New Core i5 Laptop is not that fast after start up

ThRiLLeR · 12 Aug 2010

I just bought a new laptop with a Core i5 450M but the thing is that when i turn on the computer the boot time is okay but when i open any program like opera(browser) after the start up.. it takes time, like maybe 3-4 sec
I mean it doesnt open straight away when i click.
Afterwards, everything opens quickly without much wait. Is it that the first time u open any program it takes time and then next time its very quick?
Is this normal?
Secondly, how can i see the number of cores that are working while i am using the computer?

Any help would be highly appreciated. :)

Petey7 · 12 Aug 2010

All four cores/threads will be running at the same time, unless you changed something in MSconfigs boot tab, which you shouldn't do. Press ctrl+shift+esc to open the task manager and go to the performance tab. It will show four spaces for CPU usage history.

I'd be willings to bet the computer came with a lot of bloat ware, which should be removed through programs and features in control panel. Remove any thing that says trial version or anything else you don't want/need. If it came with McAfee, it needs to be removed immediately and replaced with Microsoft Security Essentials or Avira. To understand why McAfee should be removed, just look at the recent threads about it in the Security section of the site.

Beyond those steps you can also use our tutorial on how to Optimize Windows 7.

Zathras · 12 Aug 2010

Sounds like normal behavior to me--when you first load a program after booting the system, it has to find and load it from the hard drive, which is pretty much the bottleneck on a modern system. If you run the program again later, it loads faster because it was probably still in main memory and doesn't need to read it from the hard drive.

The Howling Wolves · 12 Aug 2010

Like any new computer it probably has more junk loaded and trial software than you will ever need or use.
I would go into msconfig and under start tab see what is loading at start up.
If it is not a program/software that you need immediately upon start then uncheck it and reboot. IMO

ThRiLLeR · 12 Aug 2010

Thanks everyone for your help. Actually this laptop was my first computer with a dual core mobile processor.
So i expected it to work very fast which it didn't. I was wondering whether something was wrong with the laptop coz i did uninstall many preloaded softwares that were of no use for me.
I still have the many days left for returning the laptop to the seller(newegg) for replacement of the same product.

**cluberti** · 12 Aug 2010

I'm not sure I'd return it as there's physically nothing wrong with it - in fact, I'd rather have 4 slower cores than 1 fast one, honestly. I would go so far as to say a clean install might clear that up right away, if you have a Windows installation disc handy.

Petey7 · 12 Aug 2010

I just did some looking after remembering that some i5s only have two processors. The 450M has only two, with hyper-threading. You might want to open task manager like I instructed before and make sure it shows 4 threads. If not, I would make sure hyper-threading is enabled. It's still basically the same thing has having four processors.

Just out of curiosity, have you done anything to try to speed the computer up? Some of the advice commonly given online can actually slow a computer down.

ThRiLLeR · 12 Aug 2010

cluberti said:

I'm not sure I'd return it as there's physically nothing wrong with it - in fact, I'd rather have 4 slower cores than 1 fast one, honestly. I would go so far as to say a clean install might clear that up right away, if you have a Windows installation disc handy.

Clean install, yup! It sounds great.
But the thing is that i didn't get any Windows CD with it to do the re-install. Maybe, i'll get a CD for that.

ThRiLLeR · 12 Aug 2010

Petey7 said:

I just did some looking after remembering that some i5s only have two processors. The 450M has only two, with hyper-threading. You might want to open task manager like I instructed before and make sure it shows 4 threads. If not, I would make sure hyper-threading is enabled. It's still basically the same thing has having four processors.

Just out of curiosity, have you done anything to try to speed the computer up? Some of the advice commonly given online can actually slow a computer down.

Yup, i'll surely make sure that the hyper threading is enabled. Right now, the pc is doing the system restore as i used some registry tweaker which i didn't like so i want to roll it back.

Emm.. What should i do to speed up the computer? I uninstalled many softwares that were of no use for me. I like the visual effects so i don't want to disable them. Other than that i am using the Windows 7 aero theme.

BUT I CAN'T DO A CLEAN INSTALL OF WINDOWS 7 AS I DON'T HAVE THE DRIVER CD FOR THE LAPTOP. ITS ONLY THE BACK-UP IN THE COMPUTER ITSELF. SHOULD I BACK-UP IN SOME DVD AND THEN I CAN EXPLORE THE FILES AND LOOK FOR DRIVERS FOR DIFFERENT DEVICES?

Petey7 · 12 Aug 2010

Do you have a home group set up? I didn't know this until recently, but the services for home group run at start-up whether you use them or not. You can disable them by going to Control Panel, switch the view to small icons. Click Administrative Tools, then services. Both start with the name HomeGroup. From there you can also disable Taplet PC Input, and Remote Registry, the latter of which should be disabled for security purposes.

You can also go into System Configuration and go to the startup tab. Any software that you don't need running at as soon as the computer starts up, can be unchecked. An example of software you do need is your Antivirus software. The rest you will have to determine yourself. If you set one to not run and it causes problems, you can always turn it back on.

Keep in mind when you first login, no matter how fast your CPU is (and you have a darn good one), a lot of things are being loaded so the computer will be slow for the first minute or so. Afterwards it should be pretty fast.