First laptop... I think it's sleepy, lol

Hi! I received a laptop for Christmas. I find that it's slower to respond, whether during boot up or opening windows/programs, as compared to my desktop computer. Is this typical of laptops (I've never had one before), or do I need to do some tinkering with the laptop to get it up to speed? It's at 100% fully charged battery. I believe it was a floor model. I've installed just the basics so far, exact same as what my desktop has.
Avast, PC Tools Firewall, FireFox, CCleaner, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, SuperAntiSpyware, Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, SpywareBlaster.
Thanks


These are the specs as written on the box...

HP Compaq Presario CQ56 - 109WM Notebook PC

Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

Intel Celeron Processor 900
(2.20GHz, 1MB cache, 800 MHz FSB)

2GB DDR2 system memory

250GB (5400RPM) SATA hard drive

SuperMulti 8x DVD+-R/RW with Double Layer support

802.11 b/g/n wireless LAN

15.6" diagonal high-definition HP BrightView display
(1366 x 768)

Intel Graphics Media Accelorator
4500M with up to 797MB total available graphics memory

 

For starters, your desktop is a quad-core, and the laptop is a single core Celeron. Celeron is the "budget" CPU in the Intel family.

The memory is a nice plus, but you still have a bit of a "bottleneck" with that CPU.

Have you run a hard drive diagnostic? Aging hard drives are very often responsible for slow performance. Even a Pentium 4M laptop, with a solid state hard drive, will blow away a "more advanced" PC, with a standard platter drive.

 

Thank you for your reply!

I know little about specs/computers and appreciate your information very much. How would I go about running a hard drive diagnostic? Is that more of an advanced level knowledge/skill of computers? I'm a tinkerer, lol.
:-D

 

No, actually.

I have a "pet favorite" tool from the forum. Here is the link:

http://majorgeeks.com/HDD_Health_d3654.html

It's not the most advanced tool on the planet, but it gets by. What it will do is give a general idea of where the drive is in regard to it's lifespan.

I've found it to be rather accurate. It is an "x86" program, which means you need to run it in "Compatiblity Mode" on a 64-bt system. I also just realized that link is a "beta" version, I'll see if I can find an older version for you.

By the way, I love the moniker!

 

Compatibility mode? Yikes! lol
k, I'll wait for your next post as to what to do with this mode thingy and links.
P.S. Thanks for the compliment, lol.

 

It seems the "beta" is the only version I can find, other than the previous version I have on my XP installation. I boot both XP, and Vista. I just pick which one I want to use, for the purpose.

The beta version does not seem to work proper on my 64 bit version of Vista.

Many of the fields are blank, and I don't see the Seagate logo in the Window where it should be.

What version of 7 are you running? 32, or 64 bit?

Don't you just hate it, when they fix a perfectly good program?

Good thing I gave it a try...

 

OK, I got it to work on a 64-bit system proper, but here's what you need to do after installing the software, and close the program:

Start Menu>Left click on HDD Health folder>Right Click on HDD Health app file>Click on "Properties">Run in compatibility XP Service Pack 2, or 3 should already be highlighted, if not, select it>Check the box that says "Run as Administrator".>Apply>OK

It seems like a pain in the butt, but it works.

 

I'm running 64 bit.
Thanks so much for your detailed instructions!
Yes, now the blanks are gone and there's information everywhere, lol.

My laptop temp is 35 Celsius (95 F).
Health is at 100%.

 

Thank you for the links! I'll get started on it.

 

What I'm looking at here, is a case of "apples, and oranges".

Though you have sufficient memory, the CPU is still a bottleneck.

It took some digging, but I believe that your CPU is a Socket P CPU.

I will dig more, to see if it is possible to upgrade your CPU to a dual core. The other option, is to contact HP about an upgrade, if it is even possible. There are Core 2 Duo Socket P CPUs out there, but the question is compatiblity with your motherboard.

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/aa/en/ho/WF06a/321957-321957-3329742-89318-89318-4247498.html


Follow through with the basics plodr specified, and I'll see about your hardware.

P.S.

If it's compatible, CompuVest has this:

http://www.compuvest.com/Search.jsp...e=froogle&sku=322004955-02&dp=0:MLB:8792:0:0:

 

The dual core at CompuVest is new in the box, and would give it quite a "kick in the a$$", should it be compatible, and you would be interested in an upgrade.

 

Oh dear, I appreciate all your searching, but I likely won't be doing any ugrading as the laptop will be used mainly when I'm visiting out in the countryside on a wireless connection. I was just hoping there was a quick fix to find some speed like my desktop, but I didn't realize the large differences between the two. I bought my desktop because it was on sale at BestBuy, the laptop was purchased by someone who doesn't want anything to do with computers, lol, but wanted me to have a little toy when it would come in handy, lol.

 

No worries, it's what I do.

I do need to strengthen my software capabilities, but when it comes to hardware, I do rather well.

You do never know what the future may bring, and hardware tends to decline in price over time. That ninety dollar CPU could be half the price within a year.