Please help with troubleshooting 8400GS

Hi, I have a SZ650 from Sony. It has 2GB RAM, 2.2 GHz processor, and 2 graphics card that I can alternate between : X3100 and 8400GS. I am having performance problems with the 8400GS. First, I have deleted the Nvidia drivers and have re-installed a latest WHQL driver:7.15.11.6218. Let me also note that I have clean installed vista, and I have very few programs installed; the antivirus is Avast.

My problems are that 1) Vista is slow; 2) Screensaver animation is choppy (like energy and bubbles); 3) I cannot get a picture slideshow to work, all I get is a black screen; 4) Although the photos slideshow screensaver does work, the transition from picture to picture is very choppy also.

My windows theme is the transluent aero one. Now all these issues are not present when I switch to the X3100 graphic card. I have also tried another driver, but without much sucess. Surprisingly, I ran 3Dmark05 and got 2283 (which is good, as my card only has 64MB dedicated). So it seems to be Windows related perhaps.

Does anyone know what could be causing this? Has anyone experienced this before? My windows index is 3.5 (4.7 for gaming graphics and 3.5 for Aero desktop graphics). When I ran 3Dmark05 it also said I was not vistaready as it claimed I only had 57 MB dedicated (not sure why it saw this...). I appreciate any help.

 

1) Vista is slow period, although it should not lag much on your Sony. Have you tried the top Vista tweaks?:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3945

2) Check out this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=143091
Should answer your Qs.

Beautiful laptop by the way, I'm planning on getting one myself.

 

Thanks for the response Chaz. I have been using the X3100 chip these past few days and everything is lightning fast. My computer really shines with this graphic card, vista is really smooth and all my programs have no issues. But this 8400GS is slow... now that I have been using the X3100 I realise that the 8400GS is slowing down not only the graphics I previously mentioned (like the screensaver and slideshow), but also vista altogether and other programs. I would really like to know if this is a general trend for all other 8400GS users (I have 64 Mb of dedicated ram)... Right now X3100 >> 8400GS by far (outside of games)