Vista's pretty darn slow?!

[Guest]

Hi I'm not so computer literate so I might need some instructions on this I
bought a brand new laptop with 512 MG Ram a Pentium "Dual Core T2060" and a
80 Gig Hard drive with Windows XP Basic. My question is why does it run so
slow!? I mean wow! I thought my old laptop was slow! Any way I was hopeing
you could give some advce on what I should do to maybe make the operating
system run a little more smoothly. Thank you.

 

[kirk jim]

it should not be THAT slow... how slow are you talking about..
can you give details?

if it is only somewhat slow you can do 2 things...

1) install more ram to get 1gb of total ram
2) plug in a readyboost compatible USB flashdrive and use the
vista readyboot feature that will try to use that drive for memory...

If you already have a flashdrive that is usb2.0 it might work with
readyboost... no harm in trying it out

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Install another 512MB of RAM and Vista will perform great!

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User

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:

Hi I'm not so computer literate so I might need some instructions on this I
bought a brand new laptop with 512 MG Ram a Pentium "Dual Core T2060" and a
80 Gig Hard drive with Windows XP Basic. My question is why does it run so
slow!? I mean wow! I thought my old laptop was slow! Any way I was hopeing
you could give some advce on what I should do to maybe make the operating
system run a little more smoothly. Thank you.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Sargeant,

I'm going to assume you meant Windows Vista Basic and not Windows XP Basic
(no such animal anyways).

Four things:

a) Uninstall any preinstalled software you aren't using. Much of it may be
loading at system boot and dragging you down.

b) Run the system configuration utility (enter msconfig in the search box)
and disable any programs loading at startup that aren't necessary.

c) If Mcafee or Symantec (Norton) AV came preinstalled, uninstall them and
install something with a lighter system footprint like AVG or NOD32.

d) Double the installed physical ram.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[R. McCarty]

Run TaskMgr, Performance (TAB) - note the Memory usage
meter count. During the fist few days of use, Vista builds the
Index catalog and raises the system memory load. If the count
exceeds physical RAM (512) then I'd consider raising the total
memory to 1 or 1.5 Gigabytes.
Also OEMs get paid to add extra software to their images. This
creates Startups and Watchdogs that consume system resources.
If the notebook came with McAfee or Norton then you've got a
"Ball-&-Chain" loading effect right there. There are lots of other
choices for Security software that are cheaper/leaner & involve
less headaches for the user.

 

[kirk jim]

Install another 512MB of RAM and Vista will perform great!

Vista will not perform great because its badly designed, no matter how much
cpu and ram you have.

Mr. MPV Sir... you forgot to tell him about readyboost that is
a cheap alternative, perhaps even free if he has a usb flash drive already
and it works with readyboost

 

[Guest]

I just bought similar laptop, but with 1GB RAM. And this I consider the
absolute minimum, because I had to tweak it a lot, to run acceptably fast:
- Remove Aero completely
- remove unnecessary services
- remove Mc Afee
- install AVG as Anti-Virus (cheap, reliable, I also sell it to my
customers, because I am IT pro)

Check your graphics: In case, it uses system memory (like INTEL Integrated
Graphics, ATI Hypermemory, NVIDIA Turbo Cache), quite a few MB from your
512MB are not available for Vista !

 

[Terry]

On 4/7/2007 12:23 PM On a whim, Rick Rogers pounded out on the keyboard

Hi Sargeant,

I'm going to assume you meant Windows Vista Basic and not Windows XP Basic
(no such animal anyways).

Four things:

a) Uninstall any preinstalled software you aren't using. Much of it may be
loading at system boot and dragging you down.

b) Run the system configuration utility (enter msconfig in the search box)
and disable any programs loading at startup that aren't necessary.

c) If Mcafee or Symantec (Norton) AV came preinstalled, uninstall them and
install something with a lighter system footprint like AVG or NOD32.

d) Double the installed physical ram.

Isn't telling someone to perform the above who admitted he's "not so
computer literate", kind of like telling them to use a registry cleaner?
How is he to know what software he isn't using? Or to disable any
programs loading at startup that "aren't necessary"?

While they may be good suggestions, it does appear to be over what he
feels comfortable performing.

This issue is really a black hole for new computer users, and the
manufacturers who load all this junk on to new computers should be
responsible in assisting users how to remove it if requested.

--
Terry

***Reply Note***
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

 

[Frank]

kirk jim wrote:
'''you forgot to tell him about readyboost that is a cheap alternative,
perhaps even free if he has a usb flash drive already
and it works with readyboost...

Naaahhhh...you still don't know what you are talking about do you.
You’re confused. Readyboost IS NOT a substitute for system RAM. You're
starting to look really, really bad at this point.
I told you before to read some MS white papers about both types of RAM,
readyboost and superfetch.
Next time take my advice so you don't look so damn stupid and please
stop disseminating false information, ok.
(chuckle)
Frank

 

[kirk jim]

its not a substitute you devolutionized pre-Cro-Magnon monkey you!

I never said it was. I know perfectly well what it is and how it works
and whats its ups and downs are.

It theoretically will improve performance though!

 

[PTravel]

Hi I'm not so computer literate so I might need some instructions on this
I
bought a brand new laptop with 512 MG Ram a Pentium "Dual Core T2060" and
a
80 Gig Hard drive with Windows XP Basic. My question is why does it run so
slow!? I mean wow! I thought my old laptop was slow! Any way I was hopeing
you could give some advce on what I should do to maybe make the operating
system run a little more smoothly. Thank you.

First, this is a ng for Vista, not XP (and there's no such thing as "XP
Basic" -- there's "XP Home" and "XP Pro").
Next, if you are running Vista 514 meg of RAM will not be enough for a
satisfactory experience.
The T2060 is a 1.6 GHz CPU and not, by any means, the fastest.

With all that said, it's hard to imagine your system running dramatically
slower than an older and less powerful laptop. You'd have to tell us a lot
more about what you've got loaded on there, what you're trying to do, and
what seems to be slow to you.

 

[PTravel]

Vista will not perform great because its badly designed, no matter how
much cpu and ram you have.

Not even close to reality. My 2 Ghz Core 2 Duo laptop with 2 gigs of RAM
absolutely screams, and is much faster than my 3.1 GHz P4 1 gig of RAM
equipped XP Pro desktop.

 

[Frank]

its not a substitute you devolutionized pre-Cro-Magnon monkey you!

I never said it was. I know perfectly well what it is and how it works
and whats its ups and downs are.

It theoretically will improve performance though!

So you didn't say what you said, huh.
Ok, whatever floats your boat, but maybe you can explain what your
statement (that you said you didn't make)..."readyboost that is a cheap
alternative"...what exactly is readyboost a "cheap alternative" for?
(snort)
Frank

 

[kirk jim]

it is an alternative instead of buying ram

I did not say they have equal speed and abilities....

an alternative to a car is to ride a bicycle.. they are not the same...

Go for an Easter egg hunt or something will ya??

 

[kirk jim]

you talk about "speed" performance...

I talk about looks, feeling, compatibility and user experience....
those wont change even if you have 1 terrabyte of ram and
100 core cpu

 

[Joe Guidera]

Add some ram. I would say that 1GB is a minimum. 2GB is better.

J

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Using Windows ReadyBoost is not the same thing as adding more system memory.
Windows ReadyBoost can improve system performance because it can retrieve
data kept on the flash memory more quickly than it can retrieve data kept on the hard
disk, decreasing the time you need to wait for your PC to respond.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User

---------------------------------------------------------------------------­-----

:

Mr. MPV Sir... you forgot to tell him about readyboost that is
a cheap alternative, perhaps even free if he has a usb flash drive already
and it works with readyboost

 

[PTravel]

you talk about "speed" performance...

I talk about looks, feeling, compatibility and user experience....
those wont change even if you have 1 terrabyte of ram and
100 core cpu

Do you even use Vista? "Looks, feeling, compatibility and user experience .
.. . " Looks is subjective -- you either like the new GUI or you don't. I
do, you don't. Fair enough. Compatibility is an issue, though not to the
extent that many people claim. I use a very eclectic set of software and
hardware and I've gotten all of it, with the single exception of a VPN
client, running perfectly under Vista.

"Feeling and user experience"? Again, subjective, and, in my opinion, i.e.
the opinion of someone who has gotten Vista to work just fine, they're
superior to XP. When I first got Vista, I did what I usually do with XP --
set the appearance back to "classic" mode and turn off all visual effects to
minimize the load on the CPU and graphics card. After awhile, I got curious
and turned all the Aero stuff back on. I found I liked it -- there's a
smoothness and flow that is lacking in XP and earlier operating systems, so
I left it on.

And that takes us back to speed -- my Vista-equipped laptop, running all the
Aero effects, runs circles around my performance-optimized XP desktop in
every respect, whether its boot time, program load time, or program execute
time. Someone who would say, "Vista is pretty darn slow," is probably
someone who doesn't know how to tweak the OS and the hardware and software
that run under it. It is, of course, legitimate to fault Microsoft for
obscuring a lot of information that's critical to the efficient running of
Vista -- I've complained about that myself and I don't recommend Vista to
inexperienced users who have no idea of what's going on underneath the hood.
However, it's just silly to say that Vista is slow.

What system are you trying to run it on?

 

[Doris Day]

Using Windows ReadyBoost is not the same thing as adding more system
memory. Windows ReadyBoost can improve system performance because it can
retrieve data kept on the flash memory more quickly than it can retrieve
data kept on the hard disk, decreasing the time you need to wait for your
PC to respond.

Why would that be since throughput from a USB drive is so much slower than
from an internal fixed drive?

Love and Kisses,
Doris

 

[R. McCarty]

Because the key isn't throughput, but Access Time. My SATA 3.0 Gig
Seagate drives have a access time of 13.1 mS. My SanDisk MiniCruzer
has an access time 1.8 mS. So a call to the Flash Memory device is
75% faster than the same call to the cache on the physical drive. But
you are correct about data transfer rates. The SATA reaches 88 Meg
while the SanDisk is hard pressed to achieve 10.0 Meg.

However, a brand new SanDisk U3 2.0 Gigabyte Flash drive has an
access time of 0.8 mS and reaches sustained throughput of 14 Megs.