Clasus Dynamic NWT 256 a clone of Compal HEL80

Hello everyone,

I've just received my new laptop. The brand sticker is Clasus, it is assembled in Portugal but it is an exact clone of Compal HEL80.
The specs are:

Intel T2300 1,66GHz
1x 1GB 533MHz RAM
100GB 5400rpm Hitachi Hard Drive
the rest is the "normal" of Compal, is has the tv tuner with remote, bluetooth, etc.

I am really very satisfied with it, build stiffness, features and price. But there is one thing that i would like to share with all owners to see if this is "normal":

I've installed Windows XP PRO SP2 and all the drivers for all the hardware built in plus MacAfee anti-virus and firewall, nothing more.

Well it takes 1 minute 51 seconds from the touch of the power button until it shows the last icon on system tray, and it is the wirelless network one.
Also it takes 16 seconds to shutdown.

I think the shutdown time is quite good but the power up time... kind of dissapointed me.. Is this normal with yours??

Does this has something to do with the fact that i have only 1 module of RAM? Does it has to be 2x 512MB to take advantage of DUAL CHANNEL??

Are there any options in BIOS or Windows to change?

If this start up time is "normal" then i'm very dissapointed with laptops performance.. Even though it loads a lot of drivers in system tray...

Please give me your opinion and boot up times so i can take some action while i have the time to claim.

Cheers
Antonio

 

How many icons show up in your system tray?

I would say my HEL80 boots up in half that time or maybe even less.

 

hi,

well i don't have the lappy near me right now but i can say by photo memory:

Built in webcam
Wirelless network
Wirelless network "finder"
Network
Volume
MSN messenger
McAfee Security Center
Bluetooth

i cant remember the rest.. but there are 3/4 more.

before i've installed all the utilities sofware also(omnipass, etc) but i've uninstalled them and keept only the harware drivers.

please note that the time i mention is from the moment i press the power button till the last icon in sys tray shows up.

Well you have a faster processor and double RAM.. can this make THAT diference???

 

You are obviously somewhat experienced with computers, but there are a lot of things here that bother me.

Well, there's half your problem, IMHO. Remove McAfee and install AVG Free AntiVirus from Grisoft or NOD32 and either just use the Windows SP2 Default Firewall, or (if you must install a software firewall), I recommend disabling the windows one and installing Comodo Personal Firewall.

No and yes - You need 2x512 for Dual Channel, but dual channed is only like a 3-5% speed increase.

There's the rest of your problem: Make sure the only things that are running are things that you will need and use. And disable Windows Indexing Service. See http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=5787 and follow most of the tips there, but I recommend keeping System Restore. Also, be careful about what services you disable. While you may not need them now, some hardware or program you install later may expect them to be running, and when you're on the phone with tech support, they hate to hear "Well, I disabled a lot of the default services, but I'm not sure which ones were normally running and which ones I changed - could that be it?"

 

Waw! i'm speechless!

I saw Jack post and was amazed!
Thank you Tiger-Heli.
The only "tweak" i have already is System Restore off...

But tonight i will remove McAfee, stick with XP firewall, and then tweak a bit. I'll perform time-keeping at several stages of this complex process and post them here! lol

Even though i would like to know if people with the "standard" configuration get this boot up times. because i might have any hardware damage.. who knows.

thanks

 

That would help you a lot.

Also, try the dual-core fix:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=60416

 

Thanks everyone! I can't wait to get home and test all this recomendations and do the time-keepings!!!

I'm sure they will be usefull for others also.

cheers everyone!

 

Sorry, just one more question: Is there available for download any user manual for the motherboard with BIOS setup instructions you know?

I know the motherboard is Phoenix Technologies right? But which model? Their site doesn't help a lot....

 

Good morning,

Well i can just say that all the recomendations were very usefull, so usefull that i got almost 50% less boot up time!!

The time record was 54 seconds, but i considered that only 10 seconds more wont kill anyone and let McAfee antivirus installed.

So, we got here a reduction from 1minute and 51seconds to 1minute and 4 seconds!!! A wonderfull score i think.

What was done to achieve: Follow this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=5787

1-Run "msconfig.exe" and then did a search for what was needed to load and not. I've disabled 3/4 from 15 background programs.

2-I didn't touch the services because the link to understand them is broken...

3-I've used TuneXP and put the same marks as the picture.

4-System Restore was already disabled and i disabled Disk Indexing.

5-Didn't touch the Registry.

OK, until here i didn't noticed huge gains.. maybe 10/15 seconds faster boot up. But things went really different after this:

6- “Bootvis” This thing does miracles! Only this optimization gained 20/25 seconds! Beautifull!

7-Unistalled McAfee package: Security Center with firewall and antivirus. This give me about 15 seconds less time. Then i tried install only the McAfee Antivirus and the loss was only 5 seconds, so i keept it. But this shows us how much time a firewall steals. And the XP SP2 firewall is enough i think..

8-At last i did the Dual Core Fix but i didn't noticed anything different in boot up time. I didn't had time to do some benchmarking so i don't know how this affects gaming etc.. Maybe i've done something wrong.

Well in conclusion i can now say that i'm very happy with my lappy performance. It is rocking in gaming and also the TV tuner is great.

Something great about the remote is that it can be used with Nero Home that is very similar to Windows Media Center:
Screenshot1
Screenshot2
Screenshot3

Just need to know were is the update BIOS available.

Cheers
troll

 

McAfee Anti-Virus isn't as bad as some of their other programs, but I still would recommend you switch to AVG Free or NOD32 or similar.

I have had bad luck with McAfee software in the past - Anti-Virus slowed down some of my gaming - Switched to Norton Corporate and the problems disappeared - later switched to AVG and am very happy with it. Used McAfee registry fix from an early version of McAfee software - Had like 1,000 errors before and 5,000 after!. Wrote their tech support and they basically said "Happens on some systems, we recommend not using it on them."

If you don't trust just my advice, look at this quote from Aumha.org, whom I highly respect:

Be sure that the bugaboo utilities like CrashGuard, First Aid, memory-managers, the FindFast indexer from Microsoft Office, and similar utilities are not running.

I do not extend this principle to all such third-party utilities. I’m a big Norton Utilities fan, for example. In contrast, after seeing several systems badly affected or even totally trashed by McAfee products, I won’t let any McAfee software on any machine for which I have any responsibility.

But all of the so-called crash-preventers, uninstallers, and especially the memory-managers should go!

Correction: This shows how much time poorly-written McAfee Bloatware steals. However, I personally agree that the SP2 Firewall is enough, but you would probably see very little additional boot time with Zone Alarm or Kerio or Comodo Personal.

 

Well, i like "traveling light" computer style and i will follow your advice. We have always to trust in more experienced people.

Thanks Tiger-Heli

 

No problem - but don't "Travel light" to the point of not running any anti-virus at all - I have seen that recommended a few places and I think it's insane! (Although I also think the virus threat is largely over-hyped).

 

I dunno if I'd call it insane... you'd just have to be comfortable with what you're doing. I run anti-virus software, but haven't come across any viruses in as long as I can remember (of course, I don't really engage in high-risk activities). One time at work Norton gave me this stupid false positive though...

heheh. I installed McAfee on a friend's computer, because they wanted to pay for antivirus software, and it had all these cute "anti-hacker index", "anti-virus index", "anti-phishing index"... just a buncha buzzwords with little ratings that went from low to high when you installed more McAfee products.