Stupid slow Toshiba laptop

I have a Toshiba Satellite running 32-bit Windows Vista Home Basic, SP2 with 512 MB RAM. I bought it brand new that way - meaning, I haven't upgraded to Vista, it was installed already, and I haven't altered the memory at all - but the thing is so ridiculously slow it's almost impossible to use the thing. There are a bunch of Toshiba applications that I'd love to get rid of too, but it won't let me. I thought about booting in Safe Mode to see if I could pluck them out but haven't tried yet. There's pretty much nothing else installed except Office 2007 and avast. All I need it to do is some word processing, really, but it's so difficult starting up and using the thing. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Vista on 512MB of RAM is a travesty. Upgrade the memory to at least 2GB. With only 512MB installed, there is nothing you can do software-wise that could possibly help. You need more RAM.

 

That's what I figured. Why was it fine when I bought the thing and now so slow? I guess Windows updates? Anyway . . . I've never opened up a laptop. That's a little scary and exciting at the same time.

 

Windows updates is one part of it yes, and probably the biggest. Background processes is another common cause of slowness... the software forum has lots of experts on how to deal with that. I'd offer some help, but all I really know is RAM and gaming, and on 512MB games should be the last thing on your mind

 

And a good defrag wouldn't hurt along with trimming down the startup list.

 

Should have stated "after upgrading the RAM".

 

LOL - believe me when I tell you Solitaire isn't even a consideration! :-D

I have run all the standard system cleanup operations. Aside from the Toshiba startups which I can't remove (grumble), there's nothing really running or installed.

Anybody know of a good place to get some RAM at a decent price? It seems the going rate is about $25-30 per 1 gig stick.

 

$25-30 for a 1GB stick is cheap compared to a few years ago.

 

In today's economy, that is a decent price. You're shopping for a luxury item, don't expect it to be cheap.

You can try Crucial.com, the site TimW already suggested. They sell as well as scan, and I've heard really good things about their customer service (never used it myself, though I have their memory in some of my computers).