Bought new computer, now have a few questions

[cgseanp1]

I recently bought a new HP laptop (about 2 months ago). It seems to be "slower" that I'd imagine it should be. It turns on quickly, but certain programs just lag when opening them. For example, when i go to open IE to get on the internet, it will usually take a good 15-20 seconds for the IE page to open and the website to load. Also, when I click on the tab to open another IE browser page, it will take a long time to open. There are a few other things that take a while to open, like if I try to open a picture using the HP photo viewer thing, it will take quite a while for it to open. My main complaint is the IE, though. My internet isn't slow, once the page is open the webpages load really quick. Does anyone else have this type of issue? Here are my computer specs:


HP DM3-1039 Ultra Thin Laptop

Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit edition

AMD Athlon Neo X2 dual-core processor Designed specifically for ultra-thin laptop PCs with 1.6GHz speed and 512MB L2 cache

4GB of DDR2 system memory

320GB SATA hard drive

Now, I don't know a ton about computers, but these specs seem pretty decent to me? I know for a fact I've had older computers that didn't seem this laggy. My last computer had Vista with only 1gb of Ram and that thing seemed just as quick, if not quicker.

Does something seem wrong, or is this common with my type of computer? It's not unbearable long, but it just seems a lot longer than it should be.

[bigmike82]

Honestly, I never use the stock OS on any machine I buy. I always install the OS from scratch (using a windows retail disk...not the crapware that the manufacturer bundles with it). This way, you only install what you need and not any of the crappy stuff the manufacturers always seem to put on the machines.

The specs on the machine are fine...there's nothing there that should be causing your issues. I would completely wipe the machine and install the OS from scratch.

[paul0660]

New comps have bundled antivirus, many of which are invasive and slow. That would be my guess. Try turning yours off, while not connected to the internet, and try loading photos.

[cgseanp1]

That could be a problem. It came with Norton, and I have installed a few others that I got from the internet(pctools and Malwarebytes). I'll try to get rid of Norton since the free trial is about up anyways.

[paul0660]

The two you mention are good. Norton and MacAfee are famous for being slow. Read this too: http://www.pchell.com/virus/uninstallnorton.shtml

[Bug Splat]

Oh man get rid of Norton ASAP. That stupid program takes up so much CPU power and cause more damage then it prevents. Remove it along with all the other junk that came installed on you machine like the typical HP help/update center. Worthless.

Just install something like AVG and Adaware, both are free from www.download.com . Does not take up a lot of memory and does not slow the computer down.

[JDay]

Its your processor, that's a low end CPU that was intended for embedded systems. Kinda like the Intel Atom. If you want speed you need to get something with at least a Core 2 Duo.

[paul0660]

That CPU will still open a browser and load a pic in 2 eyeblinks if it isn't bothered running other bloatware.

[JDay]

That CPU will still open a browser and load a pic in 2 eyeblinks if it isn't bothered running other bloatware.

Its not running slow because of bloatware though. The reason its running slow is that he has a 1.6ghz ultra low power CPU. That CPU is made to be used in embedded systems and netbooks where battery life is more important that speed. That's why his notebook is rated at 6 hours battery life. Its only got 512kb of L2 cache even, that comes out to 256kb per core. That's low even by single core CPU standards from 5 years ago. This is how they keep the CPU running at around 35 watts TDP.

[Blackhawk556]

yeah that is true. it is ULV.

one other problem is that you are using IE8, why??
for systems that are not powerful, I always install chrome or firefox. both of those use less resources than IE8. If you don't believe me just look it up on the web. "bing it"

also type "msconfig" on the search bar in start and head over to the "startup" tab and un-check all the programs you don't want to start up during bootup. don't uncheck all of them, just the ones you know you don't want starting up.

[cgseanp1]

well that sucks that I have a low end CPU. Is there anyway to speed it up? Probably not, huh? I got rid of Norton.
BTW, thanks for the Google Chrome tip. That opens much faster that IE. Will more RAM help out at all? Or do I have plenty for my computer?

[JDay]

well that sucks that I have a low end CPU. Is there anyway to speed it up? Probably not, huh? I got rid of Norton.
BTW, thanks for the Google Chrome tip. That opens much faster that IE. Will more RAM help out at all? Or do I have plenty for my computer?

4gb of ram should be plenty for you. You can speed it up if you replace the hard drive with a 7200 rpm or a SSD. That laptop came with a 5400 rpm drive in it unless you ordered it from HP and had them upgrade it to a 7200 rpm. They're real easy to replace, should be 1-2 screws on the bottom to pop out the drive cage and 4 screws to swap the drive. This is a really good drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136280