Keeping it fresh an fast!

Fabio

I'm going to be receiving my Dell XPS M1330 soon with the following spec:

- 2.0ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
- 2gb RAM
- 160 GB Hard Drive
- DVD rewriter
- Wireless internet
- 128mb Nvidia Geforce graphics card
- 6 cell and 9 cell batteries
- LED Backlit screen

It'll be running on Windows Vista Home Premium and I want to make sure it stays in top spec with no slow down. Well....as little as possible!

What I mean by this is making sure it boots up quickly, doesn't load up software that is of no real use to me and ****s down quickly too.

I want to choose a music player too that'll keep all of my stuff "under one roof" and Windows Media Player seems the obvious choice. However I would prefer to use MP3 encoding to WMA encoding but I don't think that can be done in WMP...or maybe it can?

Am I better off with a different media player? I'd like to have all of my music and videos simply listed and would play from one program...

Anyway, if you can post up some tips on how to keep the new lappy in top running condition it'd be great thanks!

AlmightyCushion

There was a sticky in one of the tech forums that had tips for speeding up vista. I think it was called "7 ways to speed up vista". I can't find it, it may have been unstickied or I'm checking the wrong forum. Try doing a search for it.

WMP can encode to mp3 perfectly well. I use vlc for my videos, it has plays everything I throw at it.

Download ccleaner, it will help get rid of the crap that builds up and it's free. Use avg or avast instead of norton or mcaffee. If you move and delete files a lot then defragment regularly. Think about any program you install and if you actually need it.

Tom Dunne

Moved from the laptop forum.

More suited to here, methinks.

the_syco

Firstly, when you get it, click Start, Control Panel, switch to Classic View, click Performance and Information Tools, then click Adjust Visual Settings. Once there, click the "For Best Performance" option. It turns off Aero, and lots of other crap. Also, when you think about it, you need 512MB to run Vista, 1GB to run Vista with Aero. No Aero carp, and you'll find your notebook running stuff quicker.

Secondly, I use VLC to play my video's, as it accepts everything I throw at it, and I use WinAmp on classic view for MP3's. I'm unsure how WinAmp preforms on Vista (I use WinAmp on my home 64bit machine), but I use VLC to play my videos at work:cool: and it runs nicely.

My work notebook is 2 years old, has a Pentium M 1.86Ghz, 64MB x700, 1GB of RAM, and running Vista Home Premium, and I'm able to run Call of Duty 4 (on my breaks;)) with a decent enough frame rate, at decent settings, so your notebook, once Aero is turned off, should play stuff decently.
Also, it's running with no Anti-Virus (it doesn't get connected to the "wild"), so that may affect you.

What nVidia card do you have in it? Some are good, some are dire.

Fabio

nVidia 8400M GS....I've heard its not the best card in the world so to speak but that'll do a lot better than having onboard Intel graphics.

No one seems to recommend using WMP????

Even though I want this laptop to run as quickly as possible, I still want to keep some of the nice mod-cons of Vista too hahaa! I suppose, I'll just have to twinddle around and strike a balance with it all.

By the way, thanks to whoever shifted this to the correct forum!

Tony H

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

There was a sticky in one of the tech forums that had tips for speeding up vista. I think it was called "7 ways to speed up vista". I can't find it, it may have been unstickied or I'm checking the wrong forum.

here's the link to seven ways to speeding up vista , i had it bookmarked

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055076827

AlmightyCushion

fitzdragon wrote: »

here's the link to seven ways to speeding up vista , i had it bookmarked

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055076827

Ah, it was in tweaking & modding. I didn't check there, I only check comp & tech and windows.

strat

cant believe noone so far has suggested wiping vista and putting on a nicely tuned version of xp

Fabio

Hi all,

I recieved my XPS M1330 laptop yesterday much to my delight! However as I am not very familiar with Windows Vista I am akin to a child with a complex toy...not quite sure of how it all works but having fun all the same and knowing that more fun will be on the way once I work out how it all works (if you get what I mean!).

Anyway, unlike what I did with my old Inspiron 1000, this time around I am going to have this lappy running like clockwork before I put any of my photos, music or whatever from my old lappy onto this one.

As ya know, startup programs can be a pain for system starting-timer and resources. However I am not fully sure of what I need or what I must keep so I hope you all don't mind if I simply list out what I have in the tray...

- AVG Free Edition (need that!)
- Media Manager Services (watches the media folders for the Media Centre I think)
- Google Desktop (is this useful?)
- Dell Support

There was more there a while ago but I have worked on it a little and narrowed it down.

Would it be worth my while taking some of these off the system tray and to stop them from starting up at the same time as Windows?

Also would it be worth my while turning off Aero and some other aesthethic stuff??? My system is pretty high end so I am not sure if I would see the benefits of doing so...

Again any help would be appreciated lads!

RoyalMarine

honeslty, when i got my dell, i formatted it.

dell install a heap of crap programs on the computer. and they're absoloutly pure resource hog.

i wiped it clean. then installed vista on clean.
added the hardware support etc without adding the dell shíte.

laptop was great when i got it, but now its un-believable.
dont forget to check for updates for drivers etc as dell might not have sent the latest vista drivers for the laptop hardware.

google desktop is shíte in my opinion. waste of time.
media manager services is just dvd/cd software.
i got rid of it and installed something i prefer. i use nero 7 without all the shíte addon's that come with it.

and i turned off areo as its a waste of resources. ive got 4gb of ram, but still i notice the difference with it turned off.

hope it helps

Overheal

Fabio wrote: »

nVidia 8400M GS....I've heard its not the best card in the world so to speak but that'll do a lot better than having onboard Intel graphics.

No one seems to recommend using WMP????

Even though I want this laptop to run as quickly as possible, I still want to keep some of the nice mod-cons of Vista too hahaa! I suppose, I'll just have to twinddle around and strike a balance with it all.

By the way, thanks to whoever shifted this to the correct forum!

out of interest how much did you pay for that? I got an almost identical machine from HP for US$1500 but it had a larger 200gb drive a single 12-cell battery, a microphone webcam and fingerprint reader.

I recommend WMP but still, its a piss poor 'upgrade' from WMP 10 for XP. I miss it dearly.

I would re-format it but I was Not given a pure Vista install disk - just a recovery partition which I've backed up onto DVD. I have Vista business on disk somewhere but thats not exactly the Home Premium I prefer.

Also for OP and anyone getting new hardware: keep in mind in a lot of cases (especially laptops) its getting to the stage where new hardware is NOT SUPPORTED under windows XP. I have this problem with my 8400M GS, primarily.
I contacted HP to get a doublecheck on XP driver compatability and they gave me fair warning about this. Sadly if I need to use XP for software issues, I have to run it inside of VirtualPC.

Fabio

Thanks for the tips lads. I don't think I'll get around to formatting it as I don't have a Vista disc as such but I'll cut down on the some of the programs and aesthetic settings alright.