Gobias Industries Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 Ok, my laptop is developing some problems so I'm getting concerned...I run Vista Home Basic, if it makes any difference. First it occured that my Disk Defragmenter wouldn't load. I will go through the whole administrative approval tidbit (being the technical administrator of the computer), but the window simply doesn't pop up. Now it's been getting worse. My RAM is being used like a mofo (70+% RAM usage at least), and my computer has frozen on multiple occasions, even with non-crash-prone programs such as the Opera web browser. I did let the computer run the anti-spyware and antivirus overnight, and so it's been on for over 24 hours. Is that the problem? Or is something failing in my Vista machine? I hope its not the latter...or maybe I do, so I can buy a Mac instead I suppose my biggest concern is the Disk Defragmenter program not running. That's mostly what I want to troubleshoot first, because probably the RAM usage will drop if I can actually defrag my hard drives. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hardwood floor Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 ya know, i have vista and while i actually don't mind it, it does seem to take up huge amounts of RAM apparently, there are a dozens of needless functions that are built into vista that use up vast amounts of resources. i'm a total tech moron and have been reading up on this stuff trying to figure it out supposedly, there are ways to deactivate or shut down these operations but i haven't figured out how yet. and i ain't messing with my registry so that really helped, didn't it? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Katie3 Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 vista alone takes 512mb of RAM yikes sorry, I forgot some stuff there. I believe if you click on the pearl and search msconfig you can stop some programs from booting up automatically and control many other things too. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Good Old Neon Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 Even a severely fragmented disk would not soak up so much ram. However, a virus of some sort could be messing with ram usage. Is this an upgrade from XP? How much ram do you have installed? Did you at any point install a 3rd party disk defrag program? Also, Vista Home Basic is, well, I'm afraid it is terrible, severely limited and just no fun. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bjorn_skurj Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 Next computer, I'm going Ubuntu. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gobias Industries Posted April 22, 2008 Author Share Posted April 22, 2008 Even a severely fragmented disk would not soak up so much ram. However, a virus of some sort could be messing with ram usage. I ran the Antivirus yesterday and there were no viruses. Is this an upgrade from XP? How much ram do you have installed? Did you at any point install a 3rd party disk defrag program? No, the laptop came with Vista installed. It comes with 894MB RAM. I have not installed a 3rd party disk defrag program. Also, Vista Home Basic is, well, I'm afraid it is terrible, severely limited and just no fun. I have just come to this realization too. I'm trying to import Joan Baez's vol.2 and it's taking absolutely forever =\ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Good Old Neon Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 I ran the Antivirus yesterday and there were no viruses. No, the laptop came with Vista installed. It comes with 894MB RAM. I have not installed a 3rd party disk defrag program. I have just come to this realization too. Yikes - Vista pretty much demands 2 gigs to run smoothly I Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Analogman Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 Dell Support Forum I am having a problem right now that so far seems to be beyond help - but there seems to be a lot of good help offered at the that forum. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gobias Industries Posted April 22, 2008 Author Share Posted April 22, 2008 Yikes - Vista pretty much demands 2 gigs to run smoothly I’m afraid. I think Microsoft has some sort of free downgrade to XP program - you may want to check it out - well, at least if you cannot afford the additional RAM and upgrade to Vista Home Premium that is…. Good luck. I suppose the thing that is strangest about this is that until virtually less than 8 hours ago, Vista ran fairly smoothly for me...and after some research apparently only Business and Ultimate Vista owners can freely downgrade. I'm contemplating just adding a large portion of RAM to my computer. I suppose I should take the Aman cue and take my woes to my fellow woebearers. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tweedling Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 I'm trying to import Joan Baez's vol.2I think I've found your problem. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gobias Industries Posted April 22, 2008 Author Share Posted April 22, 2008 I think I've found your problem. Strangely enough I imported Music From Big Pink this morning without any problems. Now that I've given up on importing Joan Baez my computer has taken on more normal-like function. I just checked the Baez tracks that imported and apparently each one of them was 789:57 minutes long... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DAngerer09 Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 I suggest you invest in a mac. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TCP Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 I suggest you invest in a mac.I second this. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Katie3 Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 I hate macs. But Vista is no good. The next Microsoft OS will be better? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
quarter23cd Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 My iPod is lately having all sorts of problems getting corrupted every time I plug the USB into my computer. At first I thought the hard drive was going, but now I suspect a lethal combination of an aging (3 yrs) iPod, recently updated iTunes software, and f'ing Vista. The perfect storm. At the moment I am none too happy with either Microsoft or Apple. Visita is a box full of crap, but my current problems started as soon as I updated iTunes. I dunno. Vista came pre-installed on my new laptop--I figured why not give it a go? I'm a glutton for punishment that way. And I figured it can't be THAT bad, right? Frankly, I haven't done any in-depth exploring of its capabilities, but I do know that my current setup runs barely faster than my old 6 yr old laptop running Win2000 Professional with multiple servers running. With my dual-core and 2+GB of RAM, I expected this baby to fly. I have no idea what this thing is doing in the background to be such a resource hog--solving world hunger, I hope--but I remain unimpressed. In day to day use, if the OS is doing its job, you should barely notice it. And that is largely true of Vista that it is not a tremendous departure from the feel of XP--until shit starts crashing. I wonder if that "Dude, you're getting a Dell" guy is looking for work. I fully expect him to pop up on my computer several times a day to say "Sorry, bro, you're running Vista!" when things don't work. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
G_willy Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 The development version of SP1 for vista has been released... I would recommend that and make sure that you ALWAYS have your updates running. Vista will tailor off to be an decent operating system... it is just going to take years to fix all of the bugs, microsoft isnt going anywhere. Also why are you running disk defrag??? Since the size of hard drives have increased soo much it is kind of a useless tool and wont do anything for your performance issues. one last thing, if you get the latest version of spybot... get all of the updates for it, then under one of the pull down menus on the top you can switch to advanced user. From there there is a system startup applet that will show every startup entry and give you detailed information about whether or not it is necessary to run... vista should have about 30-40 processes running when you hit ctl-alt-del. ...otherwise ya, either revert to XP, GO OPEN SOURCE!, or buy a mac. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Duck-Billed Catechist Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 It's a shame that they'll eventually stop supporting XP. XP SP2 is the best Windows OS...ever? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jenbobblehead Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 I have had few problems with Vista on my now 6 months old laptop. I have Vista Home Premium. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
G_willy Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 It's a shame that they'll eventually stop supporting XP. XP SP2 is the best Windows OS...ever? agreed, its kinda one of those things where you don't miss it until its gone. I work tech support in the dorms at my university and we have chalked up about 10 "its a known vista issue" problem in which there is literally nothing we can do to get these poor kids internet but to tell them to switch back to XP since those work with our servers or go open source. vista has seriously resulted in me pulling my hair out of my head on numerous occasions... I wouldn't recommend anyone anything but a mac these days, windows is in way over their head. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Papillon Parade Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 I suggest you invest in a mac. I third this. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sweet Papa Crimbo Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 Next computer, I'm going Ubuntu. Nest computer...I'm going Mac Next computer, I'm going Ubuntu. Nest computer...I'm going Mac Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Griddles Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 My computer is running XP, but I hate it. I want open source any recommendations? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bjorn_skurj Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 My computer is running XP, but I hate it. I want open source any recommendations?Ubuntu. I have been futzing with Open Office stuff and have been impressed. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Griddles Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 Is the word processing compatible with Microsoft Word? I do not have my own printer and must email papers to machines with only Word on them, this has been the reason for not switching. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sweet Papa Crimbo Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 It's a shame that they'll eventually stop supporting XP. XP SP2 is the best Windows OS...ever? That's kinda like saying the bubonic plague is the best pandemic ever. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.