Brand new Sony VAIO is very slow; Optimization help/tips to speed it up?

Question

Hey there everyone. :)

Well, my subject line pretty much sums it all up. I purchased a brand new Sony VAIO laptop from a local BestBuy store (the model is the VGN-CR510E/P) just this past Wednesday. However, it's been VERY slow. It took over an hour to transfer about 100 MP3's onto it from a disc I had burned them on to from my PC.

This is the one I have: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8892843&st=vaio+pink&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1211587728121

Any help, suggestions, or good rescources on how to speed up my new baby would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! :)

Answer 1

Well, one thing you could do is strip it of the bloatware that comes standard with most new PCs. Sony is notorious for putting loads of it on their systems, going as far as to even put a complete Spiderman movie on it, and then locking it so that you have to buy a code from Sony if you want to watch it. Go to the Control Panel and then Add and Remove Programs. Find the programs that you can identify as bloatware, such as Try [Whatever] Free for 30 Days, Napster, and some others. Another thing you could do is use Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. It's available as a free download, and is extremely customizable to your liking. Also, be sure to keep it maintained with weekly virus scans, spyware scans, and disk defragmentations. Another thing that could be holding your computer back is the battery optimization option you've selected. In the Taskbar, in the item notifications tray, select the battery options. If your computer is plugged in, you could try and select High Performance for better performance, and when you unplug it, select Vaio optimized. Be sure to keep your computer up-to-date, by going to Windows Update in the Control Panel, as some might be critical to your computer's health. Hope this helped. :)

Answer 2

that is a very...pink notebook :p

As to why its running slow.  There are a number of tweeks you can do to make Vista alot more responsive.  You can find any number of tips and tweeks for vista that you can do online.  Just do a yahoo search for "Vista Tweeks and Tips" to get many guides and just about any of them are good.  Just be careful.  Some of the hacks are for advanced users so unless you know alot about computers stay away from any that mention editing the registry.

Also i would suggest removing all of the Sony bloatware (all of those useless programs that come preinstalled on your computer)  That will free up alot of resources and make everything faster...from start up to using applications.

One of reasons your probably running slow is the hard drive though.  With out knowing what brand it is it could be a horrible drive.  250gb drives are on average some of the lowest preformers even in the 7200rpm range.  So you might just be stuck with very slow write times to your hard drive.  You can download and install HDTune to check your transfer rates and access times but with the REALLY slow write you said (a CD worth of MP3's shouldnt take an hour on ANY decent drive) i'm afraid your drive is just going to suck in sustained writing.  You might want to see if you can sweet talk the geek squad to upgrading yout HD to a 320GB (5400rpm or 7200rpm either one is pretty fast) western digital for you.  You might have to pay for the drive, but you should be able to talk them out of the upgrade money.