Performance Suddenly in Dire Straits

[Jake Leis]

I could really use some help here...

When I upgraded from XP to Vista, my laptop took kind of a performance hit
as far as stability and speed goes, but recently it has changed dramatically
for the worse. As it stands now, it is almost unworkable.

I got a strange error message and I ran a virus scan and got rid of a virus
called "viking" somethingruther... I also got rid of an error that
RUN32DL1.exe was messed up.

Despite these changes and a defrag and frequent virus scans my computer
continues to behave slower and slower. It can barely handle the internet now
despite it being very speedy when I bought it in early 2007.

Please tell me where/how to get this back on the right track again.

-jacob

OS Name Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium
Version 6.0.6000 Build 6000
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name:
System Manufacturer Dell Inc.
System Model MM061
System Type X86-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5500 @ 1.66GHz, 1667 Mhz, 2
Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. A12, 12/18/2006
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.0.6000.20500"
User Name:
Time Zone:
Total Physical Memory 1,021.82 MB
Available Physical Memory 313.39 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.24 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.25 GB
Page File Space 1.29 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

 

[Brian]

I could really use some help here...

When I upgraded from XP to Vista, my laptop took kind of a performance hit
as far as stability and speed goes, but recently it has changed
dramatically
for the worse. As it stands now, it is almost unworkable.

I got a strange error message and I ran a virus scan and got rid of a
virus
called "viking" somethingruther... I also got rid of an error that
RUN32DL1.exe was messed up.

Despite these changes and a defrag and frequent virus scans my computer
continues to behave slower and slower. It can barely handle the internet
now
despite it being very speedy when I bought it in early 2007.

Please tell me where/how to get this back on the right track again.

-jacob

OS Name Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium
Version 6.0.6000 Build 6000
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name:
System Manufacturer Dell Inc.
System Model MM061
System Type X86-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5500 @ 1.66GHz, 1667 Mhz, 2
Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. A12, 12/18/2006
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.0.6000.20500"
User Name:
Time Zone:
Total Physical Memory 1,021.82 MB
Available Physical Memory 313.39 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.24 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.25 GB
Page File Space 1.29 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

Jake,

Did you perform an in-place upgrade (on top of XP), or did you wipe your HD
and start with a fresh install of Vista?

If you did an in-place upgrade, I'd recommend a HD wipe and fresh install of
Vista.

If you did a fresh install with Vista, I'd recommend trying a system
restore, and go "way back."

(I recommend springing for a full 2 gigs of RAM, also, but that's not what's
causing your increasing slow-down. It's just that 2 GB seems to be a
performance turning point.)

Brian

 

[Jake Leis]

Jake,

Did you perform an in-place upgrade (on top of XP), or did you wipe your HD
and start with a fresh install of Vista?

If you did an in-place upgrade, I'd recommend a HD wipe and fresh install of
Vista.

If you did a fresh install with Vista, I'd recommend trying a system
restore, and go "way back."

(I recommend springing for a full 2 gigs of RAM, also, but that's not what's
causing your increasing slow-down. It's just that 2 GB seems to be a
performance turning point.)

Brian

Thanks Brian, I'll look into buying more RAM.

Is there any sort of microsoft registry cleaner or anything like that to
help clean up the current mess that this system has become?

-Jacob

 

[Brian]

Thanks Brian, I'll look into buying more RAM.

Is there any sort of microsoft registry cleaner or anything like that to
help clean up the current mess that this system has become?

-Jacob

Jacob,

I've had a little more coffee than usual today, but I'm going to remain
calm, but still say that, in my opinion, there's never a reason good enough
to use a registry cleaner. They are, across the board, an abomination -- a
product marketed to fulfill a need that is only perceived.

The advertised purpose of a registry utility sounds honorable: To make
"repairs" to a complex and integral part of an OS that has been changed by
poorly programmed and ill-behaved applications -- mostly by installing then
uninstalling those offenders.

If otherwise respected major vendors can't make their products to follow the
rules and leave the registry as they found it upon uninstalling their apps,
how can we expect third-party, second-rate applications to do that same
very, very complex task?

Avoid registry utilities. If you're certain that your registry should be
rebuilt but you're not qualified to make the changes yourself (few of us
are), then do a clean install of the OS and your apps, living and learning
and leaving out the previously offending apps or utilities that you found
fit to previously uninstall.

I'll go one step further. Again, in my opinion, the key to a fine-tuned and
well-running OS is to avoid all apps (and especially utilities) that don't
play well with either the OS or similar apps. How many music players do you
need on one machine? How many photo editor and/or organizers are enough?

In a perfect computing world, where all apps were somehow authored so well
that they never conflicted with the OS or other apps (what a concept), we
could install and uninstall all the apps -- major, minor, expensive, cheap,
free, well-known and obscure -- as often as we wanted until we simply ran
out of space. But that's not the reality of today's software. Not all
vendors are invested in ensuring that their product will not harm your
system or other apps.

If a program doesn't work well, uninstall it and get a refund or sell it on
Craig's List or eBay. If uninstalling the offending app leaves your computer
working poorly, try to live with it until you get some time to do an
overhaul. If you think you don't have time to be doing that, then maybe you
don't have time to be installing every app that comes along -- at least not
without researching it first.

A lot of the machines that come to me have problems caused by the above --
including registry cleaners that "broke" more than they "fixed." Other
readers will chime in and say that registry cleaners are okay, and that's
okay -- this is a newsgroup. But you'll have to decide for yourself.

Sorry for the long editorial, but I feel very strongly about the topic.

Brian

 

[David]

My computer's performance improved after upgrading to Vista. But, I have 2
GB memory and did a clean install. Which type of install did you do?