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I've got an thinkpad X240, it only now has to do 2 jobs run zwift and the internet. It struggles and is slow to start up and get going and zwift is often glitchy and not responding when trying to use it.
what can i do to speed it up so i don't feel like throwing it around the garage.
any practical help greatly appreciated
thanks in advance
Standard answer, fresh windows install and put an SSD in it. Windows 10 install will tidy it all up and remove all the accumulated rubbish and manufacturers bloatware. Don't even need to activate windows, most of it work anyway. Did this to my garage laptop, was originally running Windows Vista.
Honestly, for what you’d spend rejuvenating it with SSDs and maybe more memory you could just buy one of the new Apple TVs and fix the problem completely.
for what you’d spend rejuvenating it with SSDs
You'll get a ~100GB SSD from CeX for about ten quid. Random example of many.
If you can get a new Apple TV for £12, do that instead. Get me one whilst you're at it.
If you really wanted to push the boat out then assuming DDR3L at that vintage, an 8GB SODIMM is about £15. (IIRC there's only one slot on that laptop, running CPU-Z would tell you.)
SSD transformed my laptop that I used to use for Zwift.
Honestly, for what you’d spend rejuvenating it with SSDs and maybe more memory you could just buy one of the new Apple TVs and fix the problem completely.
Apple TV, isn't that the one with the almost unuseable interface when paired with the scroll wheel?
SSD's and upgraded memory are the way forward.
I went to town with my laptop and put an NVMe SSD in for fun, then a similarly specced M2 stick in 6 months later.
It now boots faster than the screen can warm up. Zwift updates are measured in seconds, so is start up time.
An SSD is solid advice for what sounds more like general laptop slowness rather than Zwift performance itself. Just be aware Zwift performance is largely CPU bound so if it's a low-end several-years-old CPU Zwift is always going to struggle to run smoothly (at least without being on minimal graphic detail settings)
I stuck a SSD in my old laptop and that massively improved the boot time and the Zwift start up time. I've just built a Zwift Frankenstein PC based on bits I got off Ebay and from CeX. I've now got a dedicated PC running Zwift on the Ultra graphics mode for less than the price of a new Apple TV.
Spec suggests that model may already have an SSD ( https://www.lenovo.com/lt/lt/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x240/).
Zwift is slow to start, even on my significantly better 'gaming' PC. The launcher is also glitchy at time (sits there doing nothing), especially after an update.
If you set everything to absolute minimum in zwift how does it run?
Flatten it and reinstall W10, then.
Can't hurt to try.
An SSD is solid advice for what sounds more like general laptop slowness rather than Zwift performance itself. Just be aware Zwift performance is largely CPU bound so if it’s a low-end several-years-old CPU Zwift is always going to struggle to run smoothly (at least without being on minimal graphic detail settings)
This +1
I SSD'd my old laptop and put a fresh OS on it and whilst it booted up in seconds and ran all the usual Office, and browsing tasks just as quickly as my gaming laptop. And for the average person that's all they care about and how they define a 'fast' PC, which is why SSD's are the common advice (and some RAM, because Chrome loves RAM).
But at some point you have to accept that to actually do something more taxing it needs a faster CPU and graphics processor.
A 2-core, 1.7GHz* processor with whatever on-board graphics Intel provided 9 years ago just isn't going to run it however fast the hard drive is.
*was the lowest in that model according to google, they did several versions.
Depending on what you want out of it, Sufferfest/SYSTM work just fine on older hardware as they're just video files and an interface, there's nothing particularly taxing for the computer to do.
I would argue that a laptop of that vintage is not worth investing in. I would image it'll not be long before the GPU especially is below the minimum required to run zwift.
Spending large sums of money, sure. But a couple of hours of your time is hardly "investing."
Flattening it yes I'd do that. Buy parts, almost certainly not.
Get the Apple TV, the remote will give you something a bit lighter to throw around the garage