Vista - Brand new laptop... weird problems

Alright folks, after a long wait my new laptop (Gateway) showed up on
Monday(2 days ago):

Intel centrino core 2 duo T7200 2.0GHz, 667MHz, 4MB L2
2 GB ram
100 GB hd
ATI Radeon X1400 128MB graphics (up to 256 HyperMemory)
Vista Ultimate preinstalled

....and for as much as this piece cost, I'd rather be running a desktop with
windows 3.x. In the three days I've had it, the fan has run 75-90% of the
time along with almost constant hard drive noise. Im running around 50%
memory but only 2-5%CPU even though it runs slow and the fan whines like I'm
at 100%. Twice I have had bootup trouble that used system recovery and once
it just turned off for no reason. Anyways its extremely slow and it feels
like its getting worse. I have only installed a few programs: Office07,
MatLab, and AIM so I dont think its a software issue. I would understand
running into conficts with an XP to Vista upgrade but for an out-of-the-box
(and pricey) system this seems a bit much.

A few specific questions:
1. I have 13 instances of svchost.exe running under processes, one of which
is using almost 50k of ram. Is this common with Vista??

2. Looking in the Event Log, there have been 112 events recorded. Almost
all are from shutdown or bootup and a few from the desktop manager. Most are
"warnings" but there have been a handful of "error" and "critical" level
events. Also many of them occured in clusters at the same time. Should
there be events occuring this frequently?

3. Events have been logging pretty regularly since Monday (2/19) and there
are also 5 events logged on 2/14 which I assume are from when the machine was
tested prior to shipping... BUT there are also 8 events that occured back in
November?? Also, in the details the events from November list a different
computer name than the more recent ones. Is it possible that Gateway
installed Vista on an old/returned/refurb computer??

I would hate to think that would be the case but it seems like it could
explain some of the issues I'm having. Anyways, I wanted to get some of your
guys' thoughts and suggestions before I spend hours on the phone talking to
recorders. Sorry this is so long and thanks for any help.

All the new laptops I have bought there has been a seal (was the seal
intact?) Also, when you booted up did you create a new Login user profile?
If you answer No to each of this questions then you can bet they sent you a
used laptop.

--
Manuel Nonaca
MIS/M University of Phoenix Online
Clovis, CA (PST)


"Aaron Riggs" <Aaron Riggs@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5982B7D1-18E1-4C72-BE00-8C45879E8DC3@microsoft.com...
> Alright folks, after a long wait my new laptop (Gateway) showed up on
> Monday(2 days ago):
>
> Intel centrino core 2 duo T7200 2.0GHz, 667MHz, 4MB L2
> 2 GB ram
> 100 GB hd
> ATI Radeon X1400 128MB graphics (up to 256 HyperMemory)
> Vista Ultimate preinstalled
>
> ...and for as much as this piece cost, I'd rather be running a desktop
> with
> windows 3.x. In the three days I've had it, the fan has run 75-90% of the
> time along with almost constant hard drive noise. Im running around 50%
> memory but only 2-5%CPU even though it runs slow and the fan whines like
> I'm
> at 100%. Twice I have had bootup trouble that used system recovery and
> once
> it just turned off for no reason. Anyways its extremely slow and it feels
> like its getting worse. I have only installed a few programs: Office07,
> MatLab, and AIM so I dont think its a software issue. I would understand
> running into conficts with an XP to Vista upgrade but for an
> out-of-the-box
> (and pricey) system this seems a bit much.
>
> A few specific questions:
> 1. I have 13 instances of svchost.exe running under processes, one of
> which
> is using almost 50k of ram. Is this common with Vista??
>
> 2. Looking in the Event Log, there have been 112 events recorded. Almost
> all are from shutdown or bootup and a few from the desktop manager. Most
> are
> "warnings" but there have been a handful of "error" and "critical" level
> events. Also many of them occured in clusters at the same time. Should
> there be events occuring this frequently?
>
> 3. Events have been logging pretty regularly since Monday (2/19) and
> there
> are also 5 events logged on 2/14 which I assume are from when the machine
> was
> tested prior to shipping... BUT there are also 8 events that occured back
> in
> November?? Also, in the details the events from November list a different
> computer name than the more recent ones. Is it possible that Gateway
> installed Vista on an old/returned/refurb computer??
>
> I would hate to think that would be the case but it seems like it could
> explain some of the issues I'm having. Anyways, I wanted to get some of
> your
> guys' thoughts and suggestions before I spend hours on the phone talking
> to
> recorders. Sorry this is so long and thanks for any help.
>
>

i know for a fact that Matlab takes up alot of ram and just running vista
does. with just matlab running (run any loop program that runs for about a
minute) and vista what percentage are you at?

I havent installed matlab onto my vista partition yet and im worried to do
so for this very reason.

"Aaron Riggs" <Aaron Riggs@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5982B7D1-18E1-4C72-BE00-8C45879E8DC3@microsoft.com...
> Alright folks, after a long wait my new laptop (Gateway) showed up on
> Monday(2 days ago):
>
> Intel centrino core 2 duo T7200 2.0GHz, 667MHz, 4MB L2
> 2 GB ram
> 100 GB hd
> ATI Radeon X1400 128MB graphics (up to 256 HyperMemory)
> Vista Ultimate preinstalled
>
> ...and for as much as this piece cost, I'd rather be running a desktop
> with
> windows 3.x. In the three days I've had it, the fan has run 75-90% of the
> time along with almost constant hard drive noise. Im running around 50%
> memory but only 2-5%CPU even though it runs slow and the fan whines like
> I'm
> at 100%. Twice I have had bootup trouble that used system recovery and
> once
> it just turned off for no reason. Anyways its extremely slow and it feels
> like its getting worse. I have only installed a few programs: Office07,
> MatLab, and AIM so I dont think its a software issue. I would understand
> running into conficts with an XP to Vista upgrade but for an
> out-of-the-box
> (and pricey) system this seems a bit much.
>
> A few specific questions:
> 1. I have 13 instances of svchost.exe running under processes, one of
> which
> is using almost 50k of ram. Is this common with Vista??
>
> 2. Looking in the Event Log, there have been 112 events recorded. Almost
> all are from shutdown or bootup and a few from the desktop manager. Most
> are
> "warnings" but there have been a handful of "error" and "critical" level
> events. Also many of them occured in clusters at the same time. Should
> there be events occuring this frequently?
>
> 3. Events have been logging pretty regularly since Monday (2/19) and
> there
> are also 5 events logged on 2/14 which I assume are from when the machine
> was
> tested prior to shipping... BUT there are also 8 events that occured back
> in
> November?? Also, in the details the events from November list a different
> computer name than the more recent ones. Is it possible that Gateway
> installed Vista on an old/returned/refurb computer??
>
> I would hate to think that would be the case but it seems like it could
> explain some of the issues I'm having. Anyways, I wanted to get some of
> your
> guys' thoughts and suggestions before I spend hours on the phone talking
> to
> recorders. Sorry this is so long and thanks for any help.
>
>

Send back that Gateway (if you're lucky enough to get a live person on the
phone). Check the laptop reviews online at Consumers Reports, Cnet,
PCMagazine or any other respected publication and buy the machine from a
reliable and respectible retailer or manufacturer. The specs of that machine
seem right for Vista, but from what I hear and see on a regular basis is
that Gateway's products and support usually put them at the bottom of the
list of every publication I have ever seen.
-William

"Aaron Riggs" <Aaron Riggs@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5982B7D1-18E1-4C72-BE00-8C45879E8DC3@microsoft.com...
> Alright folks, after a long wait my new laptop (Gateway) showed up on
> Monday(2 days ago):
>
> Intel centrino core 2 duo T7200 2.0GHz, 667MHz, 4MB L2
> 2 GB ram
> 100 GB hd
> ATI Radeon X1400 128MB graphics (up to 256 HyperMemory)
> Vista Ultimate preinstalled
>
> ...and for as much as this piece cost, I'd rather be running a desktop
> with
> windows 3.x. In the three days I've had it, the fan has run 75-90% of the
> time along with almost constant hard drive noise. Im running around 50%
> memory but only 2-5%CPU even though it runs slow and the fan whines like
> I'm
> at 100%. Twice I have had bootup trouble that used system recovery and
> once
> it just turned off for no reason. Anyways its extremely slow and it feels
> like its getting worse. I have only installed a few programs: Office07,
> MatLab, and AIM so I dont think its a software issue. I would understand
> running into conficts with an XP to Vista upgrade but for an
> out-of-the-box
> (and pricey) system this seems a bit much.
>
> A few specific questions:
> 1. I have 13 instances of svchost.exe running under processes, one of
> which
> is using almost 50k of ram. Is this common with Vista??
>
> 2. Looking in the Event Log, there have been 112 events recorded. Almost
> all are from shutdown or bootup and a few from the desktop manager. Most
> are
> "warnings" but there have been a handful of "error" and "critical" level
> events. Also many of them occured in clusters at the same time. Should
> there be events occuring this frequently?
>
> 3. Events have been logging pretty regularly since Monday (2/19) and
> there
> are also 5 events logged on 2/14 which I assume are from when the machine
> was
> tested prior to shipping... BUT there are also 8 events that occured back
> in
> November?? Also, in the details the events from November list a different
> computer name than the more recent ones. Is it possible that Gateway
> installed Vista on an old/returned/refurb computer??
>
> I would hate to think that would be the case but it seems like it could
> explain some of the issues I'm having. Anyways, I wanted to get some of
> your
> guys' thoughts and suggestions before I spend hours on the phone talking
> to
> recorders. Sorry this is so long and thanks for any help.
>
>