What Part of a Computer determines How fast It Loads and Runs?

There are some utilities that let you manage all the startup programs and services, and also indicate whether they are needed, neutral, or dangerous. To do it manually, run "msconfig" from the command line (run under start menu). This lists everything that will run, but you will have to look up the meaning of the cryptic filenames. There are a few sites that list and document them, they can be found with google.

evil- I was just going to try that next! lol
DeanK if I can get the loan of a van, i will be at lunch, but I won't bother with the computer.

grumpy old man wrote:

grumpyrom wrote:What the heck does "and" mean?

We could tell you, but then we'd have to kill ...greeblok...

Did you change my post? I didn't know mod's could do that.

I did not change your post...

When I saw your post it said "greeblok" and when I quoted your post my quote also said "greeblok".

Not sure what happened.

NO ROSIE...DON'T RUN MSCONFIG from anything!!!

just bring the laptop to a meetup and someone will look at it for you.

BAD TROLL...VERY VERY BAD TROLL...SO EVIL!!!

whats wrong with running msconfig?

Deank wrote:whats wrong with running msconfig?

there's nothing wrong with running msconfig.

there IS something wrong with ROSIE running msconfig

Lots can go bad running msconfig if you don't know what your doing. If you prevent any Window's services from running at startup that are actually needed you will have fairly big problems that a novice user may not have the knowledge to fix.

rosencrentz wrote:If I was to buy a new laptop, what are the numbers that i should be looking for for a quicker computer?

The price tag.

Seriously. If all you are just surfing the Internet and checking e-mail you will not be able to buy a slow new computer.

Find one that is comfortable to use and has a bright and clear screen.

Definitely NOT true Sputnik. Especially if one is buying something underpowered, and from a manufacturer that loads their pc full of bloatware. I've seen plenty of new pc's running Windows 7 that run like total slugs out of the box.

To answer Rosie's question, if your looking to future proof your self a bit and have a laptop that will be current for at least 3 yrs I'd look for the following:

Stick with the new Intel CPU's families. The i5 cpu's are all dual-core at the moment in mobile editions and are sufficients for most people. The i7-720m can be had with 4 cores and are incredibly fast for multi-tasking but also a drain on battery life and not needed if all your doing is surfing/email checking. I'd look for at least 4GB of RAM, preferrebly DDR3 and Windows 7 64bit so you can access all your memory not just 3 or 3.5GB that is available in the 32 bit edition. For hardrives look for whatever size you feel you need and at least 7200rpm. The 5400rpm notebook drives are slooooooow.

I'd avoid any CPU made by AMD at the moment as their chipsets suck for laptops right now. I'd also avoid the Intel Core 2 Duo's as they are now outdated and are all being replaced by the i3,i5 and i7, UNLESS you can get a really good price on something like a Core2Duo T9400 or better. Also to avoid if you want speed is any Celeron or Pentium Dual Core based laptops. Cheap, but slow as hell.

I can say that the Dell machines I've bought lately had the least amount of bloatware pre-installed. The last HP I bought was full of it, as were the last 2 Compaq's. and the Acer netbook we own.

You should be able to find a good, fast, reliable machine in the $800-$1000 price range without much difficulty. For a performace laptop your looking at $1,200 and up.

Happy shopping :-)

grumpyrom wrote:Definitely NOT true Sputnik. Especially if one is buying something underpowered, and from a manufacturer that loads their pc full of bloatware. I've seen plenty of new pc's running Windows 7 that run like total slugs out of the box.

Given the fact that most laptops from major manufacturers (Dell, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba etc) come standard with 4 GB of RAM and dual core processors, the idea of "bloatware" slowing down a computer is pretty unreasonable.

Rosen is going to be running a browser and an email client at best.

He doesn't need to be that picky.

If he sticks in the $800-1000 price range he can be pretty confident in any purchase as long as he recognizes the brand name and likes the overall feel of the laptop.

sputnik wrote:

grumpyrom wrote:Definitely NOT true Sputnik. Especially if one is buying something underpowered, and from a manufacturer that loads their pc full of bloatware. I've seen plenty of new pc's running Windows 7 that run like total slugs out of the box.

Given the fact that most laptops from major manufacturers (Dell, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba etc) come standard with 4 GB of RAM and dual core processors, the idea of "bloatware" slowing down a computer is pretty unreasonable.

Rosen is going to be running a browser and an email client at best.

He doesn't need to be that picky.

If he sticks in the $800-1000 price range he can be pretty confident in any purchase as long as he recognizes the brand name and likes the overall feel of the laptop.

I'd tend to agree with Grumpyrom on this one.

Sure, you could just throw money at your latency problem to try and make it go away, but why? Why buy a $1000 laptop to surf the internet and do email when a $499 special will do? Typically speaking, a $499 laptop's only real disadvantage is a slower CPU (slightly, like anyone would really notice) and a little less memory (3 gigs instead of 4)
This is precisely what I have at home, and I'm a SysAdmin.

Removing all the bloatware is priority #1 when buying a laptop. That bloat is reducing the speed of the PC by loading useless programs into memory for no good reason.

How about just getting a 1Gb stick or RAM ( about $20) and new 7200RPM hard drive (maybe $100 depending on size), and a clean install?

I bought a Lenovo T500 (wanted a 15.4" screen) before xmas and it still takes about 20 seconds to shut down even though it had top specs but still runs fairly lean. So 30 seconds does not seem so bad.

...a clean Windows 7 install on a laptop works wonderfully well. Done it already on mine (was running Vista from factory) but that's usually out of the skill sets for most...umm...elderly folks?


Best bet is to buy the laptop of choice from a local retailer, and then get someone to clean all the xtra junk off it. Have that fellow over for dinner, or pay him a reasonable sum for their time cleaning it up for ya.

Imagine 20 or 30 second shut down... When I have to reboot my PC I just walk away for five minutes or so. I'll take that 30 second shutdown...

some of the things most users never touch that probably should be disabled on most PC's are the useless services that are enabled by default.

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/07/20/guide-to-useless-windows-services/

Most Techies would discourage the average user from tinkering around with services, however I think it's still much safer than encouraging users from monkeying around in the registry.

That article is a little old....however most folks are still running XP...which was released into the wild way back in the fall of 2001....I kid you not.

If your running Vista or 7, you can search specifically for articles or newsgroups that have info on safe services to disable on those platforms.

sputnik wrote:

grumpyrom wrote:Definitely NOT true Sputnik. Especially if one is buying something underpowered, and from a manufacturer that loads their pc full of bloatware. I've seen plenty of new pc's running Windows 7 that run like total slugs out of the box.

Given the fact that most laptops from major manufacturers (Dell, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba etc) come standard with 4 GB of RAM and dual core processors, the idea of "bloatware" slowing down a computer is pretty unreasonable.

Rosen is going to be running a browser and an email client at best.

He doesn't need to be that picky.

If he sticks in the $800-1000 price range he can be pretty confident in any purchase as long as he recognizes the brand name and likes the overall feel of the laptop.

I agree that even an underowered CPU will be ok for running a browser and email client, but he was asking specifically how to get faster start-up and shutdown times. There's lots, and lots of sub-$500 dual-core Pentium and Celeron machines out there that are slow as molases in January when it comes to that. They may open your browser plenty fast, but it takes 5 minutes from power up to get there.

I agree that if he sticks to that price range he shouldn't have any problems, I was just trying to give enough info to be able to get the most bang for the buck.

underowered CPU? Ruh Roh.

Scooby Doo is that you?

Uh oh...spelling Nazi

grumpyrom wrote:Uh oh...spelling Nazi

Nope, just the Typo Tyrant!

So what you all have been telling me is that the size of your mouse has nothing to do with load speeds??? Huh??

I have been looking at buying a mac, any mac users on here? I hear once you go mac you never go back!

i've got a big mac

Goth_chic wrote:I have been looking at buying a mac, any mac users on here? I hear once you go mac you never go back!

Because since you shell out 3x as much of one, you can't afford to go back! LOL

Youse guys...