Thinkpads Forum

Hello all!

I'm not the most tech savvy person so please bear with me

I got my T61p with the following specs
Core Duo T7300 2.0Ghz
2GB Ram
Quadro FX 570
80g 5400rpm HD

I don't know why, but it feels very slow and sluggish. And this is when I'm running the most basic of apps like Firefox

I removed Vista and installed XP Pro 32 bit and thought that would fix the problem, nope. I checked the BIOS display settings and saw I think 8 of them. Currently I have it set on DVI+VGA. Is there a best one to use? I'll mainly be using this laptop for Adobe CS3 and light gaming like World of Warcraft.

What should I upgrade/do to speed things up? I was thinking of buying these 4 gigs of ram http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820144066
Since I believe the unit only has 2 ram slots.

Should I look into a faster RPM HD as well? Maybe overclock the processor? Really at a loss of what to try next.

Any suggestions are highly appreciated! Thank you!

if you're using XP then don't bother installing more than 3GB unless the two 2GB modules are affordable.   please see this thread for more info on memory usage on the T61p.

your 5400RPM hard drive is a primary bottleneck in terms of speed.   upgrade to a 7200RPM drive (the hitachi 7K200 line is my preference) and your system will show a marked improvement in speed.

i'm running vista 64 and 32 on two thinkpads (one with 4GB and the other with 2GB respectively) and it's fast as heck on both of them, so i know it's not the OS or amount of memory installed.   you need a faster drive and a clean installation of windows.

Thank you Erik!

Right-click on "My Computer" and select "Properties". Open the "Advanced" menu, then "Settings", then "Visual Effects", choose "Adjust for best performance", and click "Apply". This usually speeds things up a little bit.

i'm curious about the numbers...

things like number of seconds to boot,

to open apps?

things like that.

I'm not sure what could be causing this. Do a custom restore and remove all clutter. You can leave on the visual effects because you have a 570m.

Finally, I find that a T23 (1.13ghz PIII and 576mb of ram) is substantial enough to run Windows XP with blazing speed. I can boot in less than 25 seconds and shut down in 7. I'm running many programs like Office, Photoshop, and Warcraft without issue.

You problem isn't hardware related most likely, but it could be. I would give Lenovo a call and have them troubleshoot for you. I just spoke to a sales rep and he was extremely helpful in configuring an X61 and getting an addition 10% discount (even though he laughed when I told him my name ). The employees seem to be competent.

What do you mean slow? Do you have the video driver installed?