain the slowness in speed? Not saying you are wrong, just don't understand how it could be that reason. I'm all too familiar w/that mode of business manufacturing unfortunately.

Price range I'd like is $500 or less. As much as I'd like to drop more for a Surface Pro etc, I can't justify it as I don't use my netbook that frequently for the cost and as we know it will be obsolete when I buy it etc etc.

I do want a large keyboard like my HP, 92% full size is pretty nice! My netbook has 4 or 8 gigs if I recall correctly. I'm telling you when it came out it had everything, it was loaded back then, for 300$, while the rest of the netbooks were sitting on 1gig RAM and tiny HDs.

 

[Dlaw]

It may be getting warm and throttling from dried out TIM and/or clogged heatsink. I would try taking it apart and reapplying TIM and cleaning out the heatsink first. Run a stress test afterwards (Prime95 or the like), and make sure the temperatures stay under 90C-ish with a tool like HWMonitor. Also use HWMonitor to see if the CPU frequency drops at all.

 

[Joe88]

Have you ever considering something like the surface pro 2?
They typically run about $300-400

 

[Viper69]

It may be getting warm and throttling from dried out TIM and/or clogged heatsink. I would try taking it apart and reapplying TIM and cleaning out the heatsink first. Run a stress test afterwards (Prime95 or the like), and make sure the temperatures stay under 90C-ish with a tool like HWMonitor. Also use HWMonitor to see if the CPU frequency drops at all.

I'll run Prime95, install HWMonitor and run it and get an idea of what the temps are before doing anything. It's a netbook, everything is stock. I hadn't considered dried TIM or heatsink. I'd be surprised if it was the heatsink as I don't use the netbook all that much, maybe a few times a year.

I'd think if it was getting too warm the software installed by HP would have detected this and shut it down.

Thnks

 

[Viper69]

Have you ever considering something like the surface pro 2?
They typically run about $300-400

I had not. I believe they aren't sold new anymore, only refurbs? I'll look into it.

 

[bob4933]

If you're convinced its a software issue , id At least start with formatting. Make sure you check your hdd health. (not just fragmentation). Slow hdd -> sllow everything.


Toshiba chromebook 2 has rave (stupid phone) reviews for the sub 500 mark.

 

[Viper69]

If you're convinced its a software issue , id At least start with formatting. Make sure you check your hdd health. (not just fragmentation). Slow hdd -> sllow everything.


Toshiba chromebook 2 has rave (stupid phone) reviews for the sub 500 mark.

If temps check out, I MAY use the backup that HP creates and see if starting it from "fresh" is the difference first. If not, I'll do as you suggest. Best FREE utility for checking HDD health? Thanks for the Toshiba tip.

 

[bob4933]

Crystal disk info and mark are good programs to check.