Laptop Optimization

I am looking for some help to optimize the performance and speed of my Toshiba A215-S6816. I purchased this machine about two months ago. I am impressed with the machine but want to see if there are some things that I can do to get better performance. I am running Widows Vista Ultimate with Service Pack 1 Installed. My processor is an AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-64 2.20 GHz. I have 3.00 GB of RAM (32-bit Operating System). Because of some initial software conflicts that I had and could not resolve I have done a fresh reinstall from the recovery disk that came with the machine. Of course this means that I have all the extra software that Toshiba puts on the machine. I don't mind some of the trial games, etc. but does anyone have a similar machine that you could advise me what Toshiba software is optional and can be removed, but will not cause problems i.e., I don't want to delete any crucial drivers, etc. Also there are about 75-80 processes that run all the time. In talking to the Geek Squad at Best Buy they said that there should only be about 40 or so that run at most times. Can any one tell me if there are standard processes that are unnecessary and can be killed to enhance the performance of this machine. My Windows Experience Index is 3.3 is that good for this configuration or should I expect better results from this machine?

 

you should probably use a proper system benchmarking tool like passmark. WEI only shows the lowest score which shouldn't really define your whole system. Anyway, what section on WEI gave a 3.3, graphics?

 

You can uninstall programs, or you can shut them off.
Go to the start menu,
type in run, to get the run command
then type in MSCONFIG

Then go to the startup and services tabs, and shut off processes and programs you do not use.
Shutting them off does not delete the program/service. It simply overrides it during the boot process.
Shutting off these background processes, will free up system resources, shorten boot times, and make your system faster.
You should shut off all of the applictions you do not use.
Shutting off the Windows Operating system tab, shuts off Windows Aero, which will free up lots of resources, speeding up the entire system.

Shut off a few processes, and reboot, and you will see that the number of processes in task manager is less, and you will see a nice speed boost.

Tell us how it goes, and if you need any help post back and someone will be able to help you.

K-TRON

 

First off, WEI is crap as it is very inconsistent and fluctuates randomly (i went from my processor having a rating 4.4 to 4.8 after doing nothing, then it went back to 4.7, in a period of three days, now i just leave it grayed. And there were no hardware modifications and very little software mods.)

Second, my suggestion is to run a clean install of Vista and find out which drivers you NEED to install and install them one by one from the driver cd. This will also reduce the amount of processes you have.

Third, the number processes you have running is also another bad way to look at things; whats the difference between idling at 1GB with 40 processes and idling at 1GB with 80 processes? Nothing, except maybe a quicker boot time. What matters is what theses processes are actually doing, and if they are doing essentially nothing (essentially because they have to be doing something if theyre on, including idling which is still something) then there is no need to worry about them.

Also, if you dont have a driver cd, you may have to go to Toshiba's site and download them. But again, you want to get all the ones you absolutely need.

 

As a somewhat newbie recently to clean installs - go to the Windows OS & Software forum and look at the Vista tweaks section for some excellent ideas and additional links to other sites with good tips. Some of this is really trial and error. What you want to do is uninstall programs, but you really don't touch drivers. Unless you have a MS Vista disk, you will not be able to run a complete clean install, so you will have to delete some stuff on your own. Take your time, read around here and then experiment. I have turned a lot of processes off (from 80 down to 61) and uninstalled a lot of programs I would have thought I needed a month ago! As for the Toshiba programs - many of those can probably come off the laptop - you will want to keep utilities that control function keys, but I would lose most of their software updates and "extras". Remember, now that you are "fresh" again, you can make some mistakes and start all over. And don't forget to go to the Toshiba forum for specific advice.

 

control panel-->system-->appearanace adjust for best performance
download performsnce counters list and run. uncheck all values

 

Does that system have a 7200RPM drive and are you using readyboost to help out?

 

ReadyBoost isn't going to do a lot, if anything, in his situation. He has 3GB of RAM.

 

WEI is pathetic... my GF always gets with her T5450 and X3100 2gb ram Vista Buisness a score between 8-9 >.< a bit off