Plain and Simple, help me increase performance

[Guest]

I really don't want to have to deal with all the crap about either Vista
sucks, or it's not Vista, it's my computer. I just want to know what to do. A
lot of people have described computers that were bought have a lot of
Junkware on them and that's not Vista's fault. I've gone through my
Add/Remove Programs and removed everything that I knew wasn't important. My
RAM usage dropped from 50% to 44%, but that obviously isn't enough. This
computer is the best one I've ever had, but performs like my last one. It's
an Acer Aspire 5570-2609 with an NVidia 7600 graphics card, an Inter Pentium
Dual-Core Processor, 80 gig hard drive, and I upgraded it to have 2 gigs of
RAM. What can I shut down from Vista or anything else that'll bring my
performance up? I've only had this computer for 3 days and have had lag
problems since day 1.

 

[Neil Harley]

I really don't want to have to deal with all the crap about either
Vista sucks, or it's not Vista, it's my computer. I just want to know
what to do. A lot of people have described computers that were bought
have a lot of Junkware on them and that's not Vista's fault. I've
gone through my Add/Remove Programs and removed everything that I
knew wasn't important. My RAM usage dropped from 50% to 44%, but that
obviously isn't enough. This computer is the best one I've ever had,
but performs like my last one. It's an Acer Aspire 5570-2609 with an
NVidia 7600 graphics card, an Inter Pentium Dual-Core Processor, 80
gig hard drive, and I upgraded it to have 2 gigs of RAM. What can I
shut down from Vista or anything else that'll bring my performance
up? I've only had this computer for 3 days and have had lag problems
since day 1.

If you've seen lag from day 1 I would suspect that it is the build on your
PC but don't worry about RAM usage. Vista uses memory a lot better than
previous versions of Windows and imo it's a good thing having it used. I
have 2GB and using Task Manager I regularly see 0-9MB free RAM and a RAM
monitor at the same time will tell me it is being utilised at around the
40-50% mark.

Have you used MSConfig to check what is running at Startup? You could also
check manufacturers sites for driver updates as they are being updated
regularly and the build you have may be fairly old.

 

[Dana Cline - MVP]

I was unable to completely get rid of all the junk on my new laptop, so I
finally (a week later) nuked it and installed Vista from scratch (NOT from
the recovery DVDs - they had all the junk on them too). It was radical but
it worked - I have a lean mean screaming machine. The optimization itself
has been hit and miss so far, but the following has helped...

Disable the Windows Search service, otherwise it keeps hitting the hard
drive and indexing everything.

Disable the Sidebar, or at least remove the slideshow applet - it sucks
cycles and hits the hard drive.

Play with the advanced power settings in the Control panel (mostly helps on
laptops).

Get Microsoft's Autoruns program (it's by the Sysinternals guy) to manage
what starts up. Very comprehensive program, you can find it at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/Autoruns.mspx.

Download TweakVI - the free version has some great tweaks, and also
processor-specific tweaks. It's available at
http://www.totalidea.com/content/tweakvi/tweakvi-index.html.

In the display controls, set your nVidia to "performance" vs "quality"
(there should be a slider in the 3D options).

Finally, consider your antivirus options. Norton seems to ship with most
PCs, but it seems to take more resources and have more issues than other
alternatives. I use NOD32 on Vista but Avast or AVG elsewhere...I think both
have Vista versions by now.

Dana Cline - MCE MVP

 

[Julian]

I was unable to completely get rid of all the junk on my new laptop, so I
finally (a week later) nuked it and installed Vista from scratch (NOT from
the recovery DVDs - they had all the junk on them too). It was radical but
it worked - I have a lean mean screaming machine. The optimization itself
has been hit and miss so far, but the following has helped...

Disable the Windows Search service, otherwise it keeps hitting the hard
drive and indexing everything.

Disable the Sidebar, or at least remove the slideshow applet - it sucks
cycles and hits the hard drive.

Play with the advanced power settings in the Control panel (mostly helps
on laptops).

Get Microsoft's Autoruns program (it's by the Sysinternals guy) to manage
what starts up. Very comprehensive program, you can find it at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/Autoruns.mspx.

Download TweakVI - the free version has some great tweaks, and also
processor-specific tweaks. It's available at
http://www.totalidea.com/content/tweakvi/tweakvi-index.html.

In the display controls, set your nVidia to "performance" vs "quality"
(there should be a slider in the 3D options).

Finally, consider your antivirus options. Norton seems to ship with most
PCs, but it seems to take more resources and have more issues than other
alternatives. I use NOD32 on Vista but Avast or AVG elsewhere...I think
both have Vista versions by now.

Dana Cline - MCE MVP

Apart from those, for want of a better term, "hard" benefits
there is a "soft" benefit of getting down and dirty
and knowing your box.

 

[Lord Takyon]

Apart from those, for want of a better term, "hard" benefits
there is a "soft" benefit of getting down and dirty
and knowing your box.

The tweaks suggested by Dana are valid, they have been performed here,
amongst others, and made a significant difference.

Also, as Julian states, there are massive benefits from knowing your machine
and how it works, a tremendous help in fault diagnosis.

You could also look into tweaking Windows Services, but do some research
first and only attempt what you are comfortable with.

 

[mikeyhsd]

first thing is check the power setting options.
seems BALANCED is default. not best for performance.
set to HIGH PERFORMANCE .
check control panel INDEXING to see if it is done. if not wait a little longer.

be sure you run CLEANUP and DEFRAG.



(e-mail address removed)



I really don't want to have to deal with all the crap about either Vista
sucks, or it's not Vista, it's my computer. I just want to know what to do. A
lot of people have described computers that were bought have a lot of
Junkware on them and that's not Vista's fault. I've gone through my
Add/Remove Programs and removed everything that I knew wasn't important. My
RAM usage dropped from 50% to 44%, but that obviously isn't enough. This
computer is the best one I've ever had, but performs like my last one. It's
an Acer Aspire 5570-2609 with an NVidia 7600 graphics card, an Inter Pentium
Dual-Core Processor, 80 gig hard drive, and I upgraded it to have 2 gigs of
RAM. What can I shut down from Vista or anything else that'll bring my
performance up? I've only had this computer for 3 days and have had lag
problems since day 1.

 

[Julian]

The tweaks suggested by Dana are valid, they have been performed here,
amongst others, and made a significant difference.

Also, as Julian states, there are massive benefits from knowing your
machine and how it works, a tremendous help in fault diagnosis.

You could also look into tweaking Windows Services, but do some research
first and only attempt what you are comfortable with.

ps. Most people learn to drive BEFORE spending a few grand on a car.

 

[Guest]

ps. Most people learn to drive BEFORE spending a few grand on a car.

A bit harsh aren't we? Anyways, I've been using computers for a good while
now. No, I'm not an expert on the subject and can't use MSDOS to save my
life, but I've still explored my computers to see what all is in them. So
I've got a pretty good idea on how to fix my computer and stuff without
having to send it in, or work programs. But I've never had a problem like
this before so I've never had the chance to learn about it. Just because a
person can't drive stick-shift doesn't mean they're bad at automatic

Oh and thanks for the links Dana, I'll see how those work for me ^^

 

[Julian]

A bit harsh aren't we? Anyways, I've been using computers for a good while
now. No, I'm not an expert on the subject and can't use MSDOS to save my
life, but I've still explored my computers to see what all is in them. So
I've got a pretty good idea on how to fix my computer and stuff without
having to send it in, or work programs. But I've never had a problem like
this before so I've never had the chance to learn about it. Just because a
person can't drive stick-shift doesn't mean they're bad at automatic

Oh and thanks for the links Dana, I'll see how those work for me ^^

 

[Julian]

A bit harsh aren't we? Anyways, I've been using computers for a good while
now. No, I'm not an expert on the subject and can't use MSDOS to save my
life, but I've still explored my computers to see what all is in them. So
I've got a pretty good idea on how to fix my computer and stuff without
having to send it in, or work programs. But I've never had a problem like
this before so I've never had the chance to learn about it. Just because a
person can't drive stick-shift doesn't mean they're bad at automatic

Oh and thanks for the links Dana, I'll see how those work for me ^^

I'm sorry if it came me over that way.
I know I'm often abrupt but there was certainly
no intent this occasion.