Something Wrong with my new Dell Inspiron 1520

I've just got my new dell 1520. My specs are Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, 2GB 667 DDR2 RAM, 160GB HDD and GeForce 8600GT 256 MB GDDR2.

Now, my problem is, my start up is extremely slow. After entering my password, there comes a welcome page, and it'll stuck at that page for a period before goes into windows vista home premium. Besides, sometimes my screen appears to be black for a while before i can get into the windows. After entering windows, the gadgets on the right hand side took quite a long time to appear, and before it appear, my screen will blink once of twice. Sometimes even in windows, my laptop might be hang awhile too. I found this to be weird. One more question, is the power mode affect performance significantly. Is using power safer mode a good reason for the slowness of my laptop? Please help asap.

Thanks in advance.

 

Hmm is it like this right from the time you got the laptop or only just now ? Also try doing a fresh install of Vista.... It might help solve some issues may be....

 

It's alright to try some stuff on your own, (like reinstalling Windows) but remember, your best bet will be to contact Dell promptly. The sooner the better, eh.

 

When the screens blinks it's just refreshing, everyone has that.

 

Was it slow since you got the computer out of the box?

It definitely sounds like a software issue and nothing to do with hardware. I'd strongly recommend either doing a system restore with your re-installation DVD or do a clean installation of Windows Vista.

 

what is your performanice index in vista? Is your prrocessor showing very low? I had the same issue, and had a defective motherboard (my first machine ram and processor showed 1, now they are 5.1 and 4.8 respectivly) . Try various benchmarks, my bad system failed all of them miserably

 

First ask yourself when this started. If this is the first time you have booted the laptop, it's going to be slow while Windows finishes up it's initial install with your user data and configures any software install. Second if it's still slow after a reboot, start checking your performance index. You should be between 4-6 as paladin732 says. If that shows up alright then start looking for software issues.

If this started after you had used the laptop for a while, what was the last thing you did before this happened? Did you install something? Hardware/software? Were you on any questionable sites on the net? Did you suddenly have a crapload of annoying popups or stupid questions the OS asked you that you weren't sure how to answer ("do you want to install...").

If all else fails, and you don't mind doing a system restore back to factory defaults (this will wipe out everything, including YOUR data). If the problem is still there, call Dell and talk to them about possible hardware problems and warranty work. A bad hard drive can cause a ton of slowness. A bad processor can do the same thing. Incorrect bios settings can cause these problems, and so can a bad video card.

Usually the solution is the simple one.. what did you do last before this happened?

Good luck.