Aspire E1-531 (Upgrading)

Aspire E1-531 Celeron (2GB, 320GB HDD)

CPU is Intel B830 (1.8GHz, 2MB L3 Cache)

Hey guys! I have this laptop with me now, My friend's own. It came running Windows 7 64bit and it was kinda laggy so I want to reload it and also upgrade the RAM. Should I upgrade it to Windows 8.1 (64bit) and buy the extra 2GB RAM to make it 4GB. Or should I just reload it to Windows 7 / 8 (32bit) and forget about the RAM. (If this will fix the lag issue)

Btw, I have tried Windows 8.1 (64 bit) on it already and the laptop still kinda lags, definitely better But lags stil there. I did a fresh install as I also suspected a program was slowing down the laptop. I was wrong. Smiley Tongue

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finlux

Hi stanley08

What sort of lag are you getting? Is it when playing games, using the internet or does the laptop seem just unresponsive in general?

Adding more RAM will certainly help. The E1-531 can use a maximum of 8GB, but if you upgrade it to 4GB, you should see an improvement.

I'd recommend using a 64 bit OS if you're planning to add more RAM, as a 32 bit OS can only use just over 3GB. Even if you install Windows from the recovery partition it will run better with more RAM, as would Windows 8, so it's a personal choice.

stanley08

Lol. Should I be complaining if games lag on an Intel VGA with 2GB? Smiley Tongue

Generally unresponsive is more like it

finlux

You be surprised on how many people do Smiley LOL

The increase in RAM should make it more responsive!

stanley08

Looool!

I know that feeling.

Anyways, tomorrow I'll buy 2GB DDR3 RAM. As I popped the hood already and I saw it was only one channel that is occupied. Smiley Happy

finlux

Great!

Let us know how things work out!

stanley08

Will sure do! Smiley Very Happy

stanley08

Installed 4GB of RAM. Still no improvement Smiley Sad

finlux

Hi Stanley08

That's a shame - more RAM normally helps!

Right, we need to see if any installed programs are power hungry. Firstly, what anti virus are you using? Some are notoriously resource hungry.

Bring up task manager & click on the processes tab. Check the list of running programs to see if there is one (or more) using a large amount of memory. Also check to see the CPU Usage percentage to see if this is high....

stanley08

Clean copy of Windows. 0 apps installed. Smiley Tongue

finlux

Not even AV? Smiley Surprised Smiley Happy

OK, perhaps it's an hardware issue. Lets try the HDD. See here on how to tell if your hard drive is dying. It tells you to install a program called CrystalDiskInfo which checks the SMART data of your drive, however, be sure to uncheck the browser widget when installing it.

Another test: go to My Computer and select the C: drive. Right click & select Properties, then click the Tools Tab. Finally click "Check Now" under error checking. Do this for any other partitions that may be available.

If these tests come back clean, especially if there are no other symptoms, then it may be "lagging" because of the Celeron processor. Especially if you (or your friend) is used to a more powerful machine!

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