HP Pavilion dv9408ca - creepy performance

Hi there,
I relly need some help with my dv9408ca laptop.
I am experiencing really slow performance and I can't figure out why.
Here is my configuration:
- Athlonx2 TX-53
- 1024 DDR2 SDRAM
- 160GB HD (5400rpm)
- nVidia GeForce G06150 with shared graphics memory
- os: Vista

The laptop seems to run really too slow for it's specifications. I think it may be related to Vista and the fact that it has only 1Gb of RAM. However sometimes it behaves really strange: I can't open a new tab in Internet explorer (I have only 5 tabs open, and I press Ctrl+T nothing happens, I have to re-use the opened tabs to acces new sites), also I tried to open Pictures folder and again, by clicking Pictures in "Start" menu nothing happens; even in Yahoo Messenger when I click on a contact to start a discussion nothing happens! and I have nothing else opened but the Explorer and YM. So, I have this bad performance when I try to do these basic things, not some resource consumming tasks. This behavior is present only from time to time.

Also, many times some programms (simple ones) just lock up and won't respond. Sometimes even the task manager refuses to start.

Also when I check computer properties I can see only around 800 something Mb of RAM insted of 1Gb (I can't check the exact value that I get because I can't open another window! ) . Is this because of the shared RAM with the graphic card?

If any of you had the same experience or has some adivice, please help!

thank you!

 

Yes, the 1GB of RAM is definitely a bottleneck for Vista, I would recommend you upgrade to 2GB or performance will suffer. I also recommend a reformat (if you haven't), as all the bloatware accumulated on the machine may be slowing it down.

 

Go into the BIOS and set it to only reserve 64MB for graphics. That will help quite a bit. Upgrading to 2GB RAM is a no-brainer, buy Crucial DDR2-667. If you're feeling ambitious and can find a 64-bit Vista Anywhere DVD, see the clean Vista installation sticky in this forum, install that, and buy two Crucial 2GB DDR2-667 SODIMMs for 4GB total. That's what I did with my dv9208nr (same series as your notebook, lesser configuration).

 

I ALWAYS tell people to get at least 2GB of RAM when using Vista as the Operating System. Vista is a RAM hog, for good and bad reasons. Now, the RAM that is in your system will be 2x512MB sticks. So to upgrade you have a couple options:

-1-1GB stick and 1-2GB stick
-2x2GB sticks (if you don't have a 64-bit OS you will only be able to use 3.2GB of RAM)
-Buy 1-2GB stick and end up with 2.5GB.

Its upto you, but a good place for RAM is www.newegg.com
Your computer can handle DDR-2 667Mhz RAM (PC5300/PC5400)

Definitely do a clean install though, you will notice the difference.

 

Do a clean install first, then consider spending money on memory upgrades

 

Thanks everyone for your advice.

I knew 1Gb was minimum for Vista to work when I bought this laptop but I expected to have a decent behavior with that amount because I am using my laptop only to navigate on the Web and YM. So if 1Gig is not enough for this I think to turn back to my old Duron with XP and 256Mb. It was faster that this one with Vista.

Future suks.

 

I disagree with you flipfire, even if you do a clean install you ABSOLUTELY NEED 2GB OF RAM AT LEAST!!!, I really can't stress this enough. This isn't XP, it's a whole nother beast that needs more RAM.

Maybe if you looked at Vista like future games. Don't games require more advanced hardware (such as a better video card, better RAM, more RAM, better CPU) with every year? Yes. So why can't it be the same with an OS?

 

You are right Envision, newer games always require upgrades (which remins me last game I played was Civilisation 3, so really long ago....). And that's why I upgraded (in fact a changed my PC) from 256Mb to 1Gig of RAM.
But this tech leap wasn't enough it seems. Now I just have to see how if I have a free memory slot and to order more RAM.

Thanks again!

 

Since you have 2x512MB sticks in your laptop currently, the cheapest way to go is to just buy 1-2GB stick, take out 1 of the 512MB sticks, and you will have 2.5GB of RAM.

Here, very cheap and will do the trick for you:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227236