My New Fabulously Slow dv9543cl

Is there something wrong with my dv9543cl? Takes like 2 and a half minutes to boot, even with most startup programs disabled and bloatware removed.

T7300 2.0 GHz
2 GB RAM
8600M GS
320 GB HDD

Windows Experience Index:



I'm pretty sure I've seen other HP dv95xx laptops with at least 4.7, whereas my RAM score is only 4.3.

Do you think part of the RAM is defective? What should / can I do to raise the score? Same goes for processor speed. 4.7 and 4.3 both seem low compared to other WEIs.

Thanks.


EDIT: Someone else's WEI score (same model): http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=9546&d=1187641260

 

That looks normal. Adding more RAM will probably boost your RAM score, but just because your score is a few points lower doesn't mean it's slow. 2+ minute startup is pretty normal for vista, plus your notebook is indexing the HD.

 

But it's two EXACTLY identical models with different scores...is that right?

Updated post with system specs.

 

Vista is a slow booter, that's for sure. But if you want a workaround (as opposed to a fix), put yoru laptop to sleep instead of shutting it down. The boot times from sleep are around 2 seconds.

 

That was my WEI when I first booted up. However it changes many times if you update drivers, etc. Mine is now 4.7 after installing updated graphics drivers, etc. If you have installed updates, I would run your score again. I think mine also changed after installing a bunch of stuff from Windows Update (not just graphics drivers).

 

Okay, I'll try that. Thanks.

 

My VISTA Ultimate 32 boots within 40 seconds...Yes, I did make a clean re-install. 2 minutes is probably normal for factory packed system, I guess.

 

I'm sorry to hear that yours is slow. I can't say that I would know if I have the same problem because I'm too entranced by the beauty of it while it is booting up.

Call me easily impressed.

 

Is it just me, or does everything seem slower in Vista than XP?

Even deleting things takes more time...

And those confirmation popups are annoying.

 

You can stop those pop-ups by turning off User Account Control. You can find this in the Control Panel under "User Accounts". This also will help to boot up faster. I also find those annoying and would rather have a faster boot-up time.

 

Hmmm, the processor rating on my dv9543cl is 4.9. The boot time is under a minute. Sometimes the hard drive flickers a bit longer - indexing, or upgrades installing? Sometimes the wireless lan takes a few seconds to discover.

I would certainly recommend a clean Vista install. Follow the excellent instructions in this forum. HP loads up a lot of it's own services that can't be removed easily.

I think Vista is faster on this laptop - compared to my XP desktop that is 7 yrs old?!

 

Yes, Vista does quite a lot of indexing on startup...it's normal.

 

After updating to a newer 8600M GS driver, my Aero Graphic (or whatever it's called) dropped down by .1 to 4.6...

Company of Heroes is a bit slow for me, in terms of the delay between clicking the "Press Any Key" and the actual beginning of the loading, and when Alt-Tabbing through programs with CoH running.

 

My rating went from 4.7-4.6 Aero being the lowest score. My RAM stayed at 4.9

 

Why is my RAM at 4.3?

Is there a way to see if my RAM is underclocked / defective?

Same for the CPU...slower than other peoples'...

 

Try to remove, put back the RAM sticks with changing their slots.

 

Well, after spending about two hours trying to update the nVidia 8600M GS driver via HP Update due to the computer freezing, I finally got it to install. What a surprise to see my WEI improve by a lot.

New score:



My gaming graphics is a 5.0...does anyone else have that? The CPU and RAM seem normal compared to other peoples' models.

I guess I'm satisfied. Too bad Vista seems a bit slow...o well.

Fan's quite loud as well. Runs too much...

 

New question!

Why is my fan always running? Even when I'm just reading one VERY long text page, the fan runs. It took me more than an hour to read the whole thing, and the fan was running the whole time. No side programs running, not downloading anything, nothing along the lines of that.

 

the fan is pretty quiet in my dv6500t. use notebook hardware control (NHC) to check ur hdd temps and cpu temps..that might indicate why their running on high so much.

in anycase, the best way to "fix" a store bought computer is do fresh install..then everything will be good as new

 

My fan is usually running but it is very soft and you can barely hear it, if you have a problem with it might as well return since costco has a 3 month warranty

 

Fan usually runs when processor works a lot. Check the CPU usage data when fan starts and look what process makes it in task manager. Then terminate that service and compare.