Need your help with my HP laptop

People, I have a problem.

I recently (2 months back) bought an HP Pavillion DV4 1242TX notebook with the following config
Intel C2D T6400 2.0 GHz
4GB DDR2 RAM, 320GB HDD
512 MB Dedicated NVIDIA GEForce 9200 Graphics
Vista Home Premium

the problem is that even with 4GB RAM, the system takes very long to open simple applications like word, excel and is quite slow...it becomes worse when u try opening a couple of them at once...
i also tried gaming on it (Crysis Warhead), but even there the frame movement is not very smooth...it becomes worse when I play at higher resolutions...

now, i understand that Vista makes systems slower, but this specification is quite above-average...and while buying the laptop, i was thinking that with this spec, the processing speed will be quite high and i will get fast performance even with graphics heavy applications like Crysis...

my questions are:

1. was my expectation too high from this config/ brand?
2. what can i do now to get good performance from this laptop?
3. finally, I just dont want Vista...can I install XP on this laptop and if so, where can I get driver support for this model: HP Pavillion DV4 1242TX?

Would appreciate your answers/ suggestions.

thanks,

PS: Am writing from India.

 

um well dont expect gaming from the 9200.... crysis barely runs well on my machine which in the processor and gfx card is better

1. yours expectations for this config was much too high. With your processor and graphics card you probably can only run games at medium to low at lower resolutions.
Also to address you slow programs issue. HP laptops ship wiht alot of bloat ware that slows down ur system.

2. In my opinion you should do a clean install of your operating system. You want to go wiht xp but i recommend Windows 7. Its still a RC but it is much more polished than vista and people have said it runs even better than xp on lower end systems

3. xp drivers are in the 4th post
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/board/message?board.id=OS&thread.id=9405

if you do decided to us win7 then all vista drivers should work with win7

 

hastman's right, the 9200m gs might be okay for mild gaming but no way are you going to have a hope of handling games like crysis smoothly. Even if you cranked every graphic setting right down I wouldn't hold much hope for playability.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html
shows your card gets about 1800 3dmark06 points, my 9600m gt gets more than double that and I wouldn't expect to be able to play crysis decently without cranking settings down to medium and lower.

as far as speeding things up, programs should be pretty snappy with that setup. If you have an antivirus active shield try turning that off so it isn't scanning your every action. Formatting is always the most satisfying remedy though.

 

hustheman >> shall wait for Win7

grantman>> shall try the AV suggestion.

thanks, guys.

 

yeah man, if there is anyway you can strong arm your way thru HP india, and tell them you are not satisfied with the product, you can go with atleast a 3650 (DV6) or more upscale to a 4650 (DV6)....methinks....or try and sell it off, the 9600mGT was for a very brief instance good for gaming, and we still need to compromise a whole lot to be able to game on this thing..(GTA4 at 10x7 all on medium 23~26FPS, T9400, no batt, 4GB, and 77 svcs = playable...just)


and yes W7 is worth the wait.....since ..if you bought in the jun-oct 09 era, you can apply for an upgrade really cheap...wether it is for india or not is another matter

 

Also, the laptop will heat up ALOT while playing the games... I recommend minimizing the game every hour for about 25 mins in a cool spot to help bring temps lower. Minimizing the game will relieve the GPU and the CPU and will bring temps down. I used to do this while playing COD4 and other games... while monitoring my temps using Everest.

 

To be honest, your laptop configuration is not above average. You expected too much. Crysis is one of the most demanding games out there, specs wise.

 

Indeed it is not even barely enough for Crysis to run at a decent rate, however it shouldn't have trouble with basic word processing. Mine only has 2GB and i run TONS of stuff at the same time yet it doesn't slow down, admittedly i am running Linux on it but it was working well under Vista too.

Have you uninstalled the Norton Antivirus that came with it? Norton is the biggest resource hog ever.

 

lol yes, definitely uninstall Norton.