Tips, Tricks & Tweaks to make your Laptop even Better!~

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Hi Guys,

Thought I'd start a new thread for a good discussion on the various tips, tricks &/or tweaks that you guys found or use to make your laptop's performance better. So jump in, let us know your ideas & suggestions & do mention your laptop specs! :twisted:

Cheers!

Model: Asus K Series K53SV-SX521D

Tip: Partition your hdd into atleast 2 partitions before you start filling up your data. Keep the C drive separate from your personal drive, helps a lot to backup and restore stuff.

Tweak: Windows 7 Registry Tweaks >>Useful Tweaks for Speeding Up Windows 7

Download the attachment (the registry tweak) and see faster aero animations & other cool tweaks.

Cheers!

Never use the laptop all the time with charger plugged. Once the battery is charged, remove the charger and let it run on battery. Running on charger all the time reduces laptop battery life very drastically.

thetechfreak said:
Never use the laptop all the time with charger plugged. Once the battery is charged, remove the charger and let it run on battery. Running on charger all the time reduces laptop battery life very drastically.

are you sure!! because i thought that chargers come with auto cut off function once battery is completely charged...

^^
Yes, new laptops do have it. But most older lappys dont have it.

Bro by old you must mean really really old. Infact yet to come across this really old laptop even P1 included which doesn't auto cutoff the battery.

As far as i surmise even if the battery is full dont plug off the charger rather leave it in autocut off mode and let the laptop run on external power.This way you will leave a far less charge /drain cycle on the battery ,infant increasing its life.

Other thing you could do is get as much as ram as possible ineffect reducing the memory page usage on the harddrive and increasing the battery and drives life.

S

Nowadays laptops come with Li-Ion batteries which are already on a death clock, meaning from the day they are manufactured they are dying. Heat plays a major role in reducing the life span of the battery. Therefore, in certain situations like intensive gaming or applications that require high processing, the internal components get heated up which can also indirectly heat the charged battery.

So, its actually a good idea to remove the battery when plugged in on AC power & using the laptop for such intensive n prolonged sessions. Read the battery query thread on this forum and you will find out.

On a side note, a TIP: Go to start --> search --> msconfig and remove all 3rd party and unnecessary apps & services from starting. This will directly result in better boot times.

Tweak: In msconfig, go to the BOOT TAB and there reduce the Timeout limit to 10 seconds (1/3rd of original). Then, click on Advanced Options & check on processors (select your max available) along with max memory. This MAY or MAY NOT reduce boot load time.

Cheers!

Change the thread name to Windows laptop tips,tricks and whatever!
Now regarding Li batteries
1.Agreed!Heat is the worst enemy,so removing the battery while gaming on AC power is logical enough.

2.There is something else about these batteries no one mentioned.
It is the movement of the Li ions.
A battery which is having some ion movement everyday is likely to last more/needs less calibration compared to a battery which was charged 100% on day 1 and taken out of the laptop immediately and again was put in the laptop after 3 days or so.

Love them or hate them,Apple does know a thing or two about laptop batteries,and according to them ideal laptop battery usage is about a hour or so on battery DAILY.

BTW is this thread about SW only?
If not,then SSDs should occupy a major share of discussion.
It is the best boost one can give to his laptop.
Unless you have not seen,you wont believe what a ssd can do to a old and sluggish laptop.

S

red dragon said:
Change the thread name to Windows laptop tips,tricks and whatever!
Now regarding Li batteries
1.Agreed!Heat is the worst enemy,so removing the battery while gaming on AC power is logical enough.

2.There is something else about these batteries no one mentioned.
It is the movement of the Li ions.
A battery which is having some ion movement everyday is likely to last more/needs less calibration compared to a battery which was charged 100% on day 1 and taken out of the laptop immediately and again was put in the laptop after 3 days or so.

Love them or hate them,Apple does know a thing or two about laptop batteries,and according to them ideal laptop battery usage is about a hour or so on battery DAILY.

BTW is this thread about SW only?
If not,then SSDs should occupy a major share of discussion.
It is the best boost one can give to his laptop.
Unless you have not seen,you wont believe what a ssd can do to a old and sluggish laptop.

Yes, the battery must not be altogether left in an idle state which will again prove to be detrimental to the long term battery life. I usually ensure that the battery is plugged in at all times except when I am gaming for around 2hours at a stretch. I make sure that all my regular / routine tasks are done with the battery plugged in.

And I created this thread to discuss all / any way to make the laptop performance better which definitely includes the discussions related to SSD's, faster rpm drives etc. While I agree with you that SSD's performance cannot be compared with non-ssd drives, one has to think about the cost vs storage paradigm that ssd's present.

I mean, we can safely say that a good SSD with lets say 160gb storage capacity would be the equivalent of an entry level netbook right. How many people would want to spend around 20-25% of their laptops cost solely on the SSD (And i refer to majority not enthusiasts).

What are you views on a 7200rpm drive instead of a 5400rpm. I feel they do offer substantial overall improvement without hurting the pocket!

Cheers!

The 7.2k drives are noisy imo.
A probable cost effective solution is hybrid drives.

red dragon said:
The 7.2k drives are noisy imo.
A probable cost effective solution is hybrid drives.

Not actually. I can't even listen it even if I try. Just the fan. But I must say one should always go for 7200 if possible, but real world performance is not visible except for file transfer tasks.

Are hybrid drives available in India? Though the price difference is not much, can you throw some light on how they benefit? (IDK much about this)

I have planned to add a SSD later on when at least 160GB becomes affordable and remove HDD. Result- Blazing speeds (with utter silence), min half an hour back up increment, about 200-300 gm weight reduction, plus show off :))

My laptops got 2 Seagate Momentus XT 500GB hybrid drives which have 4GB of SSD part(Some NAND slc chip

)
Any1 of u can post ur HD tune score with a regular 7.2k drive.I ll post mine soon.

The prime proposed benefits of a Hybrid drive are fast boot speeds,higher data transfer.i used to enjoy the 1st one a lot but then Win7 updates ruined it....

S

clinton said:
My laptops got 2 Seagate Momentus XT 500GB hybrid drives which have 4GB of SSD part(Some NAND slc chip )
Any1 of u can post ur HD tune score with a regular 7.2k drive.I ll post mine soon.

The prime proposed benefits of a Hybrid drive are fast boot speeds,higher data transfer.i used to enjoy the 1st one a lot but then Win7 updates ruined it....

Been hearing a lot about hybrid drives. Fascinating. What is the cost of the seagate drive that you have installed in your laptop? Also, how does partial ssd & partial rpm drive integration exactly work? I have a K53SV (i7) with a stock 5400 rpm drive & am lookingto upgrade somewhere in the near future.

On a side note, TIP: I removed Windows 7 64 Bit SP1 and instantly noticed that my boot speed & overall boot loading of widgets etc. improved significantly.

Cheers!

clinton said:
My laptops got 2 Seagate Momentus XT 500GB hybrid drives which have 4GB of SSD part(Some NAND slc chip )
Any1 of u can post ur HD tune score with a regular 7.2k drive.I ll post mine soon.

The prime proposed benefits of a Hybrid drive are fast boot speeds,higher data transfer.i used to enjoy the 1st one a lot but then Win7 updates ruined it....

Check my review. I have posted there. BTW you bought your lappi from India? Which one?

@Dashing Sujay,
I got a ASUS G73SW A1 laptop about a month back.I got from the US from an estore for around 70k INR.
The Momentus XT 500gb cost around 7k right now.Seagate has another better model the Momentus XT 750 GB which has 8GB of SSD memory.Test & revies shows it can outperform the Veloci Raptors & significantly reduce Boot times.
My next upgrade woud definitely be the XT 750 GB once the prices drop coz it gives speed + a massive amount of storage space too...

Here's the HD tune screeny-
*i44.tinypic.com/2vsf9eh.jpg

Its approx 20% faster but if I'd have to invest 7k, I'd rather go for a SSD (Vortex 3/160 gb) by adding 3-4k when price reduces.

Reduce waste startup processes.I noticed many guys used to make a lot of programs and processes on startup causing more boot time.

use ccleaner to clean waste temp files and fix reg. files.

S

Since we're on the topic, I suggest to google & download "Eusing Free Registry Cleaner & Window Washer" (2 separate software's). Make sure to run them once every 3-4 days to keep the system up and running speedily.

Cheers!

^^Isn't ccleaner enough? ;-)

Win7 SP1 totally sucked man!!!Uninstalled it it within minutes after installing,but still other updates have affected too.I have disabled most of the startup apps & use Ccleaner too,but none can give the old glory back....
BTW how long do u guys take to boot?

^^ 55-60 sec.

Mine takes around 45 sec,previous used to be below 40.Its annoying to see the welcome screen staying for around 10 sec.The Win7 wait cursor(spinning blue circle) annoys me a lot!!!

mine takes 46 sec...

S

clinton said:
Win7 SP1 totally sucked man!!!Uninstalled it it within minutes after installing,but still other updates have affected too.I have disabled most of the startup apps & use Ccleaner too,but none can give the old glory back....
BTW how long do u guys take to boot?

Yes, found it the hard way. The boot up time lag got to me so much that I reinstalled Windows 7 and made sure to be choosy with the updates (only security patches & essentials).

Cheers!

And on my PC it takes 40-42 sec. to boot.

Ontopic * While playing games on your laptop keep up performance mode in power management or connect to charger , otherwise it'll lag a lot. Cause gpu will get less power.

Hey guys can High end games like Crysis 2 be run in battery mode?
I mean when i run these games on battery they lag,but once i connect to AC they run butter smooth.I have tried putting the laptop in HP mode.

These games need performance from your gpu and it needs power for high performance.
That why we buy reputated psu when going for a high end graphic card.

S

clinton said:
Hey guys can High end games like Crysis 2 be run in battery mode?
I mean when i run these games on battery they lag,but once i connect to AC they run butter smooth.I have tried putting the laptop in HP mode.

Its a fact that higher GPU processing needs AC power but it might be possible that as soon as you remove charger, the profile is switched. Go to batery settings (advanced) and change the battery mode to maximum performance from battery savings!

cheers!

I agree with thetechfreak. I myself ruined my laptop battery when scheduling night downloads. Its better when you have a home ups and don't use the battery when working for a long time.(I mean remove the battery and run the laptop in direct power when you have a home ups).

Another tip: When having dual boot with windows and linux, you can have a common partition (as a buffer) formatted in FAT32 filesystem to be accecible from both the OS so that you don't disturb the respective OS core files.

And since OP asks, i mention my lappie model: IBM Thinkpad SL400c.

R

I must add that Gaming on a Laptop sucks. Consider this, my Dell XPS 1645 [ i7 740QM, 8 GB Ram, AMD 5730, 7200 RPM HDD ) can't run Battlefield 3. Why? - Dell refuses to update the Graphic Drivers for their laptops

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RahulB said:
I must add that Gaming on a Laptop sucks. Consider this, my Dell XPS 1645 [ i7 740QM, 8 GB Ram, AMD 5730, 7200 RPM HDD ) can't run Battlefield 3. Why? - Dell refuses to update the Graphic Drivers for their laptops

Why can't you download the latest graphic drivers from the ati website? I mean the catalyst control center? And I am running BF3 at 40fps on high settings (Asus K53SV Laptop - i7 2670qm, 8gb ddr3, 2 gb nvidia gt540m OC'd)

Cheers!

RahulB said:
I must add that Gaming on a Laptop sucks. Consider this, my Dell XPS 1645 [ i7 740QM, 8 GB Ram, AMD 5730, 7200 RPM HDD ) can't run Battlefield 3. Why? - Dell refuses to update the Graphic Drivers for their laptops

Dont wait for manufacturers. Go here- AMD Graphics Drivers & Software ? Download the latest drivers for your graphics products

and get the drivers. also try this software called Game Booster to see if it helps boost performance. It has benifitted few members I have recommended

Game Booster 3.0 Free Download, Speed Up PC for Top Gaming Performance

^for me Gamebooster solved stuttering in Nfs:Hot Pursuit.

R

sdmaverick, thetechfreak thanks for the suggestions but AMD drivers don't work.. Laptop manufactures customize hardware and publish their own drivers. I downloaded stock drivers from AMD website but they don't install. Catalyst Control Center gets updated but the display driver remains the same. One solution is to hack the drivers. I did that and played BF3 like that. However it screwed my display's colors after somedays. I had to rever to the old drivers. AMD itself acknowledges this problem and says they are at the mercy of OEM's. If you have a solution please post. Eagerly waiting for your reply

thanks pravinb life will never be the same again now that i have two finger scroll. really mate thanks a ton.

i have 6gb ram in my notebook. how quick should it boot with an i3 2.2ghz and 5400hdd

i never run this on battery. laptop does not heat even while gaming. fan runs only while gaming or when i draw something.

county boots within 1 min. windows home basic score is 5.1.

Prongs298 said:
thanks pravinb life will never be the same again now that i have two finger scroll. really mate thanks a ton.

Your life revolves around a laptol?!
Hey bhagwan!

Sent from Galaxy S2

@Rahul B Did you try the Gamebooster said to use? Should boost Gaming performance a bit. is your PC bloated with Software that Dell installs?

R

No my PC is not bloated at all, what I am saying my display driver is obsolete ( Driver Packaging Version 8.692.1-100122a-094670C-Dell ), while AMD website is at 12.1 ( 8.99x or something ), AMD stock drivers don't install

red dragon said:
Your life revolves around a laptol?!
Hey bhagwan!

Sent from Galaxy S2

what does your blessed existence revolve around?

My family,friends,work...certainly not a laptop!Though I do have a good collection of them!

Sent from Galaxy S2

Kola2842 said:
^for me Gamebooster solved stuttering in Nfs:Hot Pursuit.

Even I use Gamebooster only to play NFS: Hot Pursuit because it stutters a lot. Latest games like Arkham City and AC: Revelations work fine but don't know what is wrong with this hotpursuit. Must be more demanding game I guess.

AMD drivers don't work.. Laptop manufactures customize hardware and publish their own drivers. I downloaded stock drivers from AMD website but they don't install

Even I have the same problem to update drivers for my ATI HD 5730. I downloaded from from the AMD website but it did not work.My driver version is 8.68xxxxx. But don't face any problem in playing games though!