While in general I agree with you about crapware -- Norton/Semantec products
in particular -- in this case it turned out the there is a setting in Windows
Vista for power savings that does not work with the hardware I purchased from
Lenovo. Specifically the Intel wireless adapter Pro Wireless 3945 a/b/g runs
at dialup access speeds if the power savings mode (for the wireless adapter)
is set to save power, which is how it was set by default. Setting that to
"max performance" when the computer is plugged in causes the bandwidth to go
up by a factor of 40 to 50, back to where it should be.
So my problem turned out to be something the OEM (Lenovo) should have
diagnosed and fixed, such that the default settings for this computer would
not require a bunch of exploration.
What added further confusion are all the articles I easily found online that
say the fix for this kind of slowness is "delete Norton", "get rid of
McAfee", set the tcp auto-adjustment to such-and-such, etc, etc... none of
the solutions worked but it takes a huge amount of time to go through them
all. Deleting crapware like Norton does speed the machine up, but in this
case not by a factor of 40. I am glad Norton is gone, nevertheless.
"Richard Urban" wrote:
Quote:
> New computers are worthless upon arrival because of all the "freeware" and
> "trial ware" that the manufacturers install upon them.
>
> If you were to get the machine stripped bare of all of this, you would see
> what the actual capabilities of your machine (using Vista) are. Then, as you
> load each individual item, you would see the impact that it has on the
> computer and operating system.
>
> I "always" load clean. The initial boot is fast beyond my expectations. Then
> I install my antivirus. System slows down. Then I install some anti-spyware
> programs. System slows down more.
>
> After about three hours of installing and rebooting - the initial lightning
> bolt now takes 2 1/2 minutes to reach the desktop.
>
> But because your computer came with all of this crapware already installed -
> you were not privileged to see the individual slow downs that each
> successive application install adds to the boot time.
>
> So, start fresh. Get rid of everything. Install Vista and the necessary
> drivers. Then, make an image of your system (you do use TrueImage, don't
> you). Install your antivirus of choice. Reboot a couple of times. How is the
> boot time? Not happy? Revert back to your image and install a different
> antivirus program.
>
> It's all trial and error.
>
> Many have found that there are some antivirus programs that are just more
> efficient than others. These include Avast and NOD32.
>
> Most have found that anything from Symantec or McAfee bring your computer to
> it's knees. The same goes for anti-spyware programs. Some are good, and slow
> the machine. Some are good, and don't slow the machine much at all.
>
> But if you blindly stay with what was delivered on your computer, you will
> never know!
>
> --
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard Urban
> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
> (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
>
>
> "Tigger" <Tigger@xxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:ED7B18A7-CA20-4285-A1D5-39D5B9097ADD@xxxxxx Quote:
> > Like many people I've been stunned by how slow my Vista machine is. I have
> > an
> > emachines 6805 running Windows XP Home, talking to my wireless Dlink
> > router
> > DI-604. When I go to the CNET Bandwidth measurement page, I see about 2000
> > kbps for my Windows XP machine (3 years old, Opteron processor in that
> > thing).
> >
> > The link for the bandwidth tester is
> > http://webservices.cnet.com/Bandwidth/
> >
> > I have Comcast cable by the way.
> >
> > So I try the same thing with my brand-new Lenovo R61 Core 2 Duo 4MB cache,
> > 2
> > GB ram machine... and I get 56.8 kbps!! That's like a dial-up modem. This
> > is
> > PATHETIC! Microsoft you really screwed up. If this isn't fixed in a jiffy
> > this will be my last Windows machine for personal use! I have Windows
> > Vista
> > Basic, and almost everything else is out of the box.
> >
> > I tried futzing around with "netsh interface tcp" with advice found using
> > Google searches, setting auto-tuning to "disabled" and to
> > "highlyrestricted"... no help there. I tried uninstalling Norton/Semantec
> > crapola that came with the machine, and turning off the phishing filter...
> > no
> > help there. But -- and this is the real important point -- ordinary people
> > should NOT have to futz around like this with your flagship Microsoft
> > product. You are BEGGING the world to stop buying your software. I know
> > that's how I feel, really really angry that I've already wasted half a day
> > tweaking a new computer that is basically worthless on arrival. >
>