Image Optimization Plugins - Are They Effective?
Various Ways of Coping with a Slow Laptop
I have been coping with a slow laptop for almost two years and it sure doesn't add pleasure or fortune to each day.
During my business years of providing an online service, I purchased devices from a trusted computer company. With those times past, and the need for a new laptop, in September 2020 I went shopping for a new device and ended up with the slowest laptop on the planet, I believe.
Not having any idea of what makes a laptop tick, I purchased the first one I saw. Its external appearance was smart enough and still is. But, the techie stuff inside is far from suitable.
Of course, I could purchase another laptop but then I'll have to go through the agony of proving to Google, and programmes I'm already signed up to, who I am due to a new device not being recognized. No doubt I will make that purchase eventually, but I am doing all I can to get some speed from what I'm working with now.
Image Optimization Plugins
I have spent time checking the necessity of various plugins currently activated on my websites and discovered Optimization plugins. These plugins mean that images do not appear until a visitor scrolls down a page to the position of an image.
I have only recently discovered plugins such as these and thought to enquire from my Wealthy Affiliate friends whether you have experience with this type of plugin?
These plugins are referred to in some cases as 'lazy loading'.
Anything to get some speed into my website until I take the big step of upgrading my laptop!
Thank you.
Recent Comments
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Hi Valerie, when it comes to your laptop it is a great idea to have the maximum available ram(memory) The other thing is having a "SSD" hard drive. I see Zoopie is using a i7 processor which is expensive but they are fast. Alex has some great suggestions for you. I am currently using an i5 processor with 16gb of ram. It is within my budget and the speeds are OK. I also follow a lot of Phil's advice.
All the best,
Michael
Thanks for your response, Michael. I've certainly learned a lot from the responses I received to this post. I was not aware of the importance of SSD. I was thinking that RAM was my only problem. I do like the sound of your "16 GB of RAM". That is something I will aim for whether I purchase a new device or upgrade the existing device.
Valerie
Hi Valerie, a solid state hard drive (SSD) does generate faster speeds, but they do cost more. Please if you have any more concerns I will be happy to assist you. Great comments by everybody here.
All the best,
Michael
Hi Valerie...I wish I could offer some advice, but it looks like there are some great suggestions here. I have a plugin EWWW Image Optimizer on my site which works well for me. Not sure if that would be of any help. Good luck with getting things sorted out.
Cheers,
Susan
Hi Susan, thanks for your reply and advice about the EWWW Image Optimizer. I have the EWWW plugin installed on my sites but not activated. For some peculiar reason, I wasn't sure if the plugin was effective so I use Tinypng to optimize my images.
I could try the plugin again and see if there is any improvement.
Hi Valerie, I feel the pain. Even though I am running an i7 ( pretty fast) I want faster.
I am now strongly considering going Apple, mainly because of speed an battery life.
Without looking at your laptop I would be hesitant in offering advice.
The plug ins would affect your website speed and not directly your laptop speeds. There are tools that can free up space and “ tweak” other parts of your computer. With some laptops these days you can also upgrade components. But again I wouldn’t like to comment without looking.
I must ask the question soon, whether people at WA prefer Apple 🍏 or any of their myriad of competition.
The only advice I would give is if you do intend to upgrade, do it sooner rather than later. Why…you will have more time to learn the computer before your business gets even more clientele.
Stephen
Thanks for your reply, Stephen. Maybe I should have gone with Apple but I don't feel like changing now. My family use Apple and I did some work on my daughter's computer a few years ago. It was rather complicated but no doubt I would get used to it.
Other than speed, which I am well aware is vitally important, my laptop is fine.
Buying a new laptop when this one is not yet two years old, feels like throwing money down the drain!!
My previous laptop was eleven years old and still functioning when I closed the lid on it. Maybe I should open it and see how it compares to the one I'm using now - just for fun!!
Valerie
The quickest way to speed up your laptop for everything would be to take it to a service center and have them put a solid-state SSD drive in the machine.
Ask them to copy your existing hard drive onto the solid-state drive, so when you turn the machine on it will work just like it did before.
You do not need a large hard drive 512 GB will do nicely.
Take your old hard drive and put it into an external case and use it for storage.
This will speed up your laptop.
If you are unsure about this, just ask someone you trust (and or at an electronics sales outlet) how much faster will my laptop be with a solid-state drive?
I took a 7-year-old machine, that used to take 30 seconds or more a couple of years ago to open a photo and or Microsoft word.
It went from 30 seconds or so, to 3 seconds to open photos, even now it opens photos in 3 seconds. It will open MS Word or Excel in 3 seconds.
Regards,
Alex
Thanks very much for your advice, Alex.
I will have to find a service centre that will listen to my request. The repair company I approached about adding more RAM to my laptop told me they would need my laptop for three days to find out what's wrong with it!! It was not the answer I was looking for!
That is definitely not the correct answer. I would say they were not trying to be helpful.
Yes, more ram can help - especially if you left the standard amount of Ram in the machine (most of the time they only put enough RAM in that will run windows.
But the real speed will come with an SSD.
Upgrading Ram takes about 10 minutes, or so.
Changing out the hard drive for an SSD will take hours (depending on how much data you have on the hard drive).
For me, it took most of a day, to transfer my operating system and files to the new hard drive.
Alex
My device has only 4 GB of Ram. I would like it to be upgraded to 16 GB but I don't know if that is possible.
There is at least one other computer service business in my area so I will discuss an upgrade of SSD and Ram with them and see if they will listen to me!
To upgrade to 16 GB of Ram you will need to replace the 4GB you have now with an 8 GB Ram chipset. Then you can add an additional 8 GB. They always sell machines with the minimum amount of Ram.....
If you want to keep your current 4 GB you most likely can only add 4 more GB to it.
It is the way Ram works, unfortunately.
Alex
My preference is to upgrade to 16 GB of Ram but I will need to get this done by a technician. Hopefully, I can find a technician who will listen to me!
Thanks again for your help, Alex.
Valerie
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Hi Valerie,
I know what you mean about a slow computer. One of the reasons I stick with the Google Chrome browser is Google remembers my settings no matter what computer I use. My Windows PC was killing me. I got the M1 MacBook Air last week. It’s super fast. And I stuck with Chrome as my browser instead of using Safari to avoid the annoying process of going through the process you mentioned.
Glad you found a solution for graphics.
Cheers.
Edwin
Hi Edwin, I'm so pleased that you have a new super-fast Laptop. I know what a relief that would be for you. Attempting to be productive with a slow device is horrible! It's good to know that Chrome is recognizing you on the new device. That is great news!
Thanks very much for your comment.
Much appreciated!
Valerie
Thanks Valerie!
Edwin