before upgrading RAM is that working fine? if yes then there is problem with RAM, change the RAM and then check
you may also test it as suggested by Punky
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Sony Vaio Laptop too slow...
hi there,
I have a 4 year old Sony Vaio laptop. It's a Sony PCG-FRV25
P4 2.66Ghz. When i first bought this thing i could run everything very smoothly, even played WC3 and Jedi knight 2 without any problems. Now today it's 4 years old, i could barely multitask in this thing. Even surfing firefox up to like 6-7 tabs would slow down considerably on my PC. Everything that uses graphics slows down the PC.
I've updated every update i can find, even the graphics driver. Upgraded the ram to 1gb also.
Problem is even if i just did a fresh install of this PC, the problem is still there.
My CPU temp stays around 75 or so, HDD temp around 40-50.
I'm suspecting my CPU temp might be too high as a result the P4 slows down. That's why the whole system is slow.
If i'm only running 1 problem or 2 it's fine, but if i'm multitasking or watching a super high res video, everything slows down immediately. What annoys me most is having 6-7 tabs on firefox will slow down my whole PC (firefox goes to 100% resource). I've tried diff version of firefox and even on IE7, same thing happens.
1. Are there any good free benchmarking software out there for me to test this?
2. If i do need to dissemble my laptop to clean it.. how do i do it? i can't seem to find on the web any pictures or instructions on how to open my laptop
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Answers
Also it could be the hdd 4 years is kinda crossing the use by date,
do you have xpsp2 installed?
How much space is left? Less space will over work the VM.
This is the memtest I use its very easy.Unzip to a folder and run it.
http://hcidesign.com/
I occasionally run my computer thru some tests here>>
PC Pitstop: Free PC Diagnostics, computer help and Tuneups
PC Pitstop is very good and its free
http://pcpitstop.com/
Formatting and clean installing at least once every 2 years is recomended, if you have the xp setup disc for DEL you can use the hidden partition to create a bootable install disc.
buying a new hdd at 4 years definately.. just slave the old hdd to an external HDD enclosure.
How long since you ran a regestry cleanup?
http://www.pctools.com/reg
Defragged cleaned out all the temp files?
http://www.ccleaner.com/
BartPE very suitable for PC maintenance tasks.
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilde
Run a thorough test on the drive using the utility provided by the manufacturer of your hard drive.
fujitsu
http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.co
IBM and Hitachi
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/su
Maxtor/Quantum
http://www.maxtor.com/en/s
Samsung
http://www.samsungelectron
Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/sup
Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/dow
Oneway or another it will be running better now.
hi all, thx for the replies
"You can do some test such as memory test: http://memtest86.net
Or this bench test: http://www.sisoftware.net/
Hard drive test tool, I think the best is download direct from hard drive vendor the utility.
You should not disassembly the unit if you are never do that before. "
I'll try this and let you know the result. Trying now.
"before upgrading RAM is that working fine? if yes then there is problem with RAM, change the RAM and then check
you may also test it as suggested by Punky"
Before upgrading the RAM the problem existed. The problem gradually appeared over time.. i didn't notice it till like 1 year ago. That's when i wanted to upgrade my RAM, hoping it'll solve the problem. Unfortunately it didn't.
"Also it could be the hdd 4 years is kinda crossing the use by date,
do you have xpsp2 installed?
How much space is left? Less space will over work the VM.
This is the memtest I use its very easy.Unzip to a folder and run it.
http://hcidesign.com/
I occasionally run my computer thru some tests here>>
PC Pitstop: Free PC Diagnostics, computer help and Tuneups
PC Pitstop is very good and its free
http://pcpitstop.com/
Formatting and clean installing at least once every 2 years is recomended, if you have the xp setup disc for DEL you can use the hidden partition to create a bootable install disc.
buying a new hdd at 4 years definately.. just slave the old hdd to an external HDD enclosure.
How long since you ran a regestry cleanup?
http://www.pctools.com/reg
Defragged cleaned out all the temp files?
http://www.ccleaner.com/
BartPE very suitable for PC maintenance tasks.
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilde
Run a thorough test on the drive using the utility provided by the manufacturer of your hard drive.
fujitsu
http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.co
IBM and Hitachi
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/su
Maxtor/Quantum
http://www.maxtor.com/en/s
Samsung
http://www.samsungelectron
Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/sup
Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/dow
Oneway or another it will be running better now."
I do have SP2 installed, and i have aroud 68% free space (that's 50GB out of 80GB hdd)
My hdd have been upgraded once. it use to be a old 40GB now it's a relatively new 80gb 5400RPM
Just did a full defrag, still same problem.
Cleaned up all registeries and temp files, still same problem.
OK i just did a diagnostic full test on pitstop (thx for that link)
Common Name Windows XP Pro SP2
Full Version Windows XP Pro SP2
First Install Tue Feb 13 2007
Free Resources 90%
Fonts Installed 253
Windows Scripting Version 5.6.0.8820
PCPitstop Version 167
CPU Load 1%
Performance-Related Windows Settings
The following settings may be helpful in diagnosing general system performance problems.
Setting name Value
Video acceleration disabled No
Paging of kernel disabled No
Screen saver running during tests No
NOIDE key found in registry No
Running 32-bit code on 64-bit Windows No
System Restore disabled No
Large System Cache enabled No
Has batteries Yes
Hibernate enabled No
HIBERFIL.SYS present No
Hibernate policy in use No
Sleep/Resume policy in use Yes
Running on battery power No
Processor
Description Your Results
Brand/Model Intel Pentium 4
Nominal Clock Speed 2660 MHz
Measured Clock Speed 2656 MHz
External Clock Speed 133 MHz
CPU Load 1%
Speed Rating 1946 (No similar CPU/MHz)
Memory Configuration
Description Results
RAM installed 1024 MB
Windows RAM 959 MB
Total RAM slots 2
Available RAM slots 0
Max RAM module size 0 MB
Memory Type 512+512;SODIMM,?18,|Unknow
Speed Rating 2224 MB/s (No similar CPU/MHz)
Description
Drive C Drive H
Partition format NTFS NTFS
Cluster size 4 KB 4 KB
Drive label No Label Docking Station
Size 76308 MB 194478 MB
Free space 51973 MB (68%) 57879 MB (30%)
Junk files 1087 MB (1%) 0 MB (0%)
Data fragmentation 0% Not tested
File fragmentation 0% Not tested
Uncached speed 25 MB/s 10 MB/s
Video Board
Description Your Results
Brand/Model RADEON IGP 34xM (Omega 3.8.252)
Resolution 1024x768 pixels
Colors 16 million
DirectX version 5.03.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
OpenGL version 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Acceleration options Enabled
Performance 33.95 MP/s (No similar CPU/MHz/video)
great okay i see several problems
colours at 16 any chance you can run this at 32?
Have you updated the drivers for your video card?
RADEON IGP 34xM (Omega 3.8.252) << is fairly an old card.
Have you considered upgradring?
your directx is this version 9c go to run type in dxdiag press enter
Your ram stick/s seem to be mismatched?
Memory Configuration
Description Results
RAM installed 1024 MB
Windows RAM 959 MB
Total RAM slots 2
Available RAM slots 0
Max RAM module size 0 MB
Memory Type 512+512;SODIMM,?18,|Unknow
Speed Rating 2224 MB/s (No similar CPU/MHz)
Did you run ccleaner to delete the temp files?
Looks like ram maybe the culprit
there is also Process explorer The unique capabilities of Process Explorer make it useful for tracking down DLL-version problems or handle leaks, Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded. Now you can find out.
http://www.microsoft.com/t
Mainboard monitor to test the heat
http://cdmediaworld.com/ha
Normal cpu chips temp is around 20°C to about 70°C;
http://www.pantherproducts
Process Explorer for Windows v10.21
great okay i see several problems
colours at 16 any chance you can run this at 32?
Have you updated the drivers for your video card?
RADEON IGP 34xM (Omega 3.8.252) << is fairly an old card.
Have you considered upgradring?
your directx is this version 9c go to run type in dxdiag press enter
hmm colors at 16?? it's set at 32bit i think.. where did you see it?
Drivers unfortunately are the best updated drivers i think.. for my card at least..
Yeah i know my card is old, problem is this is a laptop. So the video is embedded i believe. Well even so i dunno how to open the laptop to replace it myself. Is upgrading a laptop video that easy? Especially when it's embedded?
my directX version is 9.0C.
"Your ram stick/s seem to be mismatched?
Memory Configuration
Description Results
RAM installed 1024 MB
Windows RAM 959 MB
Total RAM slots 2
Available RAM slots 0
Max RAM module size 0 MB
Memory Type 512+512;SODIMM,?18,|Unknow
Speed Rating 2224 MB/s (No similar CPU/MHz)
"
Reason why the numbers are diff coz my video card uses the ram. The video is embedded so 64mb of ram is used for video. That's why.
As for my ram sticks, 1 is new 1 is the original one.. Even without the original one though, should my pc be this slow?? Even if say the original stick is corrupted?
"Did you run ccleaner to delete the temp files?"
YUp did this. didn't help.
I'll try the CPU processor monitor thing. WIll let you know when i have more results
Thx
can this help for dissassembly, so you can clean all fans and vents, or reapply heat paste ?
http://www.physik.uni-frei
that would be very useful, but unfortunately that's not my model. It's very very similar to mine. But mine doesn't that those 2 screws on the side (on the first pic they unscrew)
but the general outlook of the model is exactly the same.(battery localtion is diff too)
My sony Vaio model is PCG-FRV25 bought it at year 2003
Update.
I found out that part of my CPU slowness problem coems from firefox itself. Coz of bad javascripts from certain sites. I downloaded Noscript and that solved my internet slowness problem.. However. thx to this, i was able to zoom in on another problem.
On simple 2D games like Monopoly and Bejeweled, my CPU would take the whole resource.. so much that the game becomes sluggish very quickly. Now i know 64mb is small for today. But i'm sure it can at least run such a game smoothly.. isn't it?
Is there some benchmarking software for video?
Have you cleaned out the air vents these can bcome dusty over time.
Hows the battery as laptops do get hot.
PC pitstop would have tested your video card did you run the full tests
go to start then run type in dxdiag press enter
and run the display tests this will test your video card.
http://www.passmark.com/pr
You must have a video card which is DirectX 9.0 compatible.
Recommended: "GeForce2"/"Radeon 8500" or better.
DirectX 9.0 or later must be installed on your computer.
http://www.getfreesofts.co
FYI
http://www.digit-life.com/
http://freestone-group.com
Alright , i'm fairly sure the root of my problem is overheating now.
i just ran a test using Video Card Stability Test
my result??
A WHOOPING 15points..
from http://freestone-group.com
RADEON IGP 345M scores 24-48points.
I know mine is IGP 340M. But still.. it shouldn't be that bad.. definately oveheating coz during the test, my laptop jumped from the normal 70-75 to almost 85C. it definately would have gone higher if the test was longer. (ran only for 3mins)
I think this could be the root of my problem. Anyone know how to fix this?
upgrade teh video card, and that is not simple either as this is a laptop.
The newer cards have cooler running.
I have a g force 6600 Gt which runs pretty good considering its size lol BIG card and have the side case open a bit.
With desktops we can remove the sidecase and add fans etc with a laptop I would check the vents and air flow what areas you can improve airflow, turn the Lptop off after a coupel hours of extended use.
How often do you touch beneath it to test how hot it is what surface do you have the laptop on?
well i finally got it back from Sony yesterday, I must say, they fixed it. Cleaned my vents internally i guess or something. I sent to my local laptop repairer before, he said he cleaned it but it didn't fix the problem. But i sent to sony and they certainly fixed the problem. Now can play WC3 on it even :)
Thx all guys.
great to hear from you Sylpheed777 it was probably a bit of over heating going on there.
Thanks for coming back and providing your update appreciate it for sure.
Enjoy your game.
Now you need to decide what to do with your question, you can either split points to any suggestions that you feel helped you as a lot of us contributed here.
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http://www.experts-exchang
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Regards Merete
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by: PUNKYPosted on 2007-03-13 at 21:38:14ID: 18716115
You can do some test such as memory test: http://memtest86.net
Or this bench test: http://www.sisoftware.net/
Hard drive test tool, I think the best is download direct from hard drive vendor the utility.
You should not disassembly the unit if you are never do that before.