Grindingly Slow Laptop!

I'd get hold of some partioning and image software.
Partition the HDD into two and save an Image of the drive to it OR save it to a USB Box.

Reformat the main partition and install XP Pro. You can always wipe over it with the restored image of Vista.

You could try Ready Boost, but you already have too much memory for it to make any difference.

http://crystalmark.info/ (freeware) is handy to test the speed of the HDD and any cards.

I hope this response will help, so here goes.

firstly Vista is rubbish! No major company I know of went to Vista, they stayed with XP. I know, my job is IT support.

XP is excellent, but will only recognise a maximum of 3GB of RAM. But, and this is a but, Since service pack 3 annd all the security updates for XP, you now really need 2GB to run with any sort of decent speed. Also, come the end of this year, Microsoft will no longer support XP, so no further updates.

Windows 7 is excellent, but you do need a decent graphics card to get the enhanced graphic features that 7 provides. I have put Win7 on a laptop with a mere 1.5GB RAM and works fine. But the graphics card is only 64MB so I don't get the enhanced look.

So, taking this into account you have two options.

1. Roll back to XP but increase your RAM to at least 2GB, but with the knowledge that next year you will have to go to Win7 anyway.

2. Bite the bullet and buy as much memory you can for the laptop, be it 2, 3 or 4GB, wipe the hard drive (ensuring you have backed up all your files first) and install Windows 7. worth doing if you have at least 128MB graphics card.

If your graphics card is less than 128MB, then just put XP on and save up for a new laptop for next year, unless you are happy with the reduced graphics on Win7

Hope this helps.

You don't have to change just because MS no longer offer updates. The system won't magically cease to function.

I'm still running Win 2k Pro for things which actually need Windows, most current hardware still has drivers for it and it's much cleaner than XP.

Good point Matt, but I said it because of the security updates. As we all know Microsoft is prone to security holes, and by peace of mind you want those holes plugged. So, unless you are never on the Net, you really want an OS that is secure.

Surprise, surprise ... we all offer a different solution!
The best place for Vista is a deep hole in the ground. XP and 7 are fine.
Since the laptop is on contract - and presumably it has to be returned at contract end - then get a cheapie external hard drive and make a complete image of the laptop HD. Now wipe the laptop and install XP - 1Gb of ram will be quite enough. Keep the machine clean (dump the cookies regularly, keep the startup files to a minimum, just have the software you want on it, do a regular defrag) and it should be adequate for most things. At the contract end, then put the disk image back on the laptop and keep the external drive.
I run an oldish IBM Thinkpad (1.6 Ghz) as an alternate e-mail machine to handle a secondary account - it is not as fast as a new, 64-bit, 2.8 Ghz, 4 Mb of ram, Win 7 desktop, but what the heck ... My really old Apple TiBook with a 400 Mhz processor will boot faster than anything I have except the Win 7 machine - but fast enough for me does not meant fast enough for you.
Just keep in mind - what happens at the end of the contract.
Geoff

From windowsteamblog

Clean the air vents may help a little.

Thats a new one on me. But if true, then it is a good sign. Until recently it was the end of this year I can assure you. However, with economic situation being as it is, I am not surprised.

Try running ccleaner, it's free and cleares out all the 'junk' from your computer - temp internet files, cookies, history and all manner of other clutter.

It's also got a registry cleaner for removing dead entries, and it has a reg back up option too which I recommend you use if using the reg cleaner function.

I put it on every computer I set up for people, including both my own laptops ( XP and W7 )

It will run on XP, Vista and W7 32 and 64 bit systems.

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

The latest version is Version 3.04.1389

Click on the 'Download from Piriform.com' link.

Regards, Chris.

The contract ended months ago... the laptop is yours to keep, similar to a phone contract.

Thanks for the suggestions re cleaning the laptop - physically and 'virtually'! I doubt this is the cause of the problems (which have resisted a complete factory restore and are evident before the machine warms up) but it can't hurt to keep on top of these things.

After you make a compressed image of it, disable the internet connection and then remove all AV and Firewall programs. See if that cures it? If it does try to install just Windows Firewall or another free firewall such as Comodo.

Make another compressed image so that you can go back to this point later.

If you go for XP, XP Pro usually covers 2-3 CPU's and is a lot less hassle to register.

One thing I've found really helps is to disable the indexing function. (My Computer> RT Click the primary drive and de-select the indexing option).

Under normal conditions it's running all the time and using the bloat-ware that is Vista with 1GB of memory is asking a lot of it.

If it were me I'd either go to XP or 7, but would up the ram in any event.

I'd love one of the latest Eee PCs with the flip screen, only snag is that they no longer run Linux. At the moment I have Ubuntu on an Eee PC 901 and it's brilliant - you're into Firefox while the Windows XP machine upstairs is still churning away doing something-or-other and not telling you what it's up to!

2 utilities I routinely use are Ccleaner from Piriform, and Advanced System Care from IOBit.

Both are free and do a good job of clearing out the sludge that builds up in Windows Systems, causing them to slow down.

Unbelievably, the Shell oil company moved to Vista -- just as 7 was being introduced. They spent a lot of time tinkering with it first, but I'd love to be a fly on the wall in their IT department(s).

Al