Vista runs slow??

I'm not sure if this has been addressed (I'm sure it has), but my Inspiron 1420 runs awfully slow.. slower than my old laptop. The "thinking" light is constantly flashing, and all the windows graphics effects are really choppy. Is this a problem with my computer? Or is a problem with Vista? I did install a program at one point that crashed my computer, but I'm not sure if that's related. Any help would be great.

 

Tell us more of your machine's specs. You could very well be working on an underpowered laptop that maybe needs more ram or a faster drive.

Is this the vista that came with the laptop, or a fresh install? If its the original OS, then it's probably very much congested with programs, processes and what not. All these are taking up ur resources and making ur computer slow. Try to clean up all the unecessary programs, both installed and from startup.

Also, about the activit light, go into the task manager and see what the status of ur computer is. Check to see if any task/process is taking up too many resources.

 

Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.2GHz,4MB L2 Cache,800MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium Edition
14.1" WXGA+ UltraSharpTM TFT Display with TrueLifeTM (1440x900)
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
120G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 8400M GS
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
IntelJ3945 802.11a/g Mini-card
McAfee Internet Security™ 2007, 30 Day Trial, English
2 Year Return to Depot Service, Complete Care and Technical Support
DataSafe Online Backup 3GB (included with price)
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
X-Fi XtremeMusic with Dolby 5.1

I chose to have my computer come with as little prepackaged software possible. I have also installed Office 2007 Enterprise and Mozilla Firefox.

I checked the task manager, and it seems to be running at around 10% with most of it going towards the Window Manager. I'm not at my computer right now, but I'll double check that when I get a chance.

Thank you for your reply, I really I can figure out what's going on. I bought a new computer because my old one was running so slow.. and this almost feels like a step backwards..

 

Well it's known that vista is a huge resource hog. That's why even with a new more powerful computer, the OS runs more sluggish than an older weaker computer running XP.

Like I said, I reccomend removing all the unencessary things from startup, and try to remove as many processes as u can. That will lessen the burden on ur components and make ur computer run better.

 

Vista is just putting your computer's hardware to good use - Vista's use. If you're the spoiled type - the type who wants your computer to run your programs, and not groan under the weight of a bloated operating system - you'll have to upgrade to XP.

 

LOL.. well put

 

vista is not that bad, unless i stare at benchmark scores all day I can't really notice any performance difference between Vista and XP

 

Vista is not a resource hog as most people say. Its probably because you have not uncessary startup/services and background programs thats causing the slowdown. Vista actually is alot less system intensive then my xp and uses the ram wisely and efficiently.

 

i had the same problem and came up with a fix.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=143091

i'm running 163.11 drivers now.

 

You're contradicting yourself. Using resources for unnecessary startup processes and/or services is a waste. Vista may have adopted a Linux-like memory management scheme, and that does make it more efficient in terms of design, but it doesn't make it any less wasteful; it still squanders system resources on useless services (and should I mention the unoriginal Aero UI? Because every major competing OS has long had such graphical capabilities without needing 2GB of RAM!).

And as for your claim that Vista is less system intensive than XP, I suggest you do a bit of reading; read the testimonials of other users as well as Microsoft's recommended system requirements for Vista and XP.

 

No offense but I don't need the testimonies of other users to determine how my experience with Vista is going. Not really contradicting myself and I stand by my statement. I have a system with vista and a system with xp and xp is actually using more of the cpu and memory then my vista is. I am not a novice user and have optimized both of my notebooks. The 2gb of ram being necessary overrated. If your a casual user who uses their laptop to browse or listen to music 1 gig is fine. If your a gamer then 1.5 gigs is fine. My vista 500 mb max when ideling and dynamically adjusts itself when it needs the ram and uses the ram for the task and removes uncessary ram usage to and lowers itself down to 350 mb. With my xp my ram usage around 435-450 megs when idle and low intensity programs and does not adjust its ram.

As for Aero yeah its not original so what? In case you didn't notice someone has to make a breakthrough and the competitors follow suit, its the nature of technology. As for not liking aero, simple solution don't get vista.