I am trying to get my computer to run a bit faster and need some help. I have all my personal files in my seperate D drive. My C drive has vista on it, with some programs. I deleted all the programs i new i could, but what im left with im not sure if it should be deleted. Also i go into task manager and there are about 80 things listed in the services tab when im not even doing anything. About 80 things in the processes tab. I dont know what they are. Is that what I have to get rid of to make things run faster? Any other suggestions? See my signiture for my laptop info.

try changing the areo theme to standard (change theme) and I turned of windows defender it never seems to do anything also clean registry and do a hard drive defrag maybe this will help


best thing would be upgrade the memory

Hi, add another 1 gig of ram as you have shared ram with your video card. Also have alook at the link from Tech Republic http://techrepublic.com.com/2422-14075_11-254479.html

As Monty 007 said upgrading memory is one of the best ways to speed up a computer.I would be wary of reg cleaners because they can do more harm than good.

Without buying things for it, is there a way to fix this. I defrag frequently. I cant surf the net and run wmp at the same time, internet hangsup then. In addition to the other issues i listed above. Plus certain online videos have a terrible lag at times like something is running stopping them.
I also went into msconfig and took off all startup things except virus protection program and mouse.
Any help would be appreciated.

"Resources" are the key here. If all resources are being used, then the system will slow to a crawl.

Resources include, but are not limited to:
- CPU
- Video Card
- RAM (memory)
- Hard Drive (and virtual memory)
- Motherboard (different buses that transfer data)
- Network card/connection

MSCONFIG is intended as a troubleshooting tool, not as a Startup Manager. As such you may encounter problems when using MSCONFIG and may not be able to boot your system. I'd recommend using this free startup manager: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysintern...s/Autoruns.mspx

But, in short, running Vista with only 1 gB of RAM is asking for problems (especially if you're not running Home Basic). 2 gB is the bare minimum, with 3 or 4 being the recommended amount.

Here's a link to the specs for the memory on your system (double check it - my eyes aren't that good): http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp...l=Aspire%205100

I'd suggest purchasing more RAM as DDR2 is pretty inexpensive at this time. The investment in RAM will pay off in the long run - as Windows programs will demand more RAM as time goes on.

I've managed to run Vista Home Premium with 1GB RAM. My key is to shut off most of the programs that are RAM Eaters and close out everything I don't need. Most of the time, I hover around 60-70% RAM Usage. I'm getting a 3GB RAM Unit.

Edit: He mentioned he had 80 processes. I run with about 50. There is a big significance, and I just used MSCONFIG to pick what I want to boot up with. Saves quite a bit.

I ran Vista Ultimate on an old Toshiba M45 laptop with only 512 mB of RAM - and it worked! But try to do anything advanced and it'll lock up tight.

Charger09's issue occurs when running WMP, browsing the web, and playing videos. The most common cause for these sort of lockups is RAM related. These put a heavy load on less efficient graphics and audio chipsets present in most laptops.