Really not meaningful. The lower end Geforce 8 cards are *sloooooow*, definitely not game worthy by any means. Better check what model.

"Network Adapter"
"VGA-compatible Display Adapter"
"base system device"
"unknown device"
etc.

In other words, it has no freaking idea.

I guess I'll try Windows 7 now. I hate how RAM requirements are always twice on Vista/7 as they are on XP, but I guess I have the ram to spare...

EDIT- I am now running Windows 7 Ultimate, and I must say I'm pleasantly surprised. It runs like a dream, and the only driver I had any trouble installing(and I use trouble very loosely) was the OEM-modified video card driver. Everything else worked just fine out of the box, except some model-specific drivers I don't really care about(for the extra buttons, etc.). A++, will install again.

I've been happy with Win7. To me, it seems to run cooler and faster than XP did, and installs in far less time than XP.

As to the RAM concerns, I had 7 running on a machine with 512 MB. I was told repeatedly it wouldn't install but it did just fine and runs decent enough.

Yeah I'm totally changing my tune about Windows 7. It works great, and program performance is about what I'd expect from XP. Question- do I get any performance boost from using the classic theme?

I honestly haven't tried. From what I've read, it was supposed to be designed for minimalistic systems, so I am guessing the less graphics the faster it should logically go.

Let us know if you try it.

Aero uses hardware desktop composition - i.e. the rendering/layering of windows is done in hardware, rather than in software. On capable hardware you should see general performance increase with Aero enabled (and a reduction in flickering when windows repaint). Try both and see which you prefer, I guess.

I'm using it and I'm certainly satisfied with it, I was just wondering if I'm getting any extra performance from it. Any other ways to increase performance, in case I need an extra boost?

For future reference, that means you don't have the right drivers installed (in this case, it doesn't look like any of the important drivers have been installed)



No. All of those things you read about increasing Windows performance are bullshit and actually either cost performance or do nothing. Moreover, they are typically a huge PIA to reverse when they inevitably cause harm.

There are some ways to improve performance (such as disabling alpha in aero), they are not worth it a majority of the time in that any performance gain is incredibly small for significant impacts in usability/visuals.

Thanks, that's what I needed to know. The video card isn't as good as I thought it would be, but I'm looking into possibly replacing it. I'll post again when I've taken a look inside and determined if it is indeed possible. Otherwise, this machine is still great for internet browsing and older games.

One other question. There's a coprocessor listed under the unknown devices in device manager, is this important?

You can't replace the GPU in a laptop.



o.0