Vista performance issues

Chase · Oct 17, 2009

Hey guys,

I have had a recurring problem since I bought my PC. I have posted other threads about this problem, but have yet to find a solution.

The performance of Vista completely craps out every couple of months on me. I have been wondering if my issue may be the compatibility of my 64bit version of Windows and my hardware. If this is the case, would you guys think that upgrading to Windows 7 could possibly end this tedious and annoying problem?

Any comments would be appreciated.

7vis · Oct 17, 2009

can you post you PC specs,,,,
if you really want to test win 7 get it here....
Windows 7 Release Candidate

lil domii · Oct 17, 2009

7vis said:
can you post you PC specs,,,,
if you really want to test win 7 get it here....
Windows 7 Release Candidate

yes, but then you can't change back to vista without a clean install.

7vis · Oct 17, 2009

lil domii said:
7vis said:

can you post you PC specs,,,,
if you really want to test win 7 get it here....
Windows 7 Release Candidate

Click to expand...

yes, but then you can't change back to vista without a clean install.

yes very true....it was just an option, for those who have a partitioned HDD.

whs · Oct 17, 2009

Americano said:
Hey guys,

I have had a recurring problem since I bought my PC. I have posted other threads about this problem, but have yet to find a solution.

The performance of Vista completely craps out every couple of months on me. I have been wondering if my issue may be the compatibility of my 64bit version of Windows and my hardware. If this is the case, would you guys think that upgrading to Windows 7 could possibly end this tedious and annoying problem?

Any comments would be appreciated.

This will be hard to diagnose until you give us some more details. The fact that it "craps out" is not very telling. Tell us what exactly happens and under what circumstances.

Barnabas · Oct 17, 2009

When did you buy your HP? I've read some posts within HP's forums that some of the motherboards they use in their builds are not very good. Performance hits and BSOD's are a common problem they say. Your build looks good. As others mentioned, a clean install of 7 would be the way to go and it might just give it a boost ... or it might not. What sort of performance problems (crapping out) are you getting ?

Chase · Oct 17, 2009

@ whs & Barnabas -

I bought my HP in July, of 2007. I will have to take a look at the HP forums and search for the motherboard issue you referred to because that describes my problems perfectly.

The first couple of months I had my HP I was getting BSOD's and performance issues. Lately I haven't had any BSOD's but the performance dramatically slows down in the logon process and well as all other programs and tasks after the logon.

Any suggestions as to how I would go about addressing this problem? I have already contacted HP a myriad of times, to which all were disappointments.

whs · Oct 17, 2009

From the little info you post I am not sure there is a hardware problem. Since your installation is over 2 years old, it probably got clogged with a lot of stuff. I notice the same on my systems - even my Quad with 4GBs of RAM.
As a first test I would run with all the start-up programs disabled. If that yields better performance, then you know where to look.
You should also run Process Explorer ( Process Explorer ). Click on CPU above. Then you will have all the CPU intensive processes on the top. Maybe you see one that chews up all the CPU cycles.
For a more permanent observation I recommend you install the CPU Meter in your sidebar.
Then if the CPU research does not yield anything, there could be contention on your disk. We'll investigate that after you report back on the steps above.

Chase · Oct 17, 2009

whs said:
From the little info you post I am not sure there is a hardware problem. Since your installation is over 2 years old, it probably got clogged with a lot of stuff. I notice the same on my systems - even my Quad with 4GBs of RAM.
As a first test I would run with all the start-up programs disabled. If that yields better performance, then you know where to look.
You should also run Process Explorer ( Process Explorer ). Click on CPU above. Then you will have all the CPU intensive processes on the top. Maybe you see one that chews up all the CPU cycles.
For a more permanent observation I recommend you install the CPU Meter in your sidebar.
Then if the CPU research does not yield anything, there could be contention on your disk. We'll investigate that after you report back on the steps above.

I know it's not clogged with a lot of stuff because I have done recoveries to factory condition; with the installation of only basic programs (Avast, Comodo Firewall, and AdAware). I just recovered it to factory condition (reformat) two days ago, so right now I have no problems. But there always seems to be one eventually.

I will install the CPU Meter and observe the usage, as well as the Process Explorer.

Thanks for the tips.

whs · Oct 17, 2009

Avast, Comodo Firewall, and AdAware looks like an overkill. They can very easily get into each others way. I would keep only Avast.

Chase · Oct 17, 2009

whs said:
Avast, Comodo Firewall, and AdAware looks like an overkill. They can very easily get into each others way. I would keep only Avast.

So then you don't recommend using an anti-spyware or firewall program?

BTW, I was referring to Avast the free edition anti-virus. (if that makes a difference)

whs · Oct 17, 2009

Free Avast is OK. I personally prefer Norton IS and Kaspersky IS, but I know of other people that are happy with Avast (or free Avira). Use the Vista firewall. That's all you need and if you are behind a router, you have plenty of firewall anyhow.
But having multiple conficting security programs is always a problem. You can, however, occasionally use scanners like Superantispyware for example.

brummyfan · Oct 17, 2009

Americano, I hope these Tutorials will be helpful:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/81176-speed-up-performance-vista.html?filter[11]=Performance Maintenance
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/165576-how-make-vista-more-responsive-faster.html?filter[11]=Performance Maintenance

Chase · Oct 17, 2009

@ whs -

Okay, thanks for the info. Hopefully my problem was a result of the conflicting applications.

@ brummyfan -

Thanks. I have already gone through those tutorials; and they are helpful.

whs · Oct 17, 2009

You are welcome. Observe it for a while and let us know how it went. Since each case is different, it is also useful for us to have as many inputs as possible.

Chase · Oct 17, 2009

whs said:
You are welcome. Observe it for a while and let us know how it went. Since each case is different, it is also useful for us to have as many inputs as possible.

I'll keep you guys updated. :D

Chase · Oct 18, 2009

Americano said:
whs said:

You are welcome. Observe it for a while and let us know how it went. Since each case is different, it is also useful for us to have as many inputs as possible.

Click to expand...

I'll keep you guys updated. :D

Okay, well here's the update.

I'm starting to believe it was as Barnabas implied regarding the motherboard issue. This is because I just got two BSOD's back to back.

I'm not quite at the level of expertise to debug them, so some help would be appreciated. I'll have to post the minidump file tomorrow; due to it is late, and I have to learn how to take ownership of the file. :confused:

Barnabas · Oct 18, 2009

I poked around HP and some other forums for a parallel to your issues. Most of the problems people were reporting were occuring with the new Core i7-950 CPU's on this Pegatron Truckee mobo IPMTB-TK UL8E v1.03. You don't have this type of cpu but you could have the same make of motherboard for AMD cpu's (made by Asus for OEM's specs).
If it turns out to be a mobo problem, try updating the BIOS for your AMD processor.

As whs stated, "Observe it for a while and let us know how it went. Since each case is different, it is also useful for us to have as many inputs as possible."

Barnabas

patio · Oct 18, 2009

whs said:
Avast, Comodo Firewall, and AdAware looks like an overkill. They can very easily get into each others way. I would keep only Avast.

Not true.
All 3 do different tasks.
The only way they will bang heads is if you run more than one scan at a time...
Of course Comodo has no scan since it's a firewall.

mitchell · Oct 18, 2009

Hi Americano, have you cecked HP software & driver updates as there may be a driver or Bios update that addresses the issue? I was going to have a look for you but you have not posted your model number HP Support & Drivers
But please if there is a bios update that addresses the problem seek advice on go about updating (flashing) the bios first
Hope this is of some help

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