Acer Device Manager
Computer - ACPI Multiprocessor PC
Disk drives - SSDPAMM0008G1
Processors
Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz
Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz
WindowsXP service pack 3
Intel Atom
CPU N270 @1.60GHz
1.60GHz, 0.98 GB of RAM
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Unmentioned but needed to find PC info on the Acer web site is its model: 110. The closest thing to that is: ACA AOA1101588 Netbook with WindowsXP.
It has solid state memory instead of a hard drive. That's one reason that I bought it, I figured that this memory would be more stable physically and would work considerably faster. Note: Acer presented this as 16 gig. It's 8 gig, plus an 8 gig SD card, which I usually do not have inserted.
I monitor CPU usage in task manager, when the system is not locked up for maybe 10-30 seconds doing who knows what. I also check CPU usage in Norton Internet Security. I suspected Norton as the problem but turned off LiveUpdate and everything else but the Acer is still SLOW.
Note the two processors from system info device manager:
Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz
Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz
Two processors are also shown in task manager. Why are there two? Doesn't that cost more than one? Are the two working at cross purposes? Are they using the operating system inefficiently. Can the OS even handle two processors? What about the apps?
The OS is Windows XP, which was first released on October 25 , 2001. Hey, it's almost EIGHT years old! If you cruise back on my posts you can trace my unsuccessful attempt to use a netbook running Linux, flavor Ubuntu. The thought of Ubuntu still makes my teeth hurt. I chose Windows XP as an unwanted default. According to wikipedia.com:
As of the end of May 2009, Windows XP is the most widely used operating system in the world with a 61.54% market share, having peaked at 85% in December 2006.
Microsoft is scheduled to release Windows 7 on October 22, 2009. It is a better version of Windows Vista. Will Acer provide an upgrade to Windows 7? Will it be free?
Both netbooks (Dell/Linus v. Acer/Windows) that I have had shared a common problem: the cursor runs amok. Often. It must have something to do with the small screen and high screen resolution. Why do I need to deal with this junk?
The New York Times June 27, 2009 article about Acer:
This year, Acer appears poised to overtake Dell as the world’s second-largest seller of personal computers, which would put a real dent into one of America’s favorite dorm-to-empire business stories. And if this comes to pass, Acer would trail only Hewlett-Packard; no computer company based outside the United States has ever climbed so high.
As far as I could find on the Acer web site I cannot order more RAM to try to improve performance. Something like that can be done easily with Dell and probably also with HP.
Gianfranco Lanci is the chief executive of Acer. Maybe I'll send him this message.
1 comment:
I was doing a search on slow netbooks and saw your post. I have a new Acer Aspire 1One and man is it slow. I thought a netbook would be really good and quick at surfing the net. Boy was I wrong. Mine has the AMD Dual Core C-50 with 2GB of memory. Nothing has been added to the platform to bog it down and its still as slow as molasses. Very dissatisfied with the POS. I should have just bought a new Toshiba laptop.
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