My dell 610 laptop has started running slow

Yah Agree, Replace the HDD.

This is indicative of a hard drive problem:
A user may report they receive an 0141, 0142, 0146 or a 0151 HDD (Hard Disk Drive) error on their Dell Desktop or Laptop system.

The Hard Drive may still continue to work but there may be other issues that could manifest themselves as an intermittent failure to boot to Windows, a slow system or noise from the Hard Drive.

If possible, before carrying out any troubleshooting steps on the Hard Drive, please make sure you have a verified working and up to date backup of your data

You could run the built-in diagnostic tool to determine specific HD problems, using this procedure:
To run the Enhanced Pre-boot System Assessment (ePSA) diagnostics, perform the steps below:

1. Restart the computer.
2. As the computer boots, press <F12> when the Dell Splash Screen appears.
3. At the One Time Boot menu, press the <Down> arrow key to highlight Diagnostics and press <enter>
4. A graphical menu listing all discovered devices in the system is now displayed.
5. Select Hard Drive and click Run Tests to start diagnostics.

Test the computer's Hard Drive. There are a lot of reasons you might want to test your hard drive for problems. One of the major reasons to perform a test would be if your hard drive is making strange noises. This can often be a sign of a failing drive, something a test can point out.


If the problem is a software issue (virus or too much software installed on the PC) running a System Recovery should have fixed the problem. Try running a test on the computer's Hard Drive. A failing Hard Drive causes slow performance (slow boot, slow computer performance, programs takes too long to load or will not laod at all). And another indicator that the Hard Drive is failing is clicking noises. If you hear clicking noises, backup your files as soon as you can.

You can use free Hard Drive diagnostic tools what can be downloaded from the internet. One of them is Seagate Seatools.You can download it from here - click this link

SeaTools for Windows can perform several basic tests that can help determine the health of your hard drive. Your available hard drives and tests are easy to see when the program opens and can be ran with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Hope this help. Goodluck!

first--what O/S do you have?
Windows XP should have at least 1GB of RAM to run well. 2GB is much better.
What is running in the background?
From Start run the MSCONFIG command and check the startup tab. Uncheck programs you don't need starting up. You can actually uncheck everything but your antivirus software.
Run scandisk (check your hard drive for errors) then defrag it.
How much free space is on the hard drive? If you are working with less than 25% free space, your hard drive will slow down.

sounds like to much information is being run on startup. Go into to startup and disable what you don't want to run, suggestion only run whats necessary for start up. If its not that , ya might need a memory upgrade(ram).

Programming languages will not slow your computer considerably, just make sure you don't have them running in the background. On the other hand, Graphics SW will demand processor time and you best have a good graphics card installed to get full use of the program.
best of luck, mpawlak908

Run a check disc, or hard drive test in the bios, if any part of the test fails, then the hard drive is failing and will need replaced. Delete anything from the start up section of the start menu/programs, and download and run CCleaner form filehippo.com, it will help keep your computer clean and running fast/smoother. Also, are you using Norton? If so, remove it and use the AVG. You can find it at File Hippo as well.

I have more of a suspicion of the CPU fan than the hard drive, right now. If a hard drive goes bad, the system will wake up, go through it's POST (Power On Self Test), and then tell you there's an issue with the hard drive. If the CPU fan goes bad, the system turns on, sees an RPM of 0 on the fan, then turns back off. That hypothesis also fits in with the slowness you were seeing. If a CPU starts to overheat (because the fan isn't running well), it will start to throttle the clock speed down in an attempt to produce less heat.
Unfortunately, it sounds like your laptop may be in need of a professional repair facility.

Yes, You should back up all your documents, photos, music, etc and reinstall the OS. Unfortunately, Windows is a fundamentally flawed system, and is easily overcome by viruses and even programs designed specifically for it. Reinstallation is the easiest solution for you at this stage.