Forum Home
Press F1
 
Thread ID: 78259 2007-04-09 09:58:00 Dell selling notebooks incapable of running Vista ? Organicpete (133) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
539313 2007-04-09 09:58:00 Hi,
A student I know has bought an Inspiron 1501 (Sempron ) with 512 ram and Vista.
This thing takes about 3 minutes to boot up and runs like an absolute slug.
On Dells website they say "Dell recommends 2GB of memory for a stunning Vista Aero experience"....and they sell it with 512.
This is like selling a car with 3 wheels while recomending it needs 4 for maximum enjoyment.

My question is....
can she use budget 1GB DDR2 SDRAM 533 to boost this dog of an OS ?
Are there compatability issues ?
Wouldn't be surprised if it needs Dell ram to work...

thanks for any help

Pete
Organicpete (133)
539314 2007-04-09 10:05:00 Can't answer you question, but buying Dell is a real false economy. The web is full of horror stories about there PC's and service.

Unfortunatelty most folk learn the hard way.

Sorry to hear of your friends problems.
lotse (11963)
539315 2007-04-09 10:07:00 That laptop comes with Vista Home Basic, not the full version of Vista so it does not include "Aero". Did they particularly want the full version of Vista Home?

512 MB is the recommended minimum for Basic, but adding more RAM will certainly help improve general performance. :)
Jen (38)
539316 2007-04-09 10:09:00 Well, a Sempron I think is as bad as a Celeron.

So, not only does it lack ram, its got a crap CPU.
Speedy Gonzales (78)
539317 2007-04-09 10:38:00 512 MB is the recommended minimum for Basic,

Since when did MSs recommended minimum mean anything useful?
pctek (84)
539318 2007-04-09 10:48:00 I saw an acer laptop the other day with sempron CPU, 512mb RAM shared with graphics & Vista home premium Greven (91)
539319 2007-04-09 11:07:00 Semprons aren't that bad, clock for clock they aren't actually all the much slower than an Athlon64. They lose out because AMD sell them with lower clock speeds.

Even Celerons arent that bad these days, nowhere near as bad as the Celerons from the early P4 era. Both CPUs are more than adequate, paired with a mid range graphics card they even make for an ok gaming system.

I doubt the Dell would require proprietary Dell memory, but i would be inclined to install it in matching pairs. e.g sell the 512 and buy two 1gb sticks or buy another 512 to get 1gb.
Pete O'Neil (6584)
539320 2007-04-09 11:41:00 Hi,
A student I know has bought an Inspiron 1501 (Sempron ) with 512 ram and Vista.
This thing takes about 3 minutes to boot up and runs like an absolute slug.

Pete

Sounds like the "Goods are not suitable for the purpose" - CONSUMER GUARANTEES ACT

Good luck trying to prove it though.
porkster (6331)
539321 2007-04-09 11:47:00 Semprons aren't that bad, clock for clock they aren't actually all the much slower than an Athlon64. They lose out because AMD sell them with lower clock speeds.

Even Celerons arent that bad these days, nowhere near as bad as the Celerons from the early P4 era. Both CPUs are more than adequate, paired with a mid range graphics card they even make for an ok gaming system.

I doubt the Dell would require proprietary Dell memory, but i would be inclined to install it in matching pairs. e.g sell the 512 and buy two 1gb sticks or buy another 512 to get 1gb.
I don't know about Semprons, but the newer Celeron D are certainly much better than the old Celeron.

Then again, Vista does seem to require a bit much.
qazwsxokmijn (102)
539322 2007-04-09 22:13:00 Thanks for the comments guys :)
Looks like the best is to get another stick of 512 as her budget is very limited .
I spose the onboard graphics is not helping the ram situation .
Will generic ram be ok ? Legend prices seem good .

Is there a site with vista tuning guff ?
I cant find the startup tab to see what the heck it is running that can be turned off .

cheers
Pete
Organicpete (133)
1 2