Laptop runing slow & "grinding" noise recently started, Remedy?

This is most likely due to Malware (computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware, dishonest adware, and other malicious and unwanted software). You will need to run full anti-virus/spyware scan and clean your registry. I recommend you use these programs (they are free).

1) AVG Free anti-virus
http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/…

2) Ad-aware spyware remover
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad-a…

3) Spybot - Search and Destroy spyware remover
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index…

4) CCleaner - registry and privacy cleanser
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Once you are sure your computer is free of Malware then follow these staircase to "speed" up your computer.

1)Stomp auto-starting programs. Click Start > Race and type "msconfig" at the prompt. Click the Startup tab and look at all that junk that loads when you launch your PC. Do you really need "Adobe Reader Speed Launch"? Probably not. Turn off anything else that looks useless, but be careful not to disable Windows system components.

2) Clean up the disk. Uninstall unneeded programs (especially those that run at startup and/or put something in the system tray), run Disk Cleanup, and defragment the drive. This is a good first step that will almost always take a few seconds off boot time and application loads for any personal.

3) Run a full anti-virus and anti-spyware scan. I would recommend using AVG Free Anti-virus, AVG Anti-Spyware, Spybot, Ad-Aware.

4) Clean up the registry. This is controversial, as some experts claim registry cleaners don't really help. I've seen evidence to the contrary, so I recommend doing it if you've got a major slowdown. CCleaner is free and worth running.

5)Delete old network connections. Your computer may be trying to connect to shared hard drives that no longer exist. In Windows Explorer right-click on any network shares you don't actively use and click Delete. Under Tools, also click "Disconnect Network Drive" to see if there are any others concealed about.

Those are the easy and free things you can do. If your computer is still slow you need to move on to the bigger guns.

1) Upgrade RAM. This is the ane killer trick that will make almost any computer run faster. Near an older PC, you volition rarely have enough RAM to run today's memory-hogging operating systems and applications, and adding a high-capacity stick or two of quality RAM will give you a quick speed boost. Adding RAM is fairly simple, even for a novice, and you should be able to do the job in 5 or 10 account.

2)Install Windows. If the above tricks haven't helped, it may be time to wipe the slate clean and start again, reformatting your hard drive, reinstalling your applications, and restoring your data files from a backup. You'd be surprised how much more responsive a freshly reinstalled Windows system can be, as you've wiped out years of temp files, garbled registry entries, aged versions of software programs that have been upgraded repeatedly, and all sorts of other electronic junk. Reinstalling is easy if you have the "recovery disk" that came near your PC, and only a bit more involved if you're using a retail copy of Windows XP. Just be sure you back up everything you want to take with you back you pull the trigger!

3)Upgrade your hard drive. This is a more complicated solution, but if you're reinstalling Windows (per the prior tip) you might consider upgrading to a bigger and possibly faster hard drive, too. Hard disk storage is a performance bottleneck on every machine, and magnetic disks degrade over time. Some performance issues could be caused with a failing hard drive, even, and upgrading to a new model could really put some zip back in your system. Element a bonus, you can use the original hard thrust for backups or occasional storage, if you put it in an enclosure.