Is Vista really this bad?

Or am I missing something??

Ive been using my new HP DV5Z for the past few weeks and this is the first experience Ive had with Vista. First specs of new machine

ZM80 Puma core @2.10ghz
2gb ram
64bit Vista Home Premium


So on paper this thing should be blazing fast, but it can hardly keep up with me typing this sentence! It takes upwards of 5 minutes to boot sometime, forget about having more than a few programs open at a time; its painful. Its seems like my retired 5 year old Dell is as fast as this thing.
I dont have much running in the background and I turned off the fancy video stuff that comes with this OS. ***? is it really this bad? Right now I have firefox 3.0 and an excell sheet open along with a few progs in the background (bluetooth driver, Norton and GNotifier and thats it) and it took like 5 seconds between the time I hit the minimize button on FF and the closing of this prog to see that with these two + programs running im at 1.3gb of RAM through the Task Manager.
Cripes! I just went and ordered 4gb of ram through Cricual to see if that speeds it up (it **** well better).

 

Did you do a fresh install of Vista to remove bloatware, and background programs you don't want running? Fresh installs always help because now you know what is running, and what you want running in the background. My Gateway was almost the same way when I first purchased it, now after a clean install of Vista, there are no hiccups or hitches, freezes, lag, etc.

 

No, that's not normal. And 2 gb is enough for normal use.

What video thing did you turn off?

It should have come with SP1 installed, right?

Anyway, go into Task Manager, Performance tab, Resource Monitor and see what processes are using the most CPU and disk. Also, what percent CPU does it show being used?

 

1) Delete bloatware and/or do a clean install
2) Tweak windows

I'm using the same comp (dv5z) with no problems - extremely fast actually!

 

I think the recovery disk supplied with the laptop just reinstalls all the extra junk, is that correct (for you HP guys). Is there a fresh install howto here if so?

 

The HP recovery disk won't help.

Your options are:
Borrow a Vista install disk,
"Find" a copy of Vista, OR
Uninstall the HP bloatware. Some suggest a registry cleaner such as CCleaner after doing the uninstalls.

btw the HP forum is a better place to discuss this... I really don't know much about the specific stuff that HP preloads.

 

why are u running 64 bit with only 2 gigs of ram?

 

There shouldn't be any problem with that, and it can have slightly better performance than 32-bit with 2 gigs... though that's mainly when running 64-bit apps. And it certainly has better security than 32-bit, due to features like kernel protection and the removal of the 16-bit Windows libraries. With 2 gigs I would run 64-bit, given the option.

 

Does MS still have those vista upgrade discs w/o the license? I was looking around the site and only found the full licensed versions for $150ish

 

I think they discontinued the upgrade discs. However there is a post in the Lenovo forum that should help you get a copy of Vista.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144783

Hope that helps,
Tim

 

Vista Home Premium 32 bit with 2GB RAM is blazingly fast here

 

Do a clean install, if you haven't already, and you should notice a substantial difference. I'm running a clean install of Ultimate x64 and I've never had to do any tweaking, whatsoever. My machine flies.

 

I am running 64 Bit, but with 4 gb. no problem with words.
If I remember right like what "Lakjin" said . Home Premium 64bit needs 4 gb to run right. (If I find that again I will link it back)


1) Use the NBR Vista Tweaks (click here) that should help.

2) What Graphics card are you running ??

3) Has this happend since the first day or like the week later and started slowing down.

4) Is this a Laptop or Desktop???
If its a laptop, you need to go back to 32 bit then maybe. If desktop you will need to buy more ram.

 

No, this is not true. You do not need 4 gb to use Vista 64-bit.

See here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=184271

And here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1354

 

So what process are consuming the CPU cycles? Make sure you are showing ALL processes and then sort by CPU.

Gary

 

You answered your own question in your first post. Norton programs are known to drag down a system by hogging resource. Even Symantec, creators of Norton, admit it!
http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2008/05/23/symantec-finally-admits-their-software-slows-down-a-pc/
You'd be better off with some other solutions to security and protection on the market.

 

you need to just reinstall the OS. if a clean install still doesn't cut the mustard, revert to XP Pro.

 

Actually Norton shouldn't be causing that much trouble. I have Norton installed onto my laptop because my school makes me use it. I haven't experienced any of the problems the original poster mentioned. I believe it might be part of the problem, but he probably has multiple programs that are slowing his laptop down. I recommend a reformat like the others have stated.
Tim

 

Why is everyone in such a hurry to suggest a "reformat" before we know what proceses are slowing it down???

Sounds like a case of "Ready. Fire. Aim."

Gary

 

If you like, you could use this to look for any suspect processes that might slow down your system:

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,25559-order,1-page,1-c,alldownloads/description.html

I found it pretty useful.
Good luck!

 

PS: If you want to give it a try, don't buy it, the free trial version works just fine!

 

Why on earth would someone want to spend $29 for that when this:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

does it for free??? (Yes I know the other one has a free trial. But the sysinternals one is free forever.)

Gary

 

I’ve just installed windows xp pro, and I’m really a happy camper now! I’ve used Vista premium 64bit, Vista Ultimate and xp definitely makes the computer snappier. I was starting to think my Pentium M was faster than my T9300 but that is definitely not the case now. Not before either, but it seemed like it was when Vista was on this Sager. I will now just leave Vista alone; as I’ve done all the experimenting I’m going to do with it. Welcome back XP!

 

I wanted to go Vista becoz it's pretty, when I ordered my Cyberpower but then I look my programs, nope, their not Vista compatible. And I had to go with XP.

Apparently all I gonna miss is some movable clouds in games and more detail on water.

Besides Windows 7 and DX11 is coming out in 5 or 6 months and makes Vista obsolete, so theirs no point to get Vista now, I think.

Vista is like Mac, it looks pretty on the outside, but you put in your programs and they don't work.

 

What applications do you have that aren't Vista compatible?

You totally discredited yourself here. "5 or 6 months"? "Vista obsolete"?

Wow.. You really batted 1.000 on this post. FUD from beginning to end! Good job!

 

I had this issue when i first got vista but theres a handy little thing where you can change the compatibility. Works a treat.

 

CAD programs and also 3 - d modeling programs 2007 versions.
Where you can chagne compatibility? So your saying you just put checkmarks and I can run all programs that I can run on XP??? Is this true?
I look at the website of CAD program and it doesn't have checkmark in front of Vista?

Also, SSubzero, if your saying that they won't release Windows 7 in 5 or 6 months, please do tell when exactly they are going to release it and provide a reliable source. And Why would anyone want to use Vista after 7 is out? Isn't that the definition of obsolete?

 

Why would anyone want to use XP after Vista is out? Isn't that the definition of obsolete?

 

Because it can run your programs?

 

Vista runs all my programs, including PhotoShop/CS2 and Quicken 2001 Deluxe.

 

Microsoft has said they plan to release Windows 7 about 3 years after Vista's release, which would put it about early 2010. That's about 17 months from now.

Sources:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08...firms_Windows_7_ship_date_January_2010_1.html
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Micr...-for-2010-No-Word-on-Windows-7-M2-80768.shtml
http://www.winsupersite.com/faq/windows_7.asp
http://www.winvistaclub.com/i7.html

 

I've founds 2 ways of making programs compatible using vista.

1. Just before you install the program, right click on the setup file, then go to properties, then there should be a tab saying compatibility, there you can change the enviroment vista will run the program, whether it be xp, 2000, 95 etc.

2. As above but install the program first, then on the startup file for the program do the above.

This has worked on all programs for me that have had issues with vista, this was when i first got vista.

I'm not saying it will work for your programs but it has worked for mine.

 

You can also right-click and run as administrator

 

EVERY CAD program? EVERY "3 - d" modeling program? You need to be a little more specific.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=9444984&linkID=9240618

Again, need to be a *little* more specific.

http://www.turbocad.com/TurboCAD/Tu...ion/SystemRequirements/tabid/827/Default.aspx

??

First off, you've already been given several links.

Secondly. I'm not sure if you noticed, but there's a few people today with more-than-adequate rigs that would rather run XP than Vista, and Vista's been out over 18 months. Sometimes people just can't let go.

 

Wut in the world is trubo CAD Oo

I was talk about SolidWorks and StudioTools. I was able to run SW2007 on Vista Home Premium 32 bit. But What about 64 bit?

 

And we would know that how???

Gary

 

You only said CAD programs. There's more than one, ya know.

Oh, and...

Bang.

http://www.exactmagic.com/products/studiotools/index.html
StudioTools?

 

I have abandoned several software products that could not keep up with the times. I figure after a couple of years, anything that has not managed to get "Vista-capable" yet probably is not worth my time investing in. Likewise, I dropped a couple of Firefox extensions because they were not ready for Firefox 3 soon enough (one still is not officially released (TabMixPlus)).

The world moves on; move with it or be left behind.

 

It's not really about keeping up with the times. SolidWorks just releases new version every year to rip people off and they also make sure the new versions are incompatible with the older versions to force people to upgrade, while actual differences between the versions are minimal.

Also Alias StudioTools 13.0 isn't compatible with Vista, and it's $50,000 software. I doubt that companies (except very large ones) can afford to throw away $50,000 just so it will be compatible with a $100 - 200 copy of Vista. It simply makes more sense to keep XP.

 

But then you'd think the makers of $50,000 software would like to keep their code clean and lean so it would work both on XP and Vista...but I suppose with intense software applications like that, you can't really avoid the pileup of code.

 

It's not about clean code, it doesn't work because the Vista wasn't arround when they created it. So it can be clean, but set up differently then Vista.

Btw Autodesk Alias Studio 2009 should work on 64 - bit Vista Home Premium, tho, right?

Cos I changed my order to Vista, and if I gonna have trouble with programs I gonna blame peoples in this thread j/k

 

Er, I don't think so...then why do a lot of older programs still work flawlessly on Vista without even using compatibility mode? That doesn't explain anything at all...

 

This is not exactly the answer you asked for, but...... I have found the Vista Tweeks guide really good. You can google for it. It is long to read but you can skip just to the sections you want. There is a free version, and the pay version is about $3.00

 

Cos some program are different from other.