I am using a Samsung laptop which is about 5 years old now and it has suddenly decided to become reluctant to wake up. When I switch it on the blue light comes on but the screen remains black and it takes 3-4 minutes before even the Samsung logo is displayed. After that it works fine - no slower than it was before. The hard drive is about three-quarters full and I don't recall adding any more programs recently. Should I worry? Is this easily fixable or should I start saving up for a new machine?

Any advice gratefully received, but I'm not very techy so please speak ser-low-erly and ca-lear-ly!

Thanks,

Chris

I'm not very techy either and my Toshiba is about the same age as your laptop. We tend to accumulate all sorts of 'rubbish' so, every now and then, I delete all my browsing history which also removes cookies etc and start afresh. It's worth looking through your programs to see if there's anything that can be uninstalled.
My security provider, Avast, regularly tells me all sorts of things are slowing down my laptop but, of course, they want more sponduliks to do owt.

Yes, I do those sort of things too, and I run Advanced System Care also on a regular basis. I don't really think it can be junk files because, as I say, it works normally once it is up and running. It just seems to have turned into a teenager who won't get out of bed...

Cheers,

Chris

1. Which  Samsung model?
2. Which OS (Win 7, Win 10)
3. How much memory / processor speed/type (look at control panel/system)

4. Run Chkdsk ( click windows button, click computer, Right click the disc icon and select "Check now"., then click Start
5.  Its will pop up a box saying it can't do it, accept , and click schedule.
6. It will run CHKDSK when you close down and restart the PC and sort out a number of disk problems
5a run up to date virus checker - Sophos is good and free had has no annoying popups!
7. Consider deleting Advanced System Care - it gets varied reviews , and may be contributing to the problem! Its functions merely replicate free windows tools
8. Copy off all valuable data, find the system install discs and reinstall windows. ( PM me if not available  and Win7 installed - I can help)
9.  look up PC specs on Web, and expand memory onboard to max ( 4 or 8GB probably)
10.  s/h memory chips are good value on Ebay, (and I have always found them reliable)
11.

This is normal behaviour for Windows computers. They start out with a clean load of Windows and run blazing fast. After 3 or 4 years of windows updates and such, they won't even get out of bed in the morning. Boot up times become incredibly slow.

At work we lease laptops and replace them every 3 years.

Follow @Railwaygun 's advice.

Wiping your hard drive and reinstalling Windows can help.

Regards,

John P

A bit late I know, but may be of use for the future.

With minimal effort, it is possible to turn off Windows updates, with the exception of security patches.

This I did, after two years, the option for me to do this had been disabled, I suspect buried in a security update.

Now, I try not to let it update Windows AT ALL.

Occasionally it forces an update, at which point I go into settings and 'back out' any Windows updates.

Three and a half years on, my laptop still boots to stable and loads my email client (not MS email) in 65 seconds.

I also NEVER use an MS web browser, I use Firefox, MS browsers are notoriously unstable and bloated.

Hope you find a solution.

I would say the type of hard drive has more of an impact on boot times than processor. An SSD should be much quicker than a spinning disk.

I'm not sure that advising people to turn off MS Updates is a good idea.

Also I wouldn't get too hung up about MS web browsers - that used to be true, but hasn't been true for a while. Firefox is still a memory hog (as are most browsers with too many tabs open!) and MS Edge is pretty good - I really don't think there is much beyond personal preference between Edge/FF/Chrome.

Totally echo Mike's thoughts. I don't buy the idea that Windows updates bloat the machine, I think it's more damaging to disable them. Firefox is probably worse than Edge these days, it was definitely the superior choice 10 years ago, now I'm not so sure.

SSDs are sickeningly cheap now, and would almost certainly transform boot time - it's under 5 seconds in my Samsung laptop, which is older than yours.

That said if it's suddenly degraded that does point to something else going on, Railwaygun's suggestions are reasonable.

Each to their own.

To reiterate, I DO apply security updates.

The last Windows SYSTEM FEATURES update added 35 seconds onto the boot time, so, read into that what you will. Every Windows SYSTEM FEATURES update has added a big chunk of time on the boot speed.

I also run Norton Antivirus.

a 240Gb SSD drive is £20 0n Amazon and would be the best investment for your PC ( plus expanding the memory)

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/lexar-ns100-25-sata-iii-6gbs-240gb-speed-upto-550mbs-r510mbs-r-solid-state-drive-for-2239-delivered-at-amazon-uk-3304248

Whilst I consider myself to be quite computer literate in as much as I know what I am doing with the programmes I know how to work, I am not that brilliant with actual computer workings. I understand that an SSD can make a big difference to the speed of a computer and can be used for file backups etc., just like an external hard drive, but, if I have got this right, an increase in boot time would be more noticeable if the operating system, in my case W10, was on the SSD and not on the hard drive of my laptop. So, my question is, to improve the speed of the laptop, I get a SSD but how do I get the operating system onto the SSD from the HD?

You use some software to clone the drive, or the partition of the drive with the OS, onto the SSD.

Given laptops generally only have space for one hard drive I'd advise getting an SSD equivalent to the size you need and using it as your sole storage medium. This obviously won't work if you have a 3tb drive and are using it all, however! I wouldn't mess about with external drives.

A 1tb SSD is about £100 now. Samsung drives include their software which is very painless to use.

Worth a look in the task manager, right click on the task bar at the bottom. One of the options is a list of programmes that run on start up. If there is something you don't recognise, look it up on the internet before disabling it. It may help. Also loading the registry can slow things down, so a SSD as mentioned before can speed things up. A proprietary register cleaner might help but don't trust any free ones.

QuoteWhen I switch it on the blue light comes on but the screen remains black and it takes 3-4 minutes before even the Samsung logo is

were in the boot routine does the logo apear? is it before the bios has kicked in or after?Try hitting esc when you initially power up to see if theres any "hidden "messages

Quote from: Malc on October 09, 2019, 04:39:34 PM
Worth a look in the task manager, right click on the task bar at the bottom. One of the options is a list of programmes that run on start up. If there is something you don't recognise, look it up on the internet before disabling it. It may help. Also loading the registry can slow things down, so a SSD as mentioned before can speed things up. A proprietary register cleaner might help but don't trust any free ones.

Hello Malc,

I have attached (I hope) a screenshot of the Task Manager, which looks OK to me, although the 205 seconds BIOS time is obviously the problem.

@themadhippy , the logo appears just before the lock screen appears, so presumably at the end of the BIOS setup.

Thanks, @Railwaygun , for your comprehensive reply. I have tried to run chkdsk without much success, but I will try some of your other suggestions when I have more time.

I will keep you posted.

Cheers,

Chris