Aspire E11 E3-112-C455 far too slow

I've never had a laptop as slow as this - I don't think that they have the specs to run W8.1 properly.
Is there anything I can do to speed it up? Would increasing the RAM help very much? If so, what RAM would I need? I've heard that 8GB is the max that can be supported and it's just one stick of generic RAM.

Is it easy to upgrade the RAM? My previous Aspires had a service trap underneath where everything was accessible. This one, you need to take out the whole bottom tray. Is there a photo anywhere of what I'm likely to encounter when I take the tray off? Is anything likely to drop out?
What else can I do to speed it up?
All suggestions gratefully received.

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Shinichy_Kudo

Good morning friend.

To improve the performance of your product, I recommend you do the following.

1. Change the settings for Windows automatic updates to manual.

2. Turn off programs that start with Windows when you start your product. This can be done from the Task Manager in the Startup tab.

3. My Acer came with McAfee antivirus and is only a trial version 30 days, I recommend you uninstall and install one you like more and more reliable.

4. Change the power plan to High performance battery. If you have active plan is balanced, I recommend change that I mentioned above.

5. Lastly off options Windows graphical interface that make the computer very slow.

I hope you find it useful the information provided, I assure you that if you perform these steps will greatly improve the system's performance.

A greeting! Smiley Very Happy ^^

How much memory do you currently have installed?

A solid state drive (SSD) will probably give you the most noticeable speed improvement

Eichall

All of that has certainly speeded up the laptop and I'm grateful for those tips.

Eichall

Thanks for the reply

There's just 2GB of RAM on there.

As for a Solid State Drive, I suppose that I'd need to make a boot disk for startup and then have a version of W8.1 handy to upload once it's all started off.

What size would be the biggest Solid State Drive that I could fit?

Would there be any issues about the fact that seeing as there is no CD ROM on the laptop, I would have to use an external drive. Would the startup disk recognise the external CD ROM drive?

But where does this leave us with the memory upgrade?

JordanB

If it only has 2 GB RAM, I suppose I would start there first with the memory upgrade.

As far as the SSD, there's generally two ways to do it. Most people clone their exisiting HDD using free cloning software that *often* times comes with a SSD so they can just pick up where they left off. Usually you need an external SATA-USB adapter of some sort. You also *should* also be able to restore a factory default USB backup to a new SSD (without the need for SATA-USB adapter).

Others just do a clean install of Windows 8.1 and then load there factory default USB backup. Or they do a clean install and stop there.

This link shows you how to make a factory default backup USB which is strongly recommended no matter what you decide:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcYUS-3H2B8

This link shows you how to create a clean copy of Windows 8.1:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media

There's a couple more easy steps involved that I'm intentionally leaving out.....if you decide to do a clean install.

And last but not least.....

This link shows you how to buy your Acer factory default software media in case you want the easy route...... Smiley Wink

https://store.acer.com/en-us/extended/recovery/

You don't need a cd-rom as long as you have a USB port (and an internet connection).

I don't know the specs of your computer so I don't know the form factor that would work. Most laptop users go with either 128 GB SSD or 256 GB. You could go up to 1 TB, but that gets a little pricy and defeats the purpose........

You'd have to do some research via google if you want to explore the SSD route.

A good place to start is using scanner such as Crucial. Other companies have system scanners too....so you can try those too.

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/systemscanner

Edit: It goes without saying that you'd want to have all of your important files backed up anytime you would consider attempting something like the SSD upgrade.

Eichall

Thanks for the very helpful reply. But here's two more questions -

1) is it just one bank of memory or is it two?

2) is there a photo or anything like that where I can see what I'm going to encounter as I take the bottom of the machine off? I'd like to see what I'm doing before I make a start.

Thanks again.

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