How many processors? (UK)

Hi I've finally have my Inspiron 1720. I have not installed anything on there at the moment. When i goto task manager I see that both CPU Processors are running at around 3/8percent. Are they both supposed to be running?

I thought only one processor worked until it reached its peak then the other started. Also when looking at the task manger I have 80/90 proccessors running at anyone time. On my XP I only have 26/30 max and thats with normal use. This Laptop has 4GB and Vista only shows 3.5gb again in task manager I beleive it says 2.8GB used. I have not done anything whats all that about. I was thinking about doing a clean install since I have never done anything before and fearing that I may mess up the computer I decided to uninstall the programs instead. I uninstalled Orange and Tiscali broadband. What else should I be looking out for? When I select all programs a long list comes up with alot of pre installed software not sure which I should get rid of.

I copied a file over to the computer to see of the memory card works (wasnt wirking 1st time) I copied a file over and tried to delete it. Vista will not let me delete it at all. It says I dont have permission etc how do I get round that?

On the XP I have one Admin account and then one more which I use or anyone else with the permission as Admin. I wntd to set one up like that on Vista. Will it cause any problems with the permission issue that I am having?

The screen is bright when powered from mains. On batteries it is very low and you cannot view anything on it. Can I make the screen bright as it is like with mains (Dont care about battery life)

 

You should take a bit of time to read up on the manual etc of your laptop, as you've JUST got it. However I can answer most of the questions, and being in the UK is irrelevant to the nature of the problems.

Dual core processors work simutaneously, rather than one that comes in as backup when the other is full. You need a 64-bit operating system (such as Windows XP 64 bit, or Vista 64 bit) in order to use 4gb of memory or more ... and I'm sure when you're building a computer on the Dell site it does warn you of that.

Just set all the users with admin powers, it makes life easier.

With the screen thing, you can change how it reacts when there is no mains by double clicking the battery in the system tray and playing with some options... and you can always manually increase the brightness yourself by holding down the blue Fn key (next to left-ctrl) and pressing up or down... well - that's how it is on my Vostro 1500 so I assume it will be pretty similar.

 

Thanks for the reply. Originally when I ordered the max ram I was told that you need 64 bit for Vista to see all the 4gb ram but with 32 bit I would still need 4gb ram to take the maximum that 32 bit Vista is capable of(3.5gb). I was told that early next year when Microsoft release the SP1 Pack that this issue would be solved.

I turned on the computer and went into task manager and the RAM used was 400mb with the cpu 100 percent , I think this was because Vista was loading all the startup programs like anti virus/wireless internet after a few seconds the cpu went down to 2/5 percent and the ram was getting filled up it went from 400mb to 1.6gb in just under 60 seconds. My pagefile is around 1.8gb(capacity is like 7333). I am confused as to what does the ram do? It was filled with 1.6gb of something in under 60second on startup.

I went to accounts and turned off uac things are alot smoother now but with the security level low. I am going to turn on the uac but how can I take full access of the files without going to accounts and having to reboot the machine?

I remember I once had windows defender on xp and the annoying thing was that it kept asking permission to allow file it was annoying. Vista is like that. I dont know if its more secure or not seems so it is with all the permision dialog boxes that appear. I downloaded the updates through dell support for my graphics card. Is it stable know people are saying that there are other better drivers for it but is this stable and would it be fine. Im going to buy Pro Evo/Crysis so I would like good gameplay and framerates. The screen is capable of 1900x1200 I have manually downgraded that to 1200x/ ..Is there anything I can do to improve that?

On can you run it website my graphics card was identified with 250mb not 256mb after the driver update the website indetified is with 246mb 4mb lower than before and 10 mb short of what its supposed to be. Isthere anything wrong with my graphics card or the drivers I downloaded?

 

Well if you were warned about the 32bit address limit then why are you confused? Did I miss something?

The "problem" won't be fixed in Vista SP1 or any because the problem isn't fixable on MS's end since it is a HARDWARE limitation. There is software work arounds that just aren't worth the hassle. Go 64bit, as you were informed to, or stop whining about it...

The benefits of SuperFetch on Vista. It takes any and all unused RAM to load your programs and files you frequently use. This allows those programs and files to load a lot faster and overall makes your computer far more responsive. It frees up the RAM whenever a program needs it so it isn't a problem. Why have 4GB of RAM if you only want to use 1GB?

You should have a UAC pop up about the file permissions and in a few annoying clicks you should have access to the files. No reboot should be needed...

Read the game forum or the forums on LaptopVideo2Go.com for discussion of drivers and potential overclocking power and go from there...

Probably the driver or video card using a few megs as a buffer for something... No big deal...

 

Im not complaining about the ram limitation just asking how it works like i said that in under 60 seconds it goes over 2gb filled so i guess the anwser is

The benefits of SuperFetch on Vista. It takes any and all unused RAM to load your programs and files you frequently use. This allows those programs and files to load a lot faster and overall makes your computer far more responsive. It frees up the RAM whenever a program needs it so it isn't a problem

I'll visit the forums link you suggested and have a read at that. Im using my new inspiron to write here but will not review it until i have a chance to play a few games on it. Im waiting for pro evo 08 which is released tomarrow. nd will test it with a few more games at the moment before giving my final views on the laptop