Why so slow?

I have a 1705 dualcore with 1g/ati 1400 etc... My question is why does it run so slow?I am a professional photographer and when I pull up any image viewing utility it takes forever to process even the thumbnail views.Not to mention Photoshop(I know 1g is not enough ram for PS).I tried to run Command&Conquer Generals and it would only stutter by unless I turned the res all the way down.I have updated the catalyst drivers from ATI and cleaned the registry and defragged but its still sloooooow.

Is this some kind of issue with the dual core cpu?

 

I suggest running some benchmarks to see how they compare to those in this review http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2776 and if they're way off you might have a hardware problem with your machine. That does not sound normal, you may also be dealing with a malicious virus / malware but it sounds like you would have checked for that if you cleaned the registry.

 

Did you reformat/clean install?

 

Im sure I dont have any spy/malware.I didnt reformat yet but have been considering it to possibly eliminate any preloaded software as the cause of this sluggish performance.

 

Are you reading any of these photos off a CD?

 

Close whatever app(s) you're using and hit ctrl+Alt+Delete to see how many processes are running.
If you have 30-40 processes it might be a hardware problem, if you have more than that, clean it up!

 

Exactly how sure are you?

http://www.michaelrighi.com/2005/07/21/dell-spyware-my-way/

My advice: Pop that XP reinstall disc in and clean that loptop of yours. You can find numerous threads in this forum that speak of SIGNIFIGANT speed increases after a clean reinstall of XP.

You did include the $8 XP disc in your order, right?

 

I ran 3dMark 05 and came back with a 1741.This seems really low to me.