Extremely slow in Windows Vista running on new latop 2.0 GHz 4 mb cache with 2 GB RAM

So I just received my laptop in late august, but I am pretty upset with the performance issues of vista. while I know i have a fast processor t7300 and plenty of RAM, vista just doesnt run well. The cores always seem to be overworked (at 100 percent alot on the gadget), the OS will stall, and games like BIOSHOCK will crash. Ive been looking for answers to these problems, and Ive tried some tweaks listed on this site. Can someone give me some pointers? Or should I just reinstall a copy of XP pro??? any major performance boosting programs/tweaks would be greatly appreciated. Im new to tweaking, so i don't want to do something extreme that might permanently damage my system. Thanks for the help

 

What kind of laptop is it? Just wondering.

Bioshock needs those new drivers for it to work on Vista. I'm betting your problem is due to your anti-virus. Do you have one? Norton or McAfee are often so bad that they end up slowing down your computer to a standstill.

 

A Clean install of vista (and no, this is not done with the recovery CD AFAIK) will help. Vista installations are 50/50 either very slow or as fast as XP from my experiance

 

Of course a fresh install or going back to XP would fix it, but if you're interested in doing it manually and get to know a little more about Vista i think this could be of help to you:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=34&threadid=1999401&enterthread=y

 

Andrew you never stated your graphics chip, your firewall, and anti-virus. Those are some key factors to what may be slowing you down. Also another tip from a vista user: Vista sidebar uses up a good sized chunk of ram, and cpu depending on how many gadgets you have, and how they are programmed, and if they need to auto update (like a cpu reader). When i disabled it my comp stopped stalling and everything got a lot faster. Might also be some other programs you have open. Like even though Firefox is awesome after a while of being open, especially on vista it starts to use up MASSIVE chunks of cpu, and ram.

 

Yeah that's only if leave your computer on and leave Firefox open for like 10 hours+

But how am I with a similar amount of RAM am running it just nice and smooth. I think re-installation is a tad hasty.

 

I have the same processor and RAM as the OP. I simply uninstalled the bloatware. Vista was running fairly quick to begin with, but now after removing the bloatware and making some minor tweaks (thanks to this board for some of them), Vista runs very fast. I didnt even perform a clean install.

 

Vista runs fast on my laptop. At least, not slower than XP.

Several things can help:

1) Do a clean installation of Vista to get rid of bloatware bundled with the original factory installation.

2) Tweak the services and auto startups. Disable or remove those not really needed.

3) Defrag the hard drive with a decent defragment tool. Some defragment tool like O&O Defrag can optimize the file locations for different goals. This can help improve file read/write, and thus computer performance.

4) Use software such as TuneUp Utilities and so on to clean up and defrag the registry, remove junk files, tweak the settings, and etc. This can be risky if wrong tools are used. AFAIK, TuneUp Utilities is a good one.

5) Carefully choose the software installed on your computer. Some software will use more resources or eat up resources faster than others.

6) Choose and configure security software properly, so that virus or malware will not enjoy resources for you.

 

As others have mentioned all you really need is a clean install.

I have 4gb of ram now but ordered my notebook with 1gb and was suprised as to how decent my notebook ran even with the 1gb so your memory should be more than sufficient.

 

My laptop was the same when I got it, similar spec. Clean install sorted it right out and a few tweaks.

Also just out of interest how many processes do you have running after boot up in task manager? Mine as about 70+ when I got the laptop but with clean install and tweaks is around 45 now.

 

hey guys im sorry for the late reply. ive been so busy with college i have neglected to check the forums lately. also, thank you for your help so far. it was rude of me to not reply to the forum and i want you to know that i value your input. I have McAfee antivirus, windows defender firewall (i think), a 512 mb Nvidia Geforce 8800m GT, and I own a Sager np2090. I honestly am just a bit upset by the amount of stalling I am getting when i run my system. I ordered it from XoticPC, a well known reseller, so the OS came with little bloatware. But i am still running about 75 processes. I have to use mcafee or norton for my school's servers to log on.