Disabling Dual Monitors on a Laptop

[Duddyroar]

Now before I start I don't know if this can even be done, but I've got a Toshiba laptop that I bought at Xmas that is running stupidly slow.

I've disabled all the needless crap using msconfig, and that has improved things but I'm still not completely happy with the speed. I've been checking the hardware settings and for the screen display, I've got a two monitor option (even though I've never installed another screen on the laptop). This is the only option I can choose, I can't tell the PC that I only wish to use the laptops own screen. The graphics card is an ATI Radion 7000 (I think). Does anyone know if it is possible to completely disable this option? I'm hoping this might be a way of getting some extra speed.

And while we're at it, I keep disabling MSN Messenger in msconfig but the ****ing thing keeps coming back every time I reboot. Any ideas?

[VR46]

Dual screen thing isn't going to make a difference to performance, Messenger, simply right click on the icon on the taskbar and there is a tick to take out "start messenger on boot" or similar.
What spec is your PC ? what is it slow doing ? you need to run something like Sisoft Sandra to compare a score with a similar specc'd laptop and see if your's is running slow or your just expecting too much ...

[marcus]

If your on XP disabling a lot of the GUI fancy effects will help things, right click my comp/advanced/performance/settings and untick all but the last three radio items to maintain the XP look.

You can remove MSN messenger via add remove programs, but its hidden, you need to unhide it from an inf file for it to show (which Ill find in a bit) or google "uninstall msn messenger" for lots of scripts.

[Duddyroar]

If your on XP disabling a lot of the GUI fancy effects will help things, right click my comp/advanced/performance/settings and untick all but the last three radio items to maintain the XP look.

Already done that - it helped a little.

You can remove MSN messenger via add remove programs

Tried doing this and it still keeps coming back.

What spec is your PC ? what is it slow doing ? you need to run something like Sisoft Sandra to compare a score with a similar specc'd laptop and see if your's is running slow or your just expecting too much ...

It's a Celeron 2.8GHz with 256 MB of RAM. Not the best spec, but my home PC, a Pentium III 933Mhz seems to run faster!

The laptop is slow to bootup - but this could be the antivirus. When I'm running programs like Outlook 2003 it's quite slow refreshing the page when I open an email. When multiple programs are running it often crashes without any kind of warning. It's not slow at actually running the programs themselves, but it just seems to grind to a halt far too often. Like I said removing needless processes has helped quite a bit but speed wise I still think my home PC is faster.

[marcus]

Bearing in mind that laptops generally will be slower than the equivalent desktop due to their compact design, and susceptability to heat and so on, Im not sure how a 2.8 celeron would perform against an Intel chip. If I were you Id look to increase the RAM and fresh install XP, especially if the laptop came preinstalled with manufacturer crap they load on, and especially in light of the crashes. Does the fan kick on often noticeably? When its performing badly, which processes are using the most CPU cycles in Task Manager?

[superkully]

As marcus said, it is the RAM that is holding you back - I'd always recommend 512 as a minimum for XP, my old laptop was sluggish as buggery with 256...

[Duddyroar]

Not sure to be honest, will have to check at the weekend and get back to you.

I'd re-install Windows XP but as is the case with most machines these days I don't have the ****ing discs. They pre-install everything these days, which I think is downright bloody cheeky.

BTW thanks for the the advice, everyone!

[Duddyroar]

As marcus said, it is the RAM that is holding you back - I'd always recommend 512 as a minimum for XP, my old laptop was sluggish as buggery with 256...

What is an extra 256 RAM gonna set me back?

[EvilBoris]

Try turning off system restore, that can always boost things up a notch

[marcus]

Depends on the model, which Toshiba is it? How many ram slots do you have free?

That you arent given an XP disc when you buy a preinstalled computer is ridiculous, its not like you will *never* have to reinstall your PC in its lifetime after all, they should provide the means to do this.

[Duddyroar]

I think there's an option to restore to factory settings, so a portion of the HD must have the installation files for XP, but this won't solve my problem as it will simply re-install all the Toshiba **** that I've been getting rid of.

It's an Satellite Pro A60, not sure how many ram slots are free.

[VR46]

What is an extra 256 RAM gonna set me back?

take a look on ebuyer.co.uk, just check and double check you have exactly the right memory before ordering, about ?25 + vat ? (lappy memory is still quite expensive)

[Duddyroar]

That sounds pretty fair to me!

[Duddyroar]

I think this is what mine takes. PC2700 is what's quoted on the Toshiba website.

[Ginger Tosser]

You can check your memory using crucial technologies website. I'd be tempted to order through them as well. They maybe a few quid more, but its guaranteed to work. They send via special delivery so you should get it next day.