Performance Problems with Japanese W5

Hi, I am new to this forum and hope I don't ask a question already answered.
I bought a W5 back in spring in Tokyo. I upgraded RAM to 1GB and installed a english version of WinXP Pro on it, cause I didn't feel at ease with the Japanese one. Although I use it only for office application, Internet browsing and Skype now, I feel that its performance is very low and it is emitting quite a lot of heat.

1) I wonder if the problem might be the fact that I installed a US Windows on a Japanese Machine. Does anybody experience similar problems with a Japaense W5 or did you find solutions?

2) I downloaded all of the drivers from the manufacturers Japanese website, because there weren't any available on the American yet (they still aren't for the 5 Series)

3)In the task manager I saw, that some processes from the Intel Pro Wireless software were using quite a lot of memory. (I attached the screenshot to this post) If I run the troubleshooter, there is one error message which says that CTA Plugin is not installed or supported, however the wireless network is running fine. are there any possibilities to decrease memory usage by this software?


Any inputs to increase performance would be highly appreciated, as I really like the W5, but I feel that it could perform better.. .

Thanks!

 

Are you saying that your laptop was perfoming fast when it had the orginal factory installed OS? Or that you just now noticed that it is slow?

From the picture you posted, one can see that you are using less than 5% of total CPU capacity and less than 500MB of your 1GMB RAM memory, so I dont think there is any problem with your system in terms of those things.

I have the Japanese W5, bought from dynamismcom . Dynamism installed US Windows XP before delivering it to me. I would say the laptop is not speedy in heavy-dury multitasking - but I didnt expect it to be - it has only Core Solo 1.06Ghz and 4200rpm drive. You have to expect that. But on web surfing, Word Processing, Outlook etc it is fine. I also run BitComet on it no problem while doing other things.

I checked my task manager and you are using a bit more memory than I am on zCfgSvc.eve (I am using 4,504K) and Dot1Xcfg.exe (I am using 1,356). But that is nothing considering the amount of unused capacity you still have. And my total memory usage is more or less same as yours. So I wouldnt say that these processes are really eating up your memory.

If you think the laptop could be snappier, consider opening the case and putting in a 5400rpm hard drive instead of the 4300 it comes with. But that will actually slightly increase heat and slightly reduce battery life. See LeogG ultraportable forums for pictures of how to do that (was done on a W4 and W2)

But to be honest you have to accept the limitations of a core solo ULV chip at only 1.06Ghz. If the HDD upgrade does not satisfy you then consider getting the Y5 instead - it runs on Core Duo with 1.6Ghz.

Also I notice that you are using Firefox, which I too had installed on my W5, but I noticed that from time to time it was slowing the machine down ad sometimes freezing. So I installed Maxthon ( www.maxthon.com) instead and that issue went away.

Finally, you coul also do a complete re-install of your OS, just in case you have a visus or malware that you didnt realize was there.

 

Thanks Skagen for your advise.

Yes, I feel that the W5 was very much faster when I had it with the Japanese OS installed. Of course I installed additionnal software, but not a lot except the usual stuff (office suite, firefox, skype)
Now I experience big slowdowns even by only typing some text into powerpoint and the CPU performance goes up to 100%. Also the time for starting up and shutting down has increased dramatically. (at the beginning it was extremely fast)



Also the battery performance seems to have decreased due to this problem. While, at the beginning, the remaining time of the battery when it was charged to 80% (ECO Mode) showed around 8 hours. Now it shows about half of it, although I really try to be nice with my batteries (always removing them when I connect the PC to an electrical plug). (Of course I am aware, that those time indications are not very accurate, but still, it shows that the computer is using more energy now)

I guess, your advise with reinstalling the OS is the best thing to do. I am just affraid of reinstalling all those drivers again....it took me hours last time to identify the right drivers for the devices in device manager.
By the way, does some of the preinstalled software also show up in Japanese ?(e.g. my Intel ProSet Wireless Interface is in Japanese)

 

The only thing that have caused symptom that for me on this W5 was Firefox.

On other laptops I have had, I traded similar problems (100% CPU usage) also to
1) when I installed Directory Opus software and it had a conflict
2) when I installed X1 desktop search and used up too much CPU
3) virus/hijack

Also doesnt Skype take up a lot of CPU also? I dont have it on my laptop, but that I have heard.

My Intel ProSet Wireless is all English. Everything in my interface is English. The only thing Japanese I see is the physical keybaord.

There is a folder in my laptop which appears to have the relevant drivers for W5 setup, but it is large - 278MB. If you have any ideas about how I can upload to you, let me know. Maybe bittorrent? PM me.

Someone on another message baord mentioned that they were able to get an English-based recovery disc and/or drivers from the folks at conics.net after they bought a used Japanese Panasonic laptop from someone elsewhere. Maybe worth taking a look at doing that if you dont want to do an upload.

On the battery life I have always got 8hours max usage from 100% battery charge and I think that time it claimed I had 8.5 hours available. In ECO mode I never saw a claim 8 hours left at any time.

 

Well, I will reinstall Windows.. but I need my computer urgently until 20 November, so I will just work with what I have now, and reinstall it later.. If I have any driver problems, may I come back on you? Cheers, D

 

No sweat - PM me anytime.