acer aspire 5560 new and slow

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So as a last resort I ended up with one of these amd a6 acers it seemed to be good value and had 6gb ddr3 compared to thers only offering four gb, problem is its offensively slow at most tasks even after it was stripped of useless programs and services set at optimal levels, its only really used for photo/sound editing and struggles to keep up.
Could it be because it has windows 7 64bit pro running, personally i cant wait to have a tinker around, my old samsung r519 now given to wife is underspec on paper but runs way smoother.

Any suggestions on improving would be helpful

thanks
 
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still a bit of a let down

Thanks for the suggestions guys, been messing with it for a while and its still not what you expect from the spec sheet, I did read somewhere that it being a 4gb and 2gb ddr3 setup might be holding it back?? i was thinking about just putting in two matched 4gb sticks or just max out the ram
 
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Thanks for the suggestions guys, been messing with it for a while and its still not what you expect from the spec sheet, I did read somewhere that it being a 4gb and 2gb ddr3 setup might be holding it back?? i was thinking about just putting in two matched 4gb sticks or just max out the ram

TBH, I don't think that will make enough of a difference to warrant the cost (if it even makes a noticeable difference at all).

The only other thing that will make a difference is an SSD but if you haven't formatted and installed a fresh copy of Windows, definitely do that first.
 
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thanks for replies guys, ive now tried maxing the ram, clean install of windows 7 and tried the upgrade copy of 8 then tried a new hard drive still slower than ever, even tried Linux ultimate now usually that runs well on most pc's but not for this one, im all outta ideas and ready to sing old shep and shoot the laptop lol
 
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What are the exact specs of the laptop? (Win Key + Pause/Break will bring up the basic system information).

The AMD APU's arn't really powerhouses but TBH my Baytrail Tablet* makes light work of Windows 8.1 so your laptop shouldn't have any real issues.
 
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AMD A6-3420m apu 1.50ghz
8gb ram 7.47 usable
windows 7 64bit home premium all latest updates no unneeded software at all as its not online just used for Cubase

thanks
 
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Hmm the CPU isn't that strong (Llano APU clocking in at up to 2.4Ghz on a single core with turbo) but it should be fine for general Windows use.

I am not familiar with Cubase at all but I wonder if it doesn't like the APU style CPU or vice versa.

What is your cpu usage when running the software (or just in general actually)?
 
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In general it tends be quite low and stable but just seems to bog down with more than one program in use for example using photoshop it runs fine just takes an age opening and closing and even the windows explorer can grind to the usual not responding halt
 
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That sounds more like a I/O issue assumign the OS install is fresh and you are getting no obvious errors. The only thing I can suggest which should show a decent improvement would be an SSD.

The system will never be a powerhouse but it shouldn't hang on windows explorer if you are just using it normally (not heavy use).
 
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