New Laptop ??

[EddieS'04]

Before the wife left my old desktop crashed. I had been using her laptop. I had to get in a hurry for a machine. Had to get my files off of hers and such so I would have a machine. I like dell. So I got a dell inspiron 1525 with w/xp home, from walmart for $500. For now it does what I want. Not what I would have ordered. It is a 2ghz celeron and 2gig memory. I will get a more powerfull desktop latter.



Here is the question or the problem. It doesnt matter where I set the keyboard settings. What Iam typing sometimes maybe a whole word behind on the screen. Please dont say slow down :lol: Iam not that fast. Any Ideas...thanks

 

[Kevin Palmer]

If I understand what you are asking,,,, I believe your saying that you are typing and the characters show up considerably slower than what they should, correct????



If so, you need more RAM. The computer for whatever reason is working hard, thus, it is using most of the available memory just to keep on track...



With more RAM, the computer will over-all work MUCH better.



How much RAM do you have right now?



If you don't know, go to control panel, then to SYSTEMS... The info will be in there...

 

[TomT]

Eddie said he had 2gb of ram which should be suffiecient even sharing with the video memory. Sounds like you may have lots of unnecessory processes running in background. Get rid of those then defrag. Are you running VISTA? It's kind of a memory hog by itself. More memory can't hurt but what you have should be good enough.

 

[Kevin Palmer]

you are correct, I missed that...



I have seen third party programs do this as well.



Every now and then it seems to be tied to yahoo and yahoo instant messaging...



If you do an "ALT, Ctrl, Del" you can start the program manager. You will see what all is running as far as programs go...

 

[EddieS'04]

Yes it is 2gig ram. xp home operating system. I have allready shut down all unnecessary startup programs in msconfig.

 

[Nelson Atwell]

He said it has XP Home, not Vista. To me, perhaps it may be downloading service pack updates or installing them. Like the others said, it should be fast enough. Hit ctrl/alt/del and see what processes are using up your memory. It could be something Dell or Wal-Mart preloaded. If so, you can go to control panel and uninstall it. If you bought a system returned by someone else (an open box sale), then you could have spyware or a virus running on it.



A good place to diagnose problems is PC Pitstop. The link is below.

 

[TomT]

The 2ghz celeron you have may not be the greatest but is plenty of power for the majority of tasks. Defrag then check for updated drivers. If that doesn't improve it then you may have something more seriously wrong.

 

[Kevin Palmer]

Has this happened pretty much since you bought it?



I ask because, I had this exact issue, (though I had Vista on the machine). I bought it from Best Buy on Easter as mine crashed the day before and I had a paper due for school. I took the computer home and it was CRAPOLA...



Super slow, typing was several characters behind me... Programs took for EVER to load and then ran poorly.



I contacted the store, they told me to finish my paper if I could and return it on Monday.

I did finish but it was a ruff ride.



Took it back on Monday, the looked at it for like 2 minutes and said, "something is seriously wrong, we will give you another."



Took the 2nd one home and it worked and still works perfecly...

 

[Wes Davis]

I agree with others that the computer has something going on in the background. Probably as stated above is downloading updates and stuff for Windows and all the other programs loaded on it. I would turn it on, connect to the internet and leave it set for several hours while you watch tv or something and see what happens. Mentioned above also is PCPitstop. Run a full system test and it will tell you exactly how your computer is configured. It is possible you have a piece of ram not seated in its slot or something like that. Also download and use FireFox browser. It is much faster than IE. A brand new FireFox is being released on June 17th.

 

[Nick Barber]

Too many processes running while typing, probably an anti-virus running too. Leave the computer on longer, or turn it on a while before you want to use use so it can do what it needs to do and not get in your way.

 

[George C]

Eddie,



It may be a problem with the keyboard.sys file. Go to you c:\windows\system32 directory and delete the keyboard.sys file. You may have to show hidden files to see this. After it is deleted the keyboard probably will not work until a reboot but once it is rebooted the keyboard will be reinstalled. Give this a try and see if it works.



George

 

[Jim Johnson]

Does this happen in all applications, or just one or two specific ones?



My laptop does this only when I am typing e-mail, and it didn't start until I upgraded from an older version of Mozilla (a suite essentially based on Firefox & Thunderbird) to the newest version named SeaMonkey. (Stupid name, eh?) Now, whenever the e-mail client saves a temporary copy of whatever outgoing message I'm typing -- which seems to be every minute or so -- the text on the screen lags behind my typing for a few seconds, then catches up.

 

[EddieS'04]

Nelson, I ran the pc pit stop. It found some items that would slow my system. Then it wanted me to by the program to fix it. I did find a few more startup items that I manualy deleted. It found alot of stuff left over in the registry from programs I didnt want and deleted them. Iam not profeciant enough to mess with the registry.



This was not a returned unit unless walmart has access to dell sealing tape. Also the box appear to have not been tampered with.



Anyway the typing is still slow.



George, I was under the impression if you delete a system file you will have reinstall it with the windows disk...

 

[Martin]

Eddie,



Here is a pgm you can "try before you buy"......it will check your entire system and fix problems that slows down your system at the same time protect it from hackers and viruses.



With one license, you can install on three puters. I rate this program AAA and have been using it for about 6 years.