I apologize in advance if this is longer than needed. Long question short, what can I do to improve my system performance or what am I doing wrong to improve it?
Before I continue, I’ve read the “Speed Up the Performance of Vista” thread numerous times with no real success. My laptop isn’t extremely slow, it tends to be a little sluggish when scrolling on web pages [Mozilla and IE(have tried both 32 and 64bit editions of IE)], when scrolling in my music in iTunes (especially in Cover Flow), or when the system is left on for a day or two. I started with a clean install to avoid problems and to update all drivers necessary. On the Cover Flow, I have a friend with a latop with half the power of mine and it scrolls through the Cover Flow flawlessly (he has Home Premium 32bit).
Throughout the forum threads on this issue I see a lot that Vista simply takes time to update everything necessary. I’ve been running on it for about 4 months now. All drivers up to date, all Windows updates downloaded and installed as soon as they come out, and the system in protected with anti virus software. Here come the inquiries. 1) Can that be a problem? I am running McAfee on it. 2) Also, is my computer simply not able to handle all of it? When sluggish, the faster I try to scroll, especially iTunes, the slower it actually scrolls, obviously, but the CPU never goes past 25-35% of usage. Same with RAM, staying at 40% or so. My lowest score in my index score is my memory with a 5.0. Not sure of the brand currently installed, but I know its 4GB at 667, I’m a Crucial fan, 3) so upgrading to Crucial memory also for 4GB but at 800 it will it significantly increase my score? 4) Therefore performance?
I’ve tried using the system with all the neat features disabled, transparency, etc, but same issues remain. I’d like to think my system can handle the neat features.
Here’s what I have:
Vista Ultimate 64bit
Dell XPS M1730
Intel Core Extreme X7900 @ 3.20 (Over clocked)
4GB RAM at 667
NVIDIA GeForce8700 GT Dual 512MB
200GB HDD @ 7200rpm
Other programs that require a lot are just fine. Some of those are Adobe PhotoShop CS3 or Illustrator, any of the Office 2007 programs, or Adobe Fireworks CS3. Maybe my issues are program specific, but there’s still that factor that my system slows down after being on a while. An example would be when minimizing a window, instead of getting the smooth effect, it’ll skip, and won’t become smooth unless I maximize and minimize that same window several times. Same applies when opening a new window. 5) What can be the cause of that? Because of this it often freezes on me. On the reliability monitor I have an Index of 7.93, with many application or miscellaneous failures. Though overall, the Index is on an incline as time goes.
6) Why does Windows Media Player often not open after clicking a file supported by it? Example, I’ll click on a movie and the sound will start, but the player itself will not open. I can see it in the processes but won’t open unless I click in the desktop icon.
Just to through one more, my CPU is over clocked and it shows it is so in the BIOS. However the system information in the Control Panel only shows the default setting of 2.80. Regardless of what the Control Panel shows, my CPU is still at 3.20 right?
Again, my apologies for such a long message, hopefully someone can enlighten me.
Before I continue, I’ve read the “Speed Up the Performance of Vista” thread numerous times with no real success. My laptop isn’t extremely slow, it tends to be a little sluggish when scrolling on web pages [Mozilla and IE(have tried both 32 and 64bit editions of IE)], when scrolling in my music in iTunes (especially in Cover Flow), or when the system is left on for a day or two. I started with a clean install to avoid problems and to update all drivers necessary. On the Cover Flow, I have a friend with a latop with half the power of mine and it scrolls through the Cover Flow flawlessly (he has Home Premium 32bit).
Throughout the forum threads on this issue I see a lot that Vista simply takes time to update everything necessary. I’ve been running on it for about 4 months now. All drivers up to date, all Windows updates downloaded and installed as soon as they come out, and the system in protected with anti virus software. Here come the inquiries. 1) Can that be a problem? I am running McAfee on it. 2) Also, is my computer simply not able to handle all of it? When sluggish, the faster I try to scroll, especially iTunes, the slower it actually scrolls, obviously, but the CPU never goes past 25-35% of usage. Same with RAM, staying at 40% or so. My lowest score in my index score is my memory with a 5.0. Not sure of the brand currently installed, but I know its 4GB at 667, I’m a Crucial fan, 3) so upgrading to Crucial memory also for 4GB but at 800 it will it significantly increase my score? 4) Therefore performance?
I’ve tried using the system with all the neat features disabled, transparency, etc, but same issues remain. I’d like to think my system can handle the neat features.
Here’s what I have:
Vista Ultimate 64bit
Dell XPS M1730
Intel Core Extreme X7900 @ 3.20 (Over clocked)
4GB RAM at 667
NVIDIA GeForce8700 GT Dual 512MB
200GB HDD @ 7200rpm
Other programs that require a lot are just fine. Some of those are Adobe PhotoShop CS3 or Illustrator, any of the Office 2007 programs, or Adobe Fireworks CS3. Maybe my issues are program specific, but there’s still that factor that my system slows down after being on a while. An example would be when minimizing a window, instead of getting the smooth effect, it’ll skip, and won’t become smooth unless I maximize and minimize that same window several times. Same applies when opening a new window. 5) What can be the cause of that? Because of this it often freezes on me. On the reliability monitor I have an Index of 7.93, with many application or miscellaneous failures. Though overall, the Index is on an incline as time goes.
6) Why does Windows Media Player often not open after clicking a file supported by it? Example, I’ll click on a movie and the sound will start, but the player itself will not open. I can see it in the processes but won’t open unless I click in the desktop icon.
Just to through one more, my CPU is over clocked and it shows it is so in the BIOS. However the system information in the Control Panel only shows the default setting of 2.80. Regardless of what the Control Panel shows, my CPU is still at 3.20 right?
Again, my apologies for such a long message, hopefully someone can enlighten me.
