Help! Slow Vostro!

I just got my new Vostro 1500 today and set about transferring files to it immediately. It has a T7100 processor, 8600 GT, 2 GB RAM, and a 120 GB HDD. For some stupid reason, this computer is insanely slow, freezing up whenever I try to open programs. I loaded Call of Duty 2 to test the laptop's gaming capabilities but now I can't even access the program. I open up the single player campaign and the computer freezes at the little Activision movie. I changed the power settings to performance but the computer is still unacceptably sluggish. I haven't gotten an internet connection up yet; could this be part of the problem?

 

With that hardware you have, the PC should be plenty fast. What else have you installed other than Call of Duty? Could be a hardware problem. Try scanning the HD and also run memtest.

 

I forgot to mention; my OS is Vista Business

 

I put iTunes with just over a gig of music on the laptop along with a wireless mouse/ keyboard setup program. I don't know how to run memtest or do a HDD scan.

 

Should I defragment the hard drive?

 

maybe windows is indexing all your stuff... give it some time to do it's things and then check and see.. my system is running fine. hope everything turns out well..
and make sure u disable those annoyng alerts from windows vista.

 

or maybe you installed some codecs and its conflicting with the codec in that activision intro movie.

 

Dell pisses me off. I tried to troubleshoot with a guy on Dell chat and he told me to take the system apart to check the DIMM A RAM stick, and when I put it back together, the computer wouldn't even start up. I first ordered a Dell on July 2 and have been on a crazy ride ever since. Hopefully they'll get a new one to me soon. Thanks for the advice, though, hlcc.

 

mine was the same way. reinstalled vista in 20 mins and its blazing fast now!