Inspiron 5160 Performance Issues

Question

I had posted earlier in the Video section thinking it was a simple question of a video driver or something easy, but I've come to believe that my jerky video and slow animations are a result of poor performance.   My Start menu jerks around occasionally and dragging windows around is difficult because of the choppy animations. Sometimes it's alright, but that only seems to be when everything is closed. I was under the impression that an Inspiron 5160 was a pretty decent computer, and its processor with 512 mb of RAM was enough to handle having AIM open while surfing the web. I believe this slow performance was what was causing my video problems.   I opened Windows Task Manager while I was running certain programs... with minimal programs open, and a music video playing on WMP10, the CPU usage reached 100 percent. Is this normal? Surprisingly enough, sometimes AIM reaches high numbers too, 50+ under the Processes tab. I admit I actually know very little about complicated system issues, so I was wondering if anyone had any insight...   I recently reformatted my hard disk and did a clean install of Windows XP Home Edition (standard with the 5160) and still had issues. I'm wondering if there was some sort of driver I forgot to install, or setting I had to tweak, or software package I need to get.   Pleaaase help?

Bay Wolf · Answer

Did you install the Intel Mobile Chipset drivers? If not, you can get them HERE.
Did you install Dell's Notebook System Software? If not, you can get it HERE.

As a matter of fact, HERE is the link to all of the drivers that you may need.

pandapaul86 · Answer

Yes, I've installed the Intel and the Dell software. I've also installed the XGI Volari xp5 driver and downloaded all the windows updates. I don't know what the problem is...

KeithDT · Answer

Hi,

We have the same problem with the 2 5160s we bought a few months ago.

The performance on both of them is absolutely appalling, so bad we can't believe they are pentium 4s.

For example we have a piece of code which is file system and processor intensive and it runs 5 times faster on an old 8250 desktop machine which is 2.4 Mhz machine versus the 3.06Mhz 5160s.

We have tried rebuilding both the machines from scratch etc, etc and their performance is unchanged, even basic stuff like opening the start menu takes ages compared to most other machines we have.

Wierd and very disappointing. Anyone got any suggestions ?

pandapaul86 · Answer

I'm glad someone else someone else has my problem! (Well, not happy, but you know, glad I'm not alone...) I'm going to try adding a gig of RAM to this and see if it solves any issues... It may take a week or two, but I'll let you know...   And if anyone else has any ideas in the meantime, please don't hesitate to let us know...

pandapaul86 · Answer

I may be crazy.

Can the performance of my computer be affected by how hot it is? It's cooled down in my area the last day or so, and my computer feels not as hot to the touch as it did before. Could that be it? Because it seems to be running significantly smoother right now. I am getting a gig of RAM in tomorrow, and will see if that helps too.

Does the temperature affect the performance?

pandapaul86 · Answer

I added that gig of ram, and it seems to run much smoother. Much much smoother. I guess that's all it needed.

parkerti · Answer

Glad the RAM helped. Don't forget the heat though. It can be a real issue on Pentium IV laptops - the desktop processor in a notebook computer causes a LOT of heat. Do a search on heat and 5160 in this forum and see what you come up with. Make sure the vents are clean and not clogged with dust, also download and use a program called fangui to monitor your temps. You can find it easily enough if you search on this forum. It will control fans and all of that if you choose to, but all I use it for is to monitor my temps. Message Edited by parkerti on 07-06-2005 08:16 PM

Locked Topics – Laptops General

Inspiron 5160 Performance Issues

Was this post helpful?