What can I do to make this thing run faster

Message

TimThurber · #1 Post by **TimThurber** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:29 pm

Seriously, I am really disappointed with this computer. Windows Vista home premium runs like a pig on this thing.

Core2duo 2.0, 2gb ram... takes forever to boot, forever to shut down, forever to do just about anything. I shut all the fancy graphics off, I used msconfig to kill virtually all my startup programs, I run adaware and symantec AV and there are no viruses/bugs/whatever clogging this thing up. There are no memory-hog processes either. I've got it running quite efficiently. And it's horrible. I am almost ready to put XP on the computer - but before I do, is there something I'm missing here? If I remove the lenovo software will it run faster? This is the slowest brand new computer I have ever had.

#2 Post by **ryengineer** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:40 pm

Uninstall Symantec's Norton AntiVirus, Client Security Solution and Access Connections. I use of two of these softwares and have nothing against them, but your machine will run quite faster without them.

TimThurber · #3 Post by **TimThurber** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:50 pm

What AV software would be a suitable replacement (ie: quick)

#4 Post by **ryengineer** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:54 pm

TimThurber wrote:What AV software would be a suitable replacement (ie: quick)

I suggest Eset's NOD32, go to their website and download a free 30 day trial to test it before buying.

Eset

Pocket Aces · #5 Post by **Pocket Aces** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:55 pm

AVG Free

#6 Post by **RonS** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:03 pm

See this thread:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=48801

berlin · #7 Post by **berlin** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 10:15 pm

ryengineer wrote:
TimThurber wrote:What AV software would be a suitable replacement (ie: quick)
I suggest Eset's NOD32, go to their website and download a free 30 day trial to test it before buying.

Eset

NOD32 and Norton are the best AV softwares around. ENOD however has a much small footprint and highly configurable.

So I just installed Enod and got rid of Avast and AVG for good!

Ken Fox · #8 Post by **Ken Fox** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 11:50 pm

AVG Free is a very good program that is worth way more than it costs

Antivirus software for the mentally competent is hugely overrated. If you have a good basic program like AVG Free, and practice reasonably safe computing (such as not clicking on links you are not familiar with, nor opening email attachments from senders not known to you, or any attachments you don't trust wherever from) you are very unlikely to have your computer get infected.

There is a huge industry out there selling antivirus and firewall and related products that tries to instill fear and a feeling of helplessness among the computing public. Without this they cannot sell their often useless products. Don't be a sheep. Use a little common sense in your computing and you will not need most of this stuff, and the world is not going to end anytime soon, either.

bri · #9 Post by **bri** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 9:20 am

So you'd recommend a slim antivirus and just use Windows Firewall instead of a separate one?

cpascu01 · #10 Post by **cpascu01** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 11:03 am

I just recommended this site to someone yesterday.

http://lifehacker.com/375176/speed-up-h ... e-in-vista

Ed H · #11 Post by **Ed H** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 1:29 pm

I have a T61 2.2 Ghz with 3GB ram and Vista Home Premium. It runs very quick with no issues. I have tried several anti-viruses and settled on Avira Premium along with Comodo's free firewall/HIPS. No noticeable impact to performance at all and Avira is rated very highly. I also tried NOD32 v3 but found it was not as light on my system as Avira. Both are good...see which works best on your PC.

One other thing you may consider is to reload Vista and don't install the unnecessary trial software that comes with it.

frankiepankie · #12 Post by **frankiepankie** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 5:13 am

I have a T40 with Vista Ultimate, runs very smoothly after i have applied some tweaks.

First i set the performance tab on "System" to "Adjust Windows for best performance" and then ticked some boxes to meet my requirements.

Ken Fox · #13 Post by **Ken Fox** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 9:36 am

bri wrote:So you'd recommend a slim antivirus and just use Windows Firewall instead of a separate one?

Yes.

Some time ago I had a very bad experience with Zone Alarm which required me to format the disks in a couple of systems and start all over reinstalling everything. Ever since that experience I have used only the built in Windows XP or Vista firewalls and never had any firewall related problems from not having another FW on there.

As to Antivirus software, basic commonsense computing, assuming one has the capacity to do so, combined with a basic but good AV program like AVG Free, will work just fine. One should make a point of imaging one's systems regularly, so that in the unlikely event that something bad does happen, you can restore the system. I travel with an X60, and I do make a point of bringing a spare cloned hard drive in a USB2 enclosure along with me, just in case. I also do an R&R backup on the main disk shortly before my departure, for additional protection.

bri · #14 Post by **bri** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 4:50 pm

Cool, I typically use Symantec Firewall but I'll get rid of it, so bloated. A concern I have with doing frequent backups is that "old" files (ones since deleted on the system, sitting in recycle bin or temp. internet files) may not be deleted from backups, so that even if backups are taken incrementally it will just keep adding more and more files and my backup drive will get full pretty fast ... I guess recycle bin and temp. internet files can be "excluded" as folders but I don't think there's any way around the first category.

Ken Fox · #15 Post by **Ken Fox** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 10:19 pm

bri wrote:Cool, I typically use Symantec Firewall but I'll get rid of it, so bloated. A concern I have with doing frequent backups is that "old" files (ones since deleted on the system, sitting in recycle bin or temp. internet files) may not be deleted from backups, so that even if backups are taken incrementally it will just keep adding more and more files and my backup drive will get full pretty fast ... I guess recycle bin and temp. internet files can be "excluded" as folders but I don't think there's any way around the first category.

Get yourself a decent registry/system cleaner such as ccleaner.exe (free download, google for it) and run this before you do your backups. Your recycle bin will be emptied, and unless you tell the program not to do so, your internet cache and other temporary storage will also be deleted. There are check boxes indicating what you want ccleaner to do, so if there are things you don't want to lose (such as your browsing history) uncheck those boxes. While you are at it, defrag your hard disk.

I delete any R&R backups that may be on the disk before I do a cleanup and defrag. This will also reduce the size of any image files/backup files you make.

You can always do another R&R whole disk base backup just afterwards, in case you need it. Having an R&R backup on your image backup just increases the disk space used and adds nothing.

What can I do to make this thing run faster

What can I do to make this thing run faster

Who is online