[Amilo X1554] VISTA: (not responding)

Moderator: ModTeam

Raphael J
Posts: 12
Joined: Sat Jun 02, 2007 14:03
Location: Luxembourg
Contact:

[Amilo X1554] VISTA: (not responding)

Postby Raphael J » Wed Mar 26, 2008 11:10

Hi, now nearly a year after "working" with a 1554 Amilo on VISTA, you think it is normal that:

1) It takes forever to start:
-> switch on the computer and go for a half hour's walk, or call someone you have not called in a long time and have a long conversation.

2) When VISTA finally has started, using nearly 50% of available RAM with no programs running, you want to check your email and click on the IE symbol:
-> first of all nothing happens; it looks just like you did not do anything... you click again... same thing... you wait; after another cup of cofee and a long telephoneconversation with a long lost friend; surprise (!), you have started IE twice and you are sure again, that you are not crazy, after all you clicked on it twice :-)

3) You try to see the properties of a large disk; you click on it with the right mouse:
-> nothing happens; the window greys out an it says "(not responding)", this time it's time to go for a shower; after the shower you finally have the right click menu on the screen... you choose 'Properties' and... time for another phone call, or another cup of coffee, or even your favouvite TV series... if you don't feel like sitting there and watching the round blue thingy turn and turn and...; you get the point? :-)

4) After you finally establish the properties of your disk, you decide to back up 2 GB of music onto an external USB drive:
-> you select the folders you want to copy and drag them onto the USB drive... now VISTA really has a hard time figuring out how long this will actually take; blue thingy goes round and round... oh well; time to take the dog for a walk...

6) Starting a 'VISTA-ready' audio software, to edit your latest recordings you have done on a mobile recording device (bought, because it is impossible to use the VISTA laptop to do that, even though you thought you could... no, no, no....), you realize 'Oh yes! it still does not work; and probably won't until the SP1 release! Shame; oh well, I've only been waiting nearly a year...'

7) Finally after the SP1 release you find such nice things like ex-FAT for your mobile recording devices and other neat stuff and: now your laptop is almost using 75% of available RAM after going through the launching-mission of the laptop... Now that's what we call efficiency :-)

5) Now you remembered why you switched on the computer in the first place and figure it is too late now, just enough time to push Alt and Tab key and watch the flabourgastoring, amazingly surprising, awsomest 3D desktop flipping the windows by, before shutting down the computer and going to sleep and looking forward to the next time you'll have time enough to talk to friends and take the dog for a walk...

Conclusion: A laptop with VISTA on it is much similar to a boat anchor: It slooooows you down until you finally get to a stop.

Don't take this too seriously, but I guess a lot of you know what I am talking about :-)

All the best,
Raphael J
Last edited by Raphael J on Wed Mar 26, 2008 14:46, edited 1 time in total.
If it works, don't fix it!

User avatar
Dave O
Posts: 256
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2005 0:01
Location: Lincolnshire

Re: [Amilo X1554] VISTA: (not responding)

Postby Dave O » Wed Mar 26, 2008 13:24

I agree with you on Vista to some extent. Nice aero graphics, flip desktop of no use to anyone, what are you left with Bloatware. Apart from looking good what does it realy offer over XP? I have three machines running Vista all are no way as bad as yours, 2 Laptops and one desktop. My old Amilo D1845 performs fairly well with Vista. The Dell inspiron isn't any faster that XP but works well
I certainly think you problems lie else where, A painfully slow start up usually means a bad driver. What realy slows a machine down is too many programs, each one starting themselves up at boot up and then hogging vital resorces. Type in run comand, msconfig and under startup disable any unwanted programs. Also Vista needs 1GB of RAM just for the O/S, so 2GB is a minimun system RAM that you need. Slow file transfer is a known issue with Vista, It was suposed to be fixed with SP1. But they have held back from releasing SP1 because they are having problems. Microsoft / Problems whats new there! Finaly most Laptops have 5000rpm HDD's which is nearly 1/3rd slower than desktops HDD's. It makes a big differance, The diferance between my amilo D and the Dell Inspiron is realy noticable.

I hear what you say, a lot of people complain about Vista! When XP came out, yes a lot of people complained about XP. Yes but it did offer so much more than Win 98se. Won't even mention Melenium edition! But what does Vista actually offer over XP, very little nothing to actually justify the cost of conversion! I think Microsoft realy dropped the ball on Vista! :cry:
I keep saying it, I'M NO EXPERT!

Amilo D1845
Dell Inspiron 1720
Asus Comando : E6600 : Nvidia 8800 GTS : HDD 1Tb

Raphael J
Posts: 12
Joined: Sat Jun 02, 2007 14:03
Location: Luxembourg
Contact:

Re: [Amilo X1554] VISTA: (not responding)

Postby Raphael J » Wed Mar 26, 2008 15:14

Hi Dave,

thanks for your pat on my back :-)

You know, I work in sound. Up until last year I did not consider buying a laptop for field sound recordings. But looking at the tech specs of the 1554 I thought that I could not do much wrong, considering the soundchip, the connectivity and the the nice screen.

I just tought it would be neat to be able to take a laptop to record the sort of things I record...

The first testing of the recording capabilities, using Adobe Audition and my SONY powered microphone connected to the Mic-in of the 1554, was just shattering... I was sure that there was something physically wrong with the machine. (built on a monday mrorning or something) First of all it was impossible to get a decent signal. Then testing it recording nothing (no input; it's a sort of thing sound people like to do to see if there is any noise in the recording circuits that need to be considered/eliminated before you get on the road) it revealed a rhytmic change of DC bias of the basic wave, which seems related to the internal circuitry of the 1554 (either HD data transfer or data being pushed around the motherboard).

In the controlpanel of the soundcard I found a checkbox that you can activate which zeros any negative or positive DC bias; but when I read the explanation that the manufacturer gives in relation to the subject, I realized that I bought an expensive toy rather than a laptop capable of doing serious 2 track field recordings. The explanation is something like "If checked it enables you to have maximum quality recordings"; whatever they mean by that... The guy who wrote that should have his nose knuckled!

The only way to get decent recordings on the machine is by using a USB recording device like the Zoom H4 or H2, and using the last version of Cool Edit (V2.1)

As you mentioned all programs that are not needed should not run, but since I am not an expert I cannot really tell which ones I can deactivate; actually I deactivated so many programs, switched to classic view and cut off all the fancies, but still have an unreliable system.

But hey, it looks nice standing around on my desk connected to my HD TV... :-)

At least Photoshop, Flight Simulator and Videostudio 11Plus run somewhat decently, once the machine is up and running.

But like I said in my first message, don't take my first message too seriously, it is just the frustration of having spent almost a whole weekend backing up a 500GB drive to a USB drive. After 24 hours or so I stopped the backup because I realized that I have 'Total Commander' installed on the machine; which is very neat piece of software. Doing the drag and drop in Total commander sped up the backing up of my HD from something like 5MB/sec to about 24MB/sec.

Total Commander has sort of the Windows 3.11 look but runs great on Vista; none of this 'figuring out how long it will take before I start copying' stuff. :-)

All the best to you Dave,
Raphael J.

P.S. I also still have XP running on a desktop machine for the studio audio and MIDI, I can start and shut down that machine about 6 times before VISTA starts up once.
If it works, don't fix it!

User avatar
tenchiten
Posts: 383
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2007 20:08
Product(s): Frankenputers
Location: Cheshire UK

Re: [Amilo X1554] VISTA: (not responding)

Postby tenchiten » Wed Mar 26, 2008 19:56

XP till I die, XP till I die etc etc......... sorry guys ignore me :D
Learning all the time.

User avatar
Dave O
Posts: 256
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2005 0:01
Location: Lincolnshire

Re: [Amilo X1554] VISTA: (not responding)

Postby Dave O » Thu Mar 27, 2008 0:05

Hi Raphael J,
I understand your fustration. I decided to build my new machine just as Vista was coming out. For about the first 5 months I always had niggling problems. I eventually put it down to dodgy drivers, Microsoft makes it dificult to get at new O/S, so hence the drivers people produce are a bit ropey. It takes a while for the coders to get to grips with the new O/S. Hence all us early adopters of Vista get a bumpy ride. I eventually went round all the manufacturers web sites got some decent drivers, hey presto no more BSOD etc etc. Maybe what you need to do sometime is to get the latest drivers, best from the manufacturers themselves and do a clean reinstall. I have an interesting artical on getting computers to start and run faster, I'll try and find it and send it to you as a private message. But don't hold your breath, as when I file something its never seen again. Just think there are some other people out there suffering just like you....YOU ARE NOT ALONE,why do you think Microsoft has just dropped the price of Vista?

Mind you do some interesting stuff on your computer! I use Photoshop CS3, why can't Microsoft have programers as good as Adobe! :lol:

PS:- Just ignore tenchiten, its not the first time he's had fun at my expense over Vista :lol: :lol: :lol:
I keep saying it, I'M NO EXPERT!

Amilo D1845
Dell Inspiron 1720
Asus Comando : E6600 : Nvidia 8800 GTS : HDD 1Tb

User avatar
Dave O
Posts: 256
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2005 0:01
Location: Lincolnshire

Re: [Amilo X1554] VISTA: (not responding)

Postby Dave O » Thu Mar 27, 2008 0:35

Hi again Raphael J,
Hey found that mag article about startup & shutdown, have put it in a zip file. Just need your e-mail address as I tried to sent it to you as a private message, but it cant do attachments. Send me a PM and I'll E-mail this article to you. I won't be ofended if you don't want me to have your E-mail address, I'll just delete it in a few days then go and sulk for a few months.. :)
I keep saying it, I'M NO EXPERT!

Amilo D1845
Dell Inspiron 1720
Asus Comando : E6600 : Nvidia 8800 GTS : HDD 1Tb


Return to “AMILO Notebook”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest