Laptop is slooooowwwww

[Speeddog]

Compaq laptop, running Vista.

Physical memory running ~80%, about 400MB.

[derby]

how much physical memory?

[Speeddog]

Task Manager says 501 MB Total, ~125 MB Cached, 4 MB free.

[Monster Dave]

This is a common problem with Vista. We have several really high end laptops that run pretty crappily with Vista on them. Up the memory x2 and you will see some improvement.

[bluemoco]

I'm running XP, and my old laptop is still holding its own.  It's about 3.5 yrs old, though, so I'm thinking it's due to be replaced.  (1 gig of RAM, 40gb hdd)  I avoided Vista, but I'm going to have to upgrade sometime soon.  Haven't yet decided between a Windows 7 machine or a MacBook Pro.

I've noticed that Firefox has been bogging down a bit lately.  Not catastrophically, but it's plenty annoying. 

[derby]

don't forget, vista/server 2008/win7 have a completely different memory management strategy.

not having free physical memory isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[JEFF_H]

I recently got a Lenovo G530 with XP that runs dandy

(derby is your go-to guy on your memory issue...i used to be smart with 'puters  )

[Speeddog]

If I shut down FireFox, physical memory use drops by about 130 MB.

I just don't remember this lappy running that high before.....

Oh, and this lappy was about $500, purchased ~3 years ago, so it's no powerhouse. 

[mitt]

one thing to go with firefox under options is to disable checking and downloading automatic updates.  Seems to speed it up.

mitt

[Speeddog]

one thing to go with firefox under options is to disable checking and downloading automatic updates.  Seems to speed it up.

mitt

OK, just did that, will see if it helps.

Thanks! 

[derby]

Task Manager says 501 MB Total, ~125 MB Cached, 4 MB free.

you're trying to run vista on 512MB of memory? that can't be right.

[il d00d]

On the subject of firefox, after being a longtime user, I have now switched to Chrome full time.  It seems to be faster and more conservative of resources, it might be worth a try for you.

What does your CPU utilization look like?  I'll also suggest spyware or a virus since  high CPU or memory utilization are symptoms - especially if performance has dramatically changed over a short period of time.
But since you are already light on memory, running additional protection without identifying a specific problem may hurt more than it may help.  Just don't go loading every spyware removal tool you can find in hopes that it will improve things, is what I am saying...

[Speeddog]

you're trying to run vista on 512MB of memory? that can't be right.

HP/Compaq Presario C500
Intel Celeron 520@1.6 GHz
502 MB RAM
32-bit

[derby]

HP/Compaq Presario C500
Intel Celeron 520@1.6 GHz
502 MB RAM
32-bit

you need a LOT more memory. 2GB if you can swing it.

i may have some laying around for that machine...

[somegirl]

I'll also suggest spyware or a virus since  high CPU or memory utilization are symptoms - especially if performance has dramatically changed over a short period of time.

That was my first thought.