ADN

Okay, so I have a big question about my computer...to which the answer I'm sure will require a lot of information on my part, which I'm willing to look for you guys if you tell me where I can fidn it.


WHY IS MY SHIT SO SLOW?!

I have a custom built Toshiba, made before my freshmen year of college...so it's a little over two years old now. I got it made to run video games at a high frame rate....(WoW in particular)

It recently crapped out on me and an ex-coworker of my mom took a look at it and fixed it, telling me I have a really beautiful machine that I probably put a lot of money in to. This is the case...I paid a pretty penny for it, but alas...I know not a damn thing about computers.

He like cleaned everything out....re-installed a buncha stuff....and cleared out all the tobshiba propaganda that comes with the machine. But...it is running like a piece of shit...particularly when I play my game...which I know saps a lot of energy..but I would think my system could handily easily...as it has at certain times in the past.


I do not have any porn on my computer..I steam it...which may be infecting it with shit I don't know about....but I have a Zone Alarm Security Suite that I pay for and that was recommended to me to stop all the bullshit from getting in.

The biggest problem is clearly the fact that when I bought it, the only option was fucking Vista, which sucks. But I've had Vista the whole time I've had the computer and it has run beautifully in the past...and the guy said it was running great when he had it.

I don't know if its just my internet connection, but I doubt it....

Please, someone help! lol.

Again, if you'd need any information about the specs or something liek that, just let me know how to go about finding it so I can give it to you guys, because as smart as I like to think I am...I don't know anything about computers :)

Vista is good, but Windows 7 is better...

You should let us build this thing for you over again...I'll upload you a Windows 7 .iso, and we can step by step get your shit up to speed...It's easier and worth it to just say fuck it this round, and get ready for the next...

Back up all your valuable data, and when you're done, we'll get this party started...Your shit will run extra crispy off a fresh format, we'll make sure the right drivers get installed, and make sure that whomever told you that bullshit about Zone Alarm never goes near your computer again...

:)

I can't really afford a new computer at the moment, and definitely can't be without one while I'm here at school.

I mean, the computer functions well enough for me to get stuff done, I was just looking more for a quick fix, maybe a red flag would go up with something that I'm doing wrong or have installed.

Not to mention, I paid too much for this one to not have it for at least until I'm done with school!

I'm not talking about a new PC bro, I'm talking about doing all the necessary shit to make the PC you have run like new, lol...

What I'm suggesting will take about 2 hours, give or take, but you will need to reinstall most your programs...

The reason I say to do this is cause you did do one thing right, which is to remove all that shitty software that comes on PC's...You don't need it, its taking up valuable space, and contributes to your ghost in the machine factor...I usually format my PC every 3-4 months for this very reason, and I know what I'm doing...

Like I said, the first thing you need, if you don't have one, is an external drive...You cannot imagine how valuable that thing will be for you...You can get one fairly cheap, and you can get them huge...Either way, you need to back up all your data so we can wipe it clean once more, put a better, more responsive OS on it besides Vista, and you can learn some shit while you're at it, and get to ask questions instead of just installing what someone else thinks is great...

Now this could be the dude not knowing what he was talkign about.....trust me I have more faith in this community when it comes to computers (ala why I asked here) but he tried to put XP on this computer and it like...wouldn't work? Or maybe it was just because this computer came with a Vista Home Premium liscence so it was...easier to use vista on here?

Clearly I do not know what I'm talking about lol.

He did reccommend an external hard drive...and I should get that.... I'm going home at the end of the week, we have a couple days off for fall break, so I'll be home Friday night - Tuesday night...and that would be an ideal time to work all this shit out.

By the two hour thing...you mean doign it myself with direct connection and communication with you to guide me through it? Or like...having the shit in your hands?

I'd definitely be willing to work this stuff out with you, so let me know if this weekend is good and any info you need prior to getting it all started.

Nah Homie, we can do this over the phone, via IM...Basically, it will be just answering a couple questions...Once the format is done, You can install Firefox, get back online, and we'll shoot through a list of installs you need to make from the jump...

XP is old news, trust me, once you get over the newness of Windows 7, you're going to love it, and its going to work beautifully with your hardware...If you have a printout of what hardware you have in your computer, or can link me to the online page where you get your drivers, you can make an install CD right now, so when you get formatted, you can hit the ground running...Obviously, you should download your ethernet/wifi driver first...

If Toshiba doesn't have such a page, we need to find out what's in there now so you don't loose any hair when we start this process...

Hey, I found the email from Toshiba from back when I ordered it, got the invoice here from the shipment.

If you need anything more than that, just let me know where to find it and I'll pull it up and post it.

Regardless, my understanding with this process is that I should get an external hard drive, back up all my data...and then wipe this clean and start from there, right? Let me know a time that you're free to be on IM (I'll use my house computer) and we can do this. Also, what's a normal/good price for an external harddrive, and how much memory should I look to get....i.e. I don't know anything about those either lol.

SYS.BASE01 TOSHIBA CONFIG SYSTEMS
Serial#: 87127459K
BASE0128 SATELLITE P200
APP0007 NO MS WORKS
APP0025 NO MICROSOFT OFFICE SUITE INST
CAM0003 INTERGRATD 1.3M WEBCAM
COLOR0010 ONYX BLUE METALLIC
COM10033 INTEL WIFI LINK 802.11 A/G/N
COM20002 NO BLUETOOTH
CPU0204 CORE 2 DUO T7100 1.80GHZ
DC0004 NO INTEGRATED DISK CACHE
GFX0045 ATI RADEON HD2600 W/256MB
HDD0037 80GB HDD 5400RPM, SERIAL-ATA
HDD20004 NO 2ND HDD
KEY0005 SILVER PAINTED KEYBOARD
LABEL0003 VISTA PREMIUM LOGO
LAN0001 10/100 MBPS ETHERNET LAN
LCD0059 17.0" XGA+ TRUBRITE (1440X900)
MEM0061 2048MB (1024MBX2) 667MHZ
OS0079 VISTA HOME PREMIUM 32BIT
SBAY0027 DVD SUPERMULTI DRIVE SLIM
SEC0001 FINGERPRINT READER
SPKR0001 HARMAN KARDON SPEAKERS

install a ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution

Any size external should suffice, I guess it depends on how much shit you have on your current computer...Music, Movies, etc...If you don't have anything of significant size that you need to keep, shit, you can get a 2 GB thumbdrive for your docs and papers and use that...

But I see the 1TB Drive on PriceGrabber as low as $95...I have one, I've been hammering away at it for 2 weeks...Emptied out all my other externals and several DVD's...Still have 550 GB free...For the money, you can't beat it..! I think they are @ Wal-Mart (I personally don't like them, but to each his own) for about the same price as they are online...

http://snurl.com/se1gg

The Passport is also awesome, I have one of those as well...It's much smaller, and is powered via USB...It's about the size of a PSP...It's only 500 GB, but still, that's pretty good...You may like this better since you're a student, and may want that plug and play compatibility...

http://snurl.com/se1ha

If those are too pricey, you can get a 4 GB thumbdrive, which can hold a pretty good amount of data, for about $14.50...I've seen the 2 GB for about $10...The 16 GB is about $35...You may want to get one of those because you can use ReadyBoost...

Although Core 2 Duos are fast, the 1.8GHz Merom isn't exactly ideal for gaming. 2GB RAM is fine for normal Windows Vista use but if you are gaming I would recommend nothing less than 4GB RAM. That laptop graphics card is decent but only has 256MB video memory. I wouldn't expect to run high detail settings with that.