Computer

[tanyaf]

I have recently purchased a ASPIRE 5315 (vista) home basic model and am finding it very slow is this normal and if so is there anything I can do to speed it up such as purchasing a vista upgrade ? I am not very good with technology so would appreciate some guidence .

[Ethel]

How is it slow?

There is a huge difference between a slow computer, and slow internet connection.

[R1Geezer]

It's probably all the crap that is running from the startup file. When you buy a new machine it's loaded with trial versions of gawd knows what. Go into the startup section and disable all the things you don't need. That should speed it up.

[vehelpfulguy]

Well to be honest Vista requires a more powerful machine than the previous version of Windows did (called Windows XP).

Some companies are selling computers that are just not powerful enough to run Windows Vista.

Assuming it is your LAPTOP that is slow (rather than, as Ethel says, your internet connection) then this can be caused by 2 main things.

1) Your CPU (processor). Some CPUs are faster than others and if yours was a cheap PC it may have a slow processor.

If it is a slow CPU then I am afraid you are stuck with it as it is difficult to add a faster CPU to a laptop.

2) Your memory (RAM). If it is a new PC it should have about 1Gb (Gigabyte) or more of memory. It is fairly easy to add more memory to seepd up a PC.

If you can let us know what CPU you have and how much memory will can let you know if it is powerful enough.

The CPU will be called something like Intel Dual Core 1.6Ghz or maybe AMD Dual Core 1.8Ghz (something like that).

The memory will be maybe 512Mb, or 1Gb or 2Gb.

Let us know.

[beso]

Slowness from lack of memory is usually accompanied by a lot of disk activity as some of the RAM data is put into the swap file on the disk to make room in the RAM for other tasks.

R1Geezer is probably on the mark but some of the main problems are not always so easy to stop. A lot of stuff starts from places other than the startup folder.

Take a look in the list of programs. If you see the word "Norton", odds are it will be the primary culprit. Norton provides free trials to many computer manufacturers in exchange for a kickback when the user pays for a licence.

Frankly without this Norton would not be as major player as they are because their software is pretty bad. Unfortunately it is also difficult to completely remove from a PC.