Vista and your laptop...

Cray-Z

New Member
I have a few things I'd just like to sort out about using a laptop and Vista. I just put Vista Business on my laptop over the weekend and I'm still getting used to how it operates on a portable system.

1) High power drain - I'm burning through noticeably more battery than I did when I was using XP. Is this because of Aero and how it uses my GPU even when its unplugged?

2) Touchpad - My Elantech touchpad has no configuration settings under Mouse so I can't do anything to disable tapping (IMO, a very annoying feature). Any suggestions (I've read this an issue in many other places but I might as well get some direct insight)?
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+ and Intel Dual Core T2130
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte M61-P S3
    Memory
    3GB DDR2 800 by Corsair (desktop), 2GB DDR2 800 (laptop)
    Graphics Card(s)
    512MB ATi Radeon HD 4850, 256MB nVidia GeForce Go 7600
    Sound Card
    Realtek Integrated HD Audio (both)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    21.5" Acer H213H
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080, 1280x800
    Hard Drives
    250GB Western Digital SATA, 7200 RPM
    320GB Seagate Barracuda SATA2, 7200 RPM

    80GB Toshiba Notebook SATA, 7200 RPM
    PSU
    Compucase 585w
    Case
    VAV-something (cheapie neon case, nothing special)
    Cooling
    (Nothing special)
    Keyboard
    Dell or HP Media Keyboard (I swap)
    Mouse
    Microsoft Wireless Optical Notebook 4000
Am...I being too vague?
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+ and Intel Dual Core T2130
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte M61-P S3
    Memory
    3GB DDR2 800 by Corsair (desktop), 2GB DDR2 800 (laptop)
    Graphics Card(s)
    512MB ATi Radeon HD 4850, 256MB nVidia GeForce Go 7600
    Sound Card
    Realtek Integrated HD Audio (both)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    21.5" Acer H213H
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080, 1280x800
    Hard Drives
    250GB Western Digital SATA, 7200 RPM
    320GB Seagate Barracuda SATA2, 7200 RPM

    80GB Toshiba Notebook SATA, 7200 RPM
    PSU
    Compucase 585w
    Case
    VAV-something (cheapie neon case, nothing special)
    Cooling
    (Nothing special)
    Keyboard
    Dell or HP Media Keyboard (I swap)
    Mouse
    Microsoft Wireless Optical Notebook 4000
Have you tried turning off Aero ?

Right click desktop>Personalise>Open classic appearance properties...

then select Windows Vista Basic>Apply> OK.

You can also reduce visual effects and still keep it looking pretty :

hit the Windows and Break keys >Advanced System settings and click the Settings button under Performance.


Also try selecting a Power Plan :

Control Panel>Classic View>Power Options and select Power Saving


Hope this helps

SIW2
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Vista
    CPU
    Intel E8400
    Motherboard
    ASRock1333-GLAN R2.0
    Memory
    4gb DDR2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 9500GT 1gb
  • Operating System
    win7/vista
    CPU
    intel i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    ballistix 2x8gb 3200
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