Laptop Performance issues.

[Darth Caesar]

I have a Dell 1558 Studio laptop. A couple of months ago my dad installed Norton, and it's gaming performance fell and is now unusable for even Civ IV. I installed anti-malware hoping to fix the problem but it didn't help. I have uninstalled both hoping the problems would go away but it continues to perform poorly. Do any of you have any advice as to what could be causing this problem?

 

[innonimatu]

A couple of months ago my dad installed Norton

There's your problem. Once you install Symantec's malware (or any other "anti-virus", for that matter) your computer's performance will go to the crapper.

Don't use anti-virus. They're little better than security theater (I've seen so many fail again and again), and make even the newest computers crawl when you hit the disk hard. Don't run binaries from untrusted sources, don't use administrator accounts, and you shouldn't need any "anti-virus" running.

And I better not even get started on removing Symantec's malware. Better wipe the disk and restore/reinstall Windows.

 

[Quintillus]

Run Process Explorer, and see what's hammering the hard disk or CPU. That'll tell you what's the likely source of the problem is.

It is possible to run Norton and still play CivIV decently. I wouldn't recommend it, but it is possible. Or at least, it was with Windows XP and the horribly bloated Norton 2006.

 

[shadowplay]

Get rid of Norton and use a lighter-weight security program such as MS Security Essentials.

 

[Zelig]

Don't use anti-virus.

I went without an AV for years until MSE came out, it's really not obtrusive enough to recommend against.

Run Process Explorer, and see what's hammering the hard disk or CPU. That'll tell you what's the likely source of the problem is.

Yeah, do this.