Vista - slower than me

[lizziem]

Hi - a pretty new at this tho' have been a software designer for years and had a pc for even longer. However Vista is realy getting the better of me. I have tried searching the forum and am surprised nothing jumped out at me.

I have a Dell Inspiron 1501 lap top. It came with Vista pre-installed over a year ago. I have 1Gb RAM and a 32 bit operating system. DO I need to give any more info for anyone to help? The whole system ss so slow. I started off with halp as much RAM but upgrading hasn't helped one bit. It is beginning to drive me mad as sometimes it can't even keep up with my typing and I have to go back to fill in all the gaps.

Please help, I've had some previous help but son't know what has already been tried as it wasn't me doing the changes, nothing has made any impression. I think the indexing function has been switched off?
Thanks,
Lizzie

 

[smah]

It's tough to say what's slowing things down. Does task manager show any excess resource usage?

 

[BadBigBen]

To speed up VISTA:

1.) 2gig of ram is best... with 1 gig you are just getting there...

2.) turn of the EYE CANDY, ergo set it to CLASSICAL...

3.) Defrag the HDD... (this is just for file access etc.)


Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[lizziem]

To begin with - thanks,

Task manager just tends to show CPU usage at v high percentages when it's going badly. Behaving reasonably at moment and it is on low, although my e-mail is still taking a long time to swop between screens. Will keep an eye on it and post updates.

Think 1Gb is my tops - what limits this?

Assume I have all my "eye candy" off as have none of that floaty stuff on desk top but shall check.

Reckon it's always been like this but will try defrag and report back.

Lizzie

 

[linney]

This talks about accepting 2GB of RAM.

http://www.memory4less.com/m4l_results.asp?ref=mem&modelid=80024533

Are you sure that it is x86 and not 64-bit, everything I see says 64-bit, but you would know better than anyone else?
Dell Inspiron 1501 WINDOWS VISTA

http://base.google.com/base/a/1336113/D10154971793134047878

If I had your problems, I would seriously think about saving my data, and then removing the current excuse for an operating system, and re-installing a clean Vista, many would say with XP, but I wont go down that path.

Have you tried your machine from Safe Mode, that will give you a true indication of the processing speed without all the loaded baggage.

A visit to the Event Viewer might also give you a few more gray hairs?

The PC Decrapifier (originally titled, Introducing the Dell De-Crapifier…)

http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

Install Windows Vista on Toshiba Laptop Without All Bloatware?
thread1583-1418627

310560 - How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310560&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Setting the Bios to any Safe Default settings might be worth a try?

 

[lizziem]

Thanks - you are quite right I have got 2Gb RAM, somehow got it into my head that it only came with 512 but really it came with 1 and I upgraded to 2Gb. I wonder about myself sometimes!!

The rest I shall look into but my System overview only mentions 32bit.

 

[lizziem]

Interesting - now did buy it direct from Dell with whatever options or not added on but mine is actually an AMD sempron 3500+ 1.8GHz. I know my sis got a newer one which is dual core but that's a totally diff machine (and running fine).

By the way, the defrag has ben running regularly and ran today again.

 

[linney]

Defrag will only defrag what is there in the first place, what you want is a lot less junk so that there is less to defrag!

 

[BadBigBen]

If you have it set to classical style and you got 2gb of RAM installed...

then it is time to look for what is running in the background... e.g. Autostart progs, like QT-TASK or REAL PLAYER etc. should not be running unless you need it... so it would be advisable to list a log of what is starting and running in the background, easiest way download HiJackThis (TrendMicro) and do a scan with log, paste it here, and we will tell you what you can get rid off...

Linney, nicely put and true about having less junk to defrag...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[ken07734]

I purchased 2 of these machines for my Daughters and they were very slow from the onset. I cleaned a lot of non-essentail programs that Dell has installed when it starts and updated the drivers. They are both at 1gig and run decent for the price.

 

[jdemmi]

Also....try this...

http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm

I have on both my Vista boxes and my XP box.

NOTES --
1. Record the options YOU change.
2. Consider only changing 1 or 2 things and then run for a few days to see if all is OK.
3. If you are not sure if you're using a particular function DON'T DISABLE/STOP the service. (You can always turn it back on)

-- Jason
"It's Just Ones and Zeros

 

[PRPhx]

A couple of other things I would do.

1) I'd remove all the junk files like .tmp, .log, .bak, etc.

2) As I really dislike the defrag built into Vista, download, install, and run auslogics defrag (it's free).

3) Run ccleaner. It'll help clean up all the junk.

4) from a command prompt, run: chkdsk c: /r. You'll get a message about not being ble to get an exclusive lock, do you want to run Chkdsk at the next boot up. Press the "Y" key. Then reboot. This procedure will take a fair amount of time, so be fore warned.

 

[lizziem]

Thanks for all these new comments. I shll wok my way through the suggestions - carefully! I would hope there wasn't too much I had added as I had always thought this a prblem n the desk top and wanted to keep this one as minimal as poss - however things creap up on you.. However, it has run slowly from the start so it's not all down to me!
I'll be off on holiday in a day or two so if I'm testing stuff out yo may not her back from me b4 then so thanks again in the meantime.

L.

 

[SimonDavies]

First of all I would use

http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

to ensure you have gotten rid of all non essential software from the machine, the first thing I ever do with any new laptop is wipe it and do a clean install of the OS, that way I know I don't have a lot of useless fluff on the laptop.

SimonD.

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[BadBigBen]

Simon,

thanks for the input, but double suggesting things (Linney already suggested that one already) wont be double effective...

But I agree with getting rid of the junk that some manufacturers place on a laptop/PC, before placing the machine into use...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[SimonDavies]

Ahh sorry Ben, I kinda skimmed over Linnys post and missed it.

SimonD.

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[BadBigBen]

To apologize is a sure sign of weakness" - Sun Tzu, ca. 6 century BC...

Simon, in other words there was no need to apologize...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[linney]

Wasn't "Sun Tzu" an expert on war, perhaps he he failed his Peace exams?

 

[BadBigBen]

LOL Linney, yep he was an expert tactician in the ancient empire of Qi (now China)...

and probably did not pass those peace tests, otherwise he would not have been good at his job...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."