Abnormally sluggish laptop...?

[nbarb99]

A friend of mine has a nice Sony Vaio laptop that is running a bit slower than I think it should, considering the specs:

Pentium 4 2.66GHz CPU
512MB DDR SDRAM (reported as 448MB in Windows )
40GB hard drive
WinXP Home
I can get the exact Sony model number later, don't know it for sure.

This machine seems to access the hard disk a little too much for having 512MB of RAM. I checked the Windows virtual memory settings, took of some unneeded startup processes, uninstalled some apps, and even made sure DMA was enabled on the hard drive.

Any ideas why this computer is acting sluggish? I can get more specs/info on request.

 

[Abhi]

First .. .teh 448 ram thing..

The machine has shared video ram, so 64 of the RAM is used as VRAM. Its normal.

2nd... get Spybot-Search and Destroy. Get Adaware. Update both, and run full scans on his laptop. Delete the crap they find, and you will find the machine much snappier. A quick virus check wudnt hurt either.

 

[nbarb99]

Thanks for the suggestions. I know that it can't be a virus, since my friend is very careful (read: nearly paranoid! ) about viruses, and always keeps a firewall/AV program running. Could definetly be spyware though.

 

[Abhi]

Spyware must be it...

Btw... when my new dell arrived... it was slightly sluggish...
A fresh install later, it just zoomed... might be time for a format/reinstall... if spyware aint the answer...

 

[Frightcrawler]

I say reformat it.

 

[Amused]

Another vote for a clean install. Those mass produced images they make are horrible.