Mine is down to 37 running processes just by uninstalling stuff, and that 37 includes five AVG virus/spyware processes and all the nvidia ones. Only Dell thing I've still got running is the touchpad drivers since they're just the synaptics drivers rebadged and seem fine.
Dell Vostro 1500
- Thread starter Ripper
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Just a quick response as I have the laptop now. The screen looks awesome. I'm really glad I went for the higher resolution. Tried lowering it dow, and all the icons looked massive. Obviously not a massively objective review as I haven't tried the other screens. There is some backlight bleed though 
theres not really any point in having 4gb on the laptop, lets face it it doesnt have the horsepower to be a powerhouse rig for rendering and multitasking, 2gb is enough, especially for browsing and dvds..
4gb on games, with a ddr2 8600GT, not really going to be the system ram that is the bottleneck is it? Cant see any scenario realistically that would mean 2gb of ram in this laptop was a bottleneck.
The only real worthwhile upgrades are the GT graphics, faster CPU, battery, higher res screen in my eyes.
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Mine was supposed to be delivered tomorrow if thats of any help (received today)
Mine began to struggle with 2gb, runs a lot smoother with 4gb, especially with Vista 64
Have you actually used a laptop with 2gb and then tried 4?
Night and day, 4gb is much smoother for everything.
Programming, any kind of graphics work, will all function FAR better with 4Gb rather than 2Gb
thats fair enough, but in this context its not going to be any use, since i was replying to someone recommending a user who will be 'surfing and watching dvds' and occasionally gaming when out, so vista 64 isnt really required, and its not going to be under any intense usage is it 
Having an odd problem with my 1500, it has crashed about 6-7 times now running Age of Empires 2 (latest patch), which is 2D and doesn't use 3D capabilities of the 8600, and I would imagine uses little CPU time compared to modern games. The screen freezes and the laptop is unresponsive until it's switched off. Very much doubt it's overheating, as it never puts out much heat when running the game. It's always a few hours into games though.
Maybe it's the 3 GB ram, isn't there some problem with more than 2 GB under XP? No problems yet with other games (including a 6hr+ SupCom game), so it's premature to suspect a faulty vostro.
Maybe it's the 3 GB ram, isn't there some problem with more than 2 GB under XP? No problems yet with other games (including a 6hr+ SupCom game), so it's premature to suspect a faulty vostro.
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Ok, I'm an idiot. I tried reinstalling Vista and somehow installed a second version of Vista, how do I delete this new copy?
Also my Vostro seems to have some minor scratches, should I phone them up and complain and what is the likely consequence?
Also my Vostro seems to have some minor scratches, should I phone them up and complain and what is the likely consequence?
Video drivers? Still using the Dell ones it shipped with (I tried the latest on laptopvideo2go but they caused tearing in all movie playback). Such an old game and not even 3D so most likely not down to video drivers, but I guess it's worth trying newer Dell ones.
Did another test with SupCom, left 2 AIs playing each other for about 4 hrs, no sign of any problems.
Guys laptops should be arriving within 2 weeks
On arrival , is it best to format drive and reinstall OS from scratch , getting rid of all unwanted software
To do this is it the same procedure as a PC, format HD, boot from CD then install OS from Disc
Sorry if these appear to be stupid questions ,first laptops owned not quiet sure as what is best to do
Cheers
On arrival , is it best to format drive and reinstall OS from scratch , getting rid of all unwanted software
To do this is it the same procedure as a PC, format HD, boot from CD then install OS from Disc
Sorry if these appear to be stupid questions ,first laptops owned not quiet sure as what is best to do
Cheers
Dino, formatting a laptop is exactly the same as a 'PC'. As I'm guessing your current form of computing via a PC I would just make sure that you download the chipset/lan drivers first and back them up externally. It'll just make things easier if the base drivers aren't supported.
As fish99 said, uninstalling software may also be an option.
As fish99 said, uninstalling software may also be an option.