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32244

February 6th, 2007 18:00

New Inspiron 1501 + vista = Very Very Slow machine

Hi

Do you thinks its right to buy a new machine that takes longer to boot up/down then ANY machine I have evey bought (a numnber over the last number of years)

Mobile AMD Sempron technology 3500+
English Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic
Wide Screen 14.1" WXGA (1280x800) LCD Panel TFT Display
512MB 533MHz Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM (1x512)
60GB (5,400rpm) Hard Drive
8x DVD/ 24 x CD-RW Combo Drive including Software
ATI Radeon® Xpress 1150 256MB HyperMemory

This was bought, and my old gateway P11 machine with 256 MB memory (shared graphices)running XP is at least 2-3 times faster...

Will get onto Dell tomorrow (tried today, Laptop came yesterday, but could not get through)...

Is anyone else having this issue with this laptop...thanks

ejn63

9 Legend

 • 

87.5K Posts

February 6th, 2007 19:00

You don't have anywhere near enough RAM to run Vista well - upgrade it to 2G and it'll make a big difference. Just as the first XP machines that shipped with 128M of RAM didn't make people happy, the 512Ms shipping now with Vista won't either.

bmx888

5 Posts

February 6th, 2007 20:00

I got the same machine, but higher speed of CPU. PROCESSOR, TMDTL56, 1800, 1M, 2C
But only with 512MB memory... Vista Basic installed.
It is the worse machine I have ever use..
even slower than my P3 Latitiude with 256MB machine with XP installed.
I never expect that slow...Switching tabs in IE takes 2 minutes!!!
I wonder if anyone else has simplar problem.
memory work with my laptop?
Thanks
 

pcgeek11

1.9K Posts

February 8th, 2007 08:00

I have the Inspiron 1501 with the 64 bit single core processor 2 Ghz, 2 gig of RAM, ATI 1150 integrated video. I'm running Vista Home Premium X86 with Aero Effects and it is quite snappy and responsive. No problems at all.
 
I also have an Inspiron 5100 P4, 2.66 Ghz machine with the ATI M7500 32 MB ram, and 768 system ram running Vista Home Basic and it is just as snappy as XP ever was.
 
Have you fellows installed all the required drivers etc... ?
 
pcgeek11

commodon

1 Rookie

 • 

87 Posts

February 8th, 2007 16:00

Your system does not have enough free physical memory to run Vista with all of its enhancements. Especially those that are related to the display features.
 
In case you're not aware the video card you're using is designed to allocate 128MB of physical memory from your system with its onboard 128MB of video memory to reach the 256MB that it's capable of offering.
 
In essence the 512MB of physical memory has been effectively reduced to 384MB and that is what is available to the operating system.  Certainly not enough and as a result the o/s will begin swapping hard drive space to make up the difference it wants/needs.
 
Of course the hard drive in the system is a 5,400RPM drive which can definitely hinder the process of accessing files, etc.
 
In summary you should either upgrade the amount of physical memory to at least 1GB or revert to running Windows XP Home.


Message Edited by Commodon on 02-08-2007 01:56 PM

oregongirl23

5 Posts

February 25th, 2007 17:00

I'm having the same problem. I'm frustrated because I don't know anything about computers, "built my own" on the Dell website not really knowing what I was doing, and now I have found out I don't have enough memory in it (wish Dell would have notified me before they built & shipped) ... so now I have to figure out how to install more...
 
I have 512, and I guess everyone is telling me I need 1 gig to run Vista Home Basic. Now will 1 gig be "snappy" or do I really need 2 gig? I don't want to go through this a 2nd time.
 
Also, can anyone tell me, do I order another 512 or do I have to replace with a 1 gig? Someone told me to make sure I have enough slots. I don't know anything about any of this. I don't even know how to open the coputer. I have an Inspiron notebook. And like the other person, have not been able to get through to Dell.
 
Thanks everyone.
 
 

pcgeek11

1.9K Posts

February 26th, 2007 01:00

Your Inspiron "probably has two memory slots on the bottom under the large cover. See the link below and to the left for the manuals for your specific model. It is probably populated with two each 256 MB Modules for a total of 512. I would go here:
 
 
Order two each 1 GB modules for your specific Inspiron. Crutial memory is certified to work as some notebooks can be picky and they are usually cheaper than Dell. I think you will be pleased.
 
pcgeek11

oregongirl23

5 Posts

February 26th, 2007 20:00

wow, thanks pcgeek!! That was really helpful. What a great website! I did a "scan" there & found out everything I need to know about what memory I already have and what memory I need without attempting to open the laptop! :)))) a billion thanks! Hey - if anyone else out there is as clueless as myself and needs to know how many slots they have and what memory is already plugged into what slot then definitely check out that link! and he's right - good prices

dellriff

2 Posts

April 4th, 2007 14:00

After hours of diagnostics and customer service reps, Dell admitted it sold me a system that could not handle Windows Vista without more memory and gave me $50 Rebate so I could purchase a memory upgrade. A partial victory, but I want the last few hours of my life back.

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