The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Recommendation for a slow laptop - another OS maybe?...

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by Moish, Dec 30, 2013.

  1. Moish

    Moish Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    8
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I have a Dell mini-laptop - model Inspiron Mini 1018 with a Windows 7 Starter OS, N455 1.66GHz and 1GB of RAM.
    Since the day I've first used it, it has been extremely slow.

    It takes softwares a long time to go up, opening a video with Media Player Cassic can take almost 40 seconds, browser windows are annoying, and I actually can't watch any Youtube videos since it is so slow it's stuck every half a second (not buffering, just stuck)

    It seemed weird to me that Dell would manufacture and sell such a thing, and tought it might be just the way mini-laptops are, but after seeing it wasn't like that with other laptops, it guess it's just mine.

    Would you maybe reccomend something I can do to get a better use out of this thing? maybe lower the OS to XP, or maybe there's a "lighter" version of W7 or W8?...

    Thank you in advanced.
     
    Moish, Dec 30, 2013
    #1
  2. Bedwyr

    Bedwyr Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    56
    Likes Received:
    9
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Well, it certainly is a limited system. And you already have the lighter version of Windows 7; Starter edition is pretty gimped. See the comparison chart:

    Windows 7 editions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Downgrading to XP is probably not on the menu, unfortunately, as I do not see supported drivers:

    Drivers & Downloads | Dell US


    If you can install new ram, that could help (1GB is pretty low). Here's the service manual: ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-prod...op/inspiron-mini1018_service manual_en-us.pdf. You would be looking for DDR3-10600S, keeping in mind that they list the max at 2GB so you'll only double capacity.

    That won't help your other bottlenecks: CPU and GPU. Those are pretty low-end and might struggle to play video. Honestly to get past your issues, I'd predict you'll need a different system. Sorry. :-/
     
    Bedwyr, Dec 30, 2013
    #2
  3. Commander Wolf

    Commander Wolf can i haz broadwell?

    Reputations:
    2,962
    Messages:
    8,231
    Likes Received:
    63
    Trophy Points:
    216
    While the N455 with 1GB is definitely going to be a dog, you should at least be able to play Youtube videos without it crapping out. I'd consider at least doing a clean install of your OS (don't use the Dell image, since it might have a lot of bloatware on it) before getting a new machine. Afterward, that second GB of RAM might also do wonders.
     
    Commander Wolf, Dec 30, 2013
    #3