New Computer Runs Extremely Slow

Hi,

I just bought a new Dell laptop and it is running extremely slowly. It has a 2.8ghz dual core pentium processor and 8GB of ram, yet i cant listen to music and browse the web without the music skipping. Any large application I run, like anything from the adobe suite take like 5 minutes to open and then freezes constantly. When i open the task manager and look at my performance, i see that im only using around 10% of my processor speed and only about 25% of my RAM, so i am at a loss here. can anyone explain this?

thanks,
Madison Brown

Check what is running at startup. Dell adds a whole lot of garbage to their system
One thing to try is PC Decrapifier:
http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

I should have mentioned that that was the first thing i tried. there are only essential processes running, and like i said, im only using a quarter of my ram and 10% of my proccessor capability. This really makes no sense. I just switched from a desktop computer which had the same processor but 4gb of ram, so i know how fast it should be running.

-Madison

If you haven't already,
Use ccleaner ... run cleaner and registry (scan for issues)

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4191.html

upon your suggestion, i ran ccleaner and did find a significant number of registry problems, which i fixed, however this does not seem to have solved the problem. i now beleive the problem may be with firefox. are there any known issues with firefox and dell computers?

never mind. firefox does run exceptionally poorly, however other programs run slowly even when firefox is not running. for example, 3ds Max took over 3 minutes to load, whereas it loaded in less than 1 minute on my HP desktop which had the same processor and half the speed. Im about ready to send laptop back to dell.

If it's a DELL garmanma is right - any DELL start up program can't be considered essential. I have a DELL and I'd suggest closing their applications down (but maybe after you've spoken to DELL support in case they want a reading from one of the DELL apps).
You have not mentioned how your HDD is set up and what space you have spare, your paging file size.
What is your PC's Performance rating (Control Panel\Performance Information and Tools)
Are you running defrags? Do you have System Restore active?
What protection software are you running?
When you look at Task Manager have you ticked the box at the bottom that says "Show processes from all users"?
Check all your network drives and settings - a PC will often go into limbo trying to find a drive that doesn't exist etc..

I have already disabled all non-essential startup software. Currently these programs are set to start automatically:
Bluetooth Software
Synaptics Pointing Device Software [for touchpad]
IDT PC Audio
Intel PROSet/Wireless
Microsoft Userinit Logon Application
Microsoft Windows Explorer

my only hard drive is 500 GB and internal. I have about 450 GB of free space. My page file was automatically set by windows to 8.455 GB. I am not sure what you mean by "how your HDD is set up".

My PC's performance rating is 5.0

EDIT: Defrag is set to run automatically. It was last performed on 9/11/09. System restore is active.

The computer came packaged with a McCafee trial software. I removed it after noticing the problem, but it did not have an affect.

Yes, i am looking at processes from all users, though i don't know what they all are. I have identified all processes under my name. All other ones are listed as "SYSTEM", "NETWORK SERVICE", or "LOCAL SERVICE". I assumed these were essential.

There are 3 partitions on my drive: C:, D:(recovery), and an unnamed 39mb partition labeled "EISA Configuration".

Edited by mbrown3391, 14 September 2009 - 01:26 PM.

have you scanned for malwareas this can really slow down your pc

try malwarebytes or superantispyware

this was a problem literally from the moment i took it out of the package. And besides, if some maleware was slowing down my computer, wouldnt i see an increase in my ram or processor usage?

I disabled the page file and ran a disk check, which found and fixed a few errors. The computer now seems to be running normal. From this information, any idea what would have been wrong with it?

Good to hear your PC has improved.

Not sure which version of Vista you have but 8GB RAM is, I think, more than some versions can handle - a paging file is normally set to 1.5 times the RAM so your setting of 8.455GB may indicate something. Perhaps the disk errors were in a system use area e.g. paging file.