Strange problem ... only with vista !

Ok, I have a Dell Vostro with the following specs

5400 160gig hd
8600m gt
core 2 duo 5470
2 gigs of ram

I used to have XP before, but needed to format and installed Vista instead. Now, when my ac adapter is plugged in, my computer seems to be always loading or reading data on my hard drive (there is activity and the sound is making me nuts).

I turned off file indexing, but it didnt fix the problem.

Anyone have an idea of what it might be ?

 

Are you using any programs when you have it plugged in?

 

Nope, it only turns on Aero and uses the "high performance" power scheme,

 

Check your ram usage and tell me how much is being used. And tell me how much space you have left out of that 160GB. And while your at it tell me your CPU usage.

 

Processor use is usually at 2-4%, but sometimes jumps at 26%!

RAM use is 835 megs. Free space, 110 gigabytes

I applied quite a few tweaks from the tweaks thread too.

 

I see. What tweaks did you apply from flamenko's thread?

 

Removed the useless windows features (file sync, network file compression), added Vista battery saver. Turned off indexing.

I heard of a feature called superfetch which preloads data in the RAM. Could that be problem? Seems like a stupid dumb useless service.

 

Might be, but you aren't using much ram so it shouldn't be a problem...

 

superfetch is very important for programs released 2007 onwards....it allows u to open heavy programs much much faster (DO NOT DISABLE IT if u have plenty of RAM)

 

Unless you turned off indexing at the root of the drive and allowed it to reset the attributes of all the subdirectories and files, you don't have indexing off.

 

It is common. Vista is built in such a way that there is always activity on the hdd, it`s doing something, but I don`t exactly know what. It`s always writing files and such, so maybe you have System Restore on , which creates restore point very often. I`ve read somewhere on the net what the programs that run constantly in Vista are and do, but I don`t remember where...

 

It's driving me crazy !

 

Install XP and forget about Vista, or install SP1 RC for Vista. Seems to improve performance and battery life,as far as I can tell..

 

Since it only happens when you plug in the AC adapter, I think it might be something that Vista turns off to save the battery....

 

Can you take a look in Device manager and see if you have any exclamation triangle warnings? I am wondering if you installed all the appropriate device drivers when you installed Vista.

 

Everything seems to be in order in the device manager

 

Vista is doing a little bit of house keeping. It's mapping all the files to make it execute better. This only happens on first install. Afterwards it will be normal. It only probably happens when you plug it in because when plugged in it's usually in performance mode and you notice the disk activity more readily.