Jambo
Member
Registered: 8th Sep 01
Location: Maidenhead, Drives: VXR Arctic
User status: Offline
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Its slow as dog shit.
I mean really slow take 5mins+ to turn on, is this normal? Its got 4gb of ram and a 500gb hard drive tere is nothing installed on it other than what it came with and a webcam package from dell themselves 
Surely this cant be right??
Its a dell inspiron 531
GOt a duel core processor ummm not sure what else ud need to know?
its running 32bit ultimate vista 
Help needed 
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AlunJ
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Registered: 3rd Apr 07
Location: Newport
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vista isn't the quickest os but its not even that slow on mine lol, and i've only a gig of ram and a dual core 64bit athlon 4200+, the only thing i could suggest is a fresh install without the dell stuff but that defeats the object really
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Russ
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Registered: 14th Mar 04
Location: Armchair
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yeah, fresh install without the bloat ware is your best bet.
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_Allan_
Member
Registered: 24th Mar 04
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What config is the ram in 4x1GB sticks, 2x2GB sticks etc..
Doesn't 32 bit Vista only support up to 3GB anyway?. Can you remove a stick and see what it boots up like?.
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DannyB
Premium Member
Registered: 6th Feb 08
User status: Offline
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Xp only recognises 3.6, not sure about vista though.
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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32 bit systems only regonises 3.6GB.
Needs a fresh install without all the shit IMO
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Jambo
Member
Registered: 8th Sep 01
Location: Maidenhead, Drives: VXR Arctic
User status: Offline
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what shit has it got on it? I uninstalled the tiscali and bt free internet packs, but other than microsoft works theres not much on it?
You guys know more than me so i dont know what to suggest.
Seems a bit faster now but keep clicking to open programs and nothing happens Tried itunes about 8times before it loaded.
Wish i had spent £500 now 
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Brett
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
User status: Offline
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If it's shite, take it back. Shouldn't be like that
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dave17
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Registered: 3rd Sep 02
Location: Greater London
User status: Offline
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i got my dell a few weeks ago and it boots up in no time. 4gb ram, quad core blah blah.
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Matt H
Member
Registered: 11th Sep 01
Location: South Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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How much was it James? I need a new tower mine is foobarred
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Jambo
Member
Registered: 8th Sep 01
Location: Maidenhead, Drives: VXR Arctic
User status: Offline
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It literally took 1min+ to recognise the SD card i plugged in, put same card in my sis' 1year old HP and it recognised in it 1second.
It took 1minute to open a small jpg file
Theres something not right with it. Im going to ring dell and complain
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Russ
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Registered: 14th Mar 04
Location: Armchair
User status: Offline
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do it handsome. not supposed to be like that at all
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Andrew
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Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
User status: Offline
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Service Pack 1 will sort out your RAM issue. May sort out your system overall too if you're very lucky.
Sounds like you need to flattern it and rebuild though.
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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Ring Dell mate
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Jambo
Member
Registered: 8th Sep 01
Location: Maidenhead, Drives: VXR Arctic
User status: Offline
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i will ring them tommorw
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Jambo
Member
Registered: 8th Sep 01
Location: Maidenhead, Drives: VXR Arctic
User status: Offline
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Rang dell after my PC crashed and said hardware keyboard fauilure and wouldnt load up
40min call to dell later and the pc was wiped and started again.
Made no difference whatsover, i looked at a couole of jpgs, took longer than it should then my pictures froze and crashed.
This is a worthless peice of shite, wtf do i do>? Just ring dell and tell them to take it away? its simply not fit for purpose 
Im really pissed off
*forgot to add i cant acces the internet either my whole house is wired up with a LAN as my rents work from home and have techinical support from a local IT firm and they cant figure out why i cant connect ot the internet
Without the internet i cant do the updates so im screwed.
[Edited on 21-04-2008 by Jambo]
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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Sounds like you have some dodgy hardware on there. RAM or motherboard or PCI cards etc. I'd offer to help mate, but it's brand new and I might invalidate warrenties. Ring them up first and tell them you want your moneyz back!
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Jambo
Member
Registered: 8th Sep 01
Location: Maidenhead, Drives: VXR Arctic
User status: Offline
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Got the internet working, been researching on the internat apparently NVDIA drivers fuck up vista. I have some installed
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_Allan_
Member
Registered: 24th Mar 04
User status: Offline
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Did you try removing a stick or two of ram and swaping em about?. Just to see if the load times improve or it speeds things up. Try with just 2GB installed. No improvement then swap to the other 2GB.
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Jambo
Member
Registered: 8th Sep 01
Location: Maidenhead, Drives: VXR Arctic
User status: Offline
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Allan i wouldnt have a clue how to do that lol.
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_Allan_
Member
Registered: 24th Mar 04
User status: Offline
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Jambo it's really easy. Just a little care needed. Switch off the PC. Open the PC case up. You should see the memory sticks plugged into banks of 2 or 4 slots. Probably 4. At either end of the sticks is a little plastic catch that you need to push open. Before touching the memory modules just touch any part of the metalic case to ensure any static is discharged. Not sure how relevant that is these days but I always do it. Once you open the catches just pull gently on the memory and it will come out. Remove 1 or 2 sticks depending on how many you have. Start up the PC and see how it performs. If it's still shit then switch off. Pull out the other 1 or 2 sticks and put the other back in the same slots they came from. To put back gently push down and the catches should close over securely. If not simply push them into the little slot on the memory stick. Start up again. Still no joy then swap em about a bit in the slots and try different combinations. If it doesn't improve then it's not the memory at least.
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_Allan_
Member
Registered: 24th Mar 04
User status: Offline
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Forgot if you do have 4 slots and they are coloured then remove the same memory in one colour first.
In the picture above, the 2 in the black slots first as I assume the at least 1 blue is needed for start up. So swap the 2 sticks in the blue for the other 2 that you removed from the black slots. Bit of trial and error and a few startup and you should at least know if you have a faulty module. Wouldn't be the first Dell machine to be sent with one. We had a couple in work last year.
[Edited on 22-04-2008 by _Allan_]
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Neo
Member
Registered: 20th Feb 07
Location: Essex
User status: Offline
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First off,
To speed up the boot process, go into the bios on boot (F12 on dells), and turn quick boot on.
I personally haven't had any issue's with Nvidea and Vista, however it might be worth plugging the monitor into the on board VGA output and uninstalling the Nvidea card. If this makes a difference download the most up to date vista friendly firmware and drivers for your graphics card and reinstall it.
Check your paging file, if you right click on my computer and go to properties, followed by advanced, and click performance settings you will be presented with another box, click advanced again and at the bottom it will say Virtual memory, press change and select no paging file. This will then utilise all the ram it can. If all this fails and still runs like a pig on crutches then tell Dell to collect their piece of sheet of get a refund.
Sorry i can't help much more jamborino
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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Errrm, turning the paging file off is not really recommended...
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Mase
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Sep 01
Location: Derbyshire
User status: Offline
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my mates dell PC can't detect the DVD drive. Apparently its something within vista that it doesn't like or something.... He keeps ringing them and they remotely sort it out, but everytime he gets an auto update, it stops working again..... sorry jambo, it doesn't help your probs, but thought I'd mention it as something to check maybe?
Mase
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