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I've got this new pc that is supposed to be so fast but I spend half my time watching the donut spin. It is soooo much slower than my old pc! Is there a way to turn off the auto-indexing, or anything else that would help? Should I just go buy an XP disc while I still can?
AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core 2.20GHz
3 GB RAM
Vista Home Premium 32bit
Add more than 3GB RAM? Surely 3GB should be able to outrun the measly 512MB in my old machine? I won't be spending any more money on any version of Vista so I hope there are some other things that might help.
I probably should also have mentioned that even when I'm just browsing the web, I get the white screen and the donut frequently. I have a broadband connection so it isn't that. Even little tasks like typing in a word processor or typing into a field on a website. I start typing and have to wait to see the results. These little things shouldn't be so slow.
It is interesting that you say that. I had exactly the same experience 3 weeks ago when I got my new Q6600 Intel Quad with 4GB's of RAM. I expected it to be lightning fast, but there was also a lot of donut spinning. In fact it was a lot slower than my AMD 4800+ with 3GB of RAM.
But now, after a couple of weeks, it runs a lot better. I think there is a learning process going on (especially for Superfetch) and things get in order after a while. Changing back to XP will probably not help. In fact I would suspect it to be worse.
There are, of course, tons of tuning tools available. All you need to do is Google "Vista tune up" or something like that, and you will find tons of them. I would, however, be careful. A lot of those will do more harm than help. In my case, I did nothing. Just stuck in a 4GB USB stick for Ready Boost hoping to help with the paging. My page file is about 7GB. But I am not even sure whether that really helps.
Bottom line: Wait a couple of weeks. Things can only get better.
Well I've had it more than a couple of weeks. I got it in January I believe. Possibly February. It hasn't improved.
Not sure what I'm looking for here, but under Performance the CPU usage is currently varying between 1-2%, Memory says 752 MB and then at the bottom Physical Memory: 24%.
I've got Firefox and Thunderbird open and AVG is running. And a clipboard tool.
Hmm, if you already had it for a few months, then there is no hope for it to improve over time any more. Your numbers look completely normal. They are similar to what I experience on my desktops. There must be some component in your hardware that strangles the system. I don't think it is Vista. Did you ever try another security suite (other than AVG). That would be my only software suspect. Also, did you make sure that you do not have 2 firewalls active (AVG and Vista).
What you should do is post a full list of processes you are running...
I would guess that your problem is more I/O related than anything else... disabling superfetch, indexing and some other things might help, but it would be good to know what you are running in order to really be able to help.
You probably already have it, but make sure SP1 has been installed. It seemed to have helped my system. Before SP1, mine would have short pauses that the hard drive went crazy and things just froze. Then it would straighten out after 15-30 seconds. Also, how hot is the CPU running? They will slow as the temp rises.
Yeh! It took 2-3 weeks after installing vista x64 ultimate to see any difference (from XP).The little donut is annoying only because it makes you wonder what the hell is this machine up to now (from a security point of view).I use Iobit Advanced Windows Care and Smart Defrag to manage my pc.CCleaner is also good.The Iobit stuff is free:-
Here's a screenshot of my running processes.
http://virtuallydesigned.com/g.....cesses.JPG
Is that the info you need? I don't know how to tell how hot it is running.
Just now, trying to scroll down the list of files in my FTP program, the pc paused mid scroll and I had to wait. I was just scrolling! It's things like that that are driving me nuts. You know that thing where the screen looks like it gets a white overlay over it (how I hate that!) and the donut spins and spins and spins.
1. After a quick check of your processes I wonder why you have half a dozen Tablet PC processes. Is this in fact a tablet PC. If not, kill those and also check in your startups.
2. If you want to measure the core temperature, download CoreTemp from here http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/ -- if you minimize the CoreTemp window after starting it (which you have to do manually after each reboot) you will see the temp for the 4 cores in the task tray (notification area).
No, it isn't a tablet PC but I am using a tablet as the input device. I'll download CoreTemp tomorrow post the results.
Windows firewall is the only firewall running. I've used AVG with no problems for years and used McAfee and Norton in the past (not on this pc) and didn't like them. I have tried turning AVG off and didn't notice any improvement in speed. Oh, and I do have SP1 installed. I think that answers everything. I really do appreciate the help. It would be fantastic if I could get this thing working like it should. I have been very disappointed so far.
Given your data and your low CPU usage, at first glance it does not look like any program is strangling your PC. Still, if you have a Vista sidebar, I suggest this Core Meter: http://gallery.live.com/liveIt.....1&pl=1 -- This will show you the load on each core at all times. Then if you see that the cores have a high load at the times when the system is loafing, we can get another tool to see exactly which processes create the load. It is a long shot, but worth trying.
PS. If you do not have Sidebar, just get one started. It is in All Programs > Accesssories > Windows Sidebar. There are a lot of other nifty gadgets for it too.
CoreTemp measures the temperature of the cores. The Core Meter shows the CPU load on each core. It only runs in the sidebar. There is nothing to be afraid of with the sidebar. Yes, it takes a little moment to get started when you boot the system, but it takes practically no resources at all. I have 6 gadgets running all the time and the CPU load is between 0 and 1%.
Hi, I had my vista crawl to stop about a week ago and spent two days playing with it. Finally I turned off AVG virus program. found it must have got
corrupted. I uninstalled it and then reinstalled the latest version and hurray everything was back-up to speed..so you might give it a try. later lookback.....
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