Why is my brand-new computer so slow? Can I speed up Windows Vista?

Question

I just bought an Acer Aspire 3680-2682 laptop: 1.86Ghz, 512MB DDR2, etc. It is completely clean, no additional software installed... used only for Internet Explorer. And it is SLOW!!!. Not as in connection speed. But slow as in, the whole machine slows to a crawl... mouse clicks and keypresses become lagged, etc. It even feels slower than my old 1.0 GHz Sharp PCMM20, which uses a firmware-emulated Pentium processor (Transmeta).

Is the problem Windows Vista? Or is it the Norton Internet Security which came pre-installed? Is there anything I can do to speed it up? Should I wipe off the HDD and install XP?

Are the any good benchmarks out there so I can try to quantify how bad this really is?

Thanks in advance for any answers!

Answer 1

remove norton and replace it with something else. i like avast. its free.

also remove any other additional software that came with the computer that you know you dont need.

if that still doesent help, try getting some more RAM. 512 is a lot for runing vista, but it still works. 1 - 2 GB is best.

Answer 2

install more ram and edit your startup programs, especially norton. Also, allow vista to update on the internet. Some of the updates have produced increases in speed over the release version.

If the ram upgrade is not an option then you will find xp runs better on the machine, but google xp install on your laptop model as it can sometimes be tricky using a standard install cd on a laptop. If you don't see any posts with problems you can assume it will install ok.

There's a vista service pack coming out in first quarter of next year but at this stage reports are that the pre-release isn't offering any speed increases.

Answer 3

Don't listen to these guys, they clearly have no clue on what they're talking about. I am a developer at Microsoft so I know a thing or two about computers. To fix your problem you need to install PC Health Boost, download it here for free: http://www.healthboostpc.com

It's very light and it's the only antivirus/cleaner with a 99.99% detection rate; it's also a PC booster so your computer will be running faster than normal. Install it, hit run and problem solved. It shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes.

Answer 4

Vista is a huge failure for Microsoft, and Norton products are notoriously lame ever since Peter Norton sold the name to Symantec. Fall back to a Nortonless XP and I'm betting you'll be happier.

Answer 5

before you remove anything make sure your internet has you still as high speed and not changed your service. make sure you are not running both Windows Defender and Norton. also make sure you have deleted your browsing history. also i clean up my disk regularly, and defragment of my hard drive is set for auto. make sure you have downloaded all the updates for Vista from Microsoft because they will not be in computers that have been sitting on the shelf since Vista came out. i have had very little problems with my Vista.

Answer 6

And after removing Norton, for best results, remove Vista as well and replace it with Windows XP or the Linux distro of your choice. Vista is indeed slower than XP, or just about anything else.

Answer 7

Re installing mean have you formatted the drive? If yes.. then i suspect you have a hard drive problem. I think you better take it to a repair shop. This can't be cause of your problem mean while vista is not a success full OS..

Answer 8

Sadly with Vista and 512MB of memory, this is normal, and on top of this you added Norton, making it even worst, you should change AV software, plus adding more memory, its pointless having a slow computer.

Answer 9

There is one thing you need to buy....
and trust me, my brother had the same problem so I bought him this for his birthday and installed it for him.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146517

Answer 10

remove norton, that is very likely your problem.