5672 What's the bloatware?

[Krista]

Hi,

I was working on my sister's 5672 (x1600 version), converting it to ntfs and trying to clean up up for her last night so it would be faster (and she could get a successful scandisk going).

Can anyone tell me what, of the programs installed, they consider to be bloatware? What can successfully be removed without affecting performance, except to speed it up?

I converted to ntfs, but then read other articles later that suggested that you should do some other stuff first or the ntfs blocks will be small and slow... 512? Anyway, has anyone else had that problem. I'd rather not have to rebuild her system (software) in the evening she has left visiting me.

As to those who were interested in the comparison of the 5672 and the ASUS S96J... Mine seems noticeably faster... which isn't too much of a surprise considering I have a slightly faster processor and more video memory, and I installed everything myself (no bloatware). I think the graphics / screen look a bit better, and the S96J, though it gets as hot, I think (or close) under the right hand rest, does not get as hot (to the touch) overall.

Her 5672 was surprisingly cool, IMO, compared to what others have said, and compared to the one I touched with an X1400 vid card in CompUSA that was doing nothing but idling.

Krista

[fjgold1]

The only Acer software I have running on my 5672 is the Orbicam
software. It allows more fine control. I also have XP Pro on my machine
though. I formatted and installed from a retail copy I bought at time of 5672 purchase. I have no use for the other stuff. One item the ePowermanagement
or something like that replaces the native XP applet. It's neat but it forces
you to have hibernation enabled with no way to shut it off like with the
windows applet. In my case that wastes 2 GB of disk space. I never use hibernation.

You might want to check out the Omega ATi drivers they work better than
the stock drivers ATT system tray applet installed with offer more control
than the "official" ATi stuff.

http://www.omegadrivers.net/ Their homepage

http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati/win2k_xp.php Download page for XP.

[Krista]

Thanks. What about the wi-fi control program? That seems to be part of that Acer menu... didn't look too bad.

Krista

[fjgold1]

Thanks. What about the wi-fi control program? That seems to be part of that Acer menu... didn't look too bad.

Krista
Do you mean the Intel wireless applet. If so I use that although it
can be trickier to setup for WPA or WEP. I have my router setup for WEP
only because I dual boot Ubuntu 6.06 LTS linux and haven't figured out
WPA in that OS yet. A good tool you can download to control stuff that
loads when windows starts is Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml install the CP applet not the standalone. You will then have a Control panel icon you can use to change
startup behavior.

At his site check out Startup Monitor

http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml This applet will tell you when a new program tries to install itself or part of itself to startup and ask you if
you want to allow it.

Mark Russinovitch at systeminternals offers Autoruns

http://www.sysinternals.com/SystemInformationUtilities.html

a much beefed up version of Mike Lin's proggie. You can even right click
an entry and choose google from the menu and perform a google search
on the item.

All this stuff is free.

[Sucka]

I reinstalled and have nothing running. Windows can manage wireless just fine. Get rid of it all imo.

[fjgold1]

I reinstalled and have nothing running. Windows can manage wireless just fine. Get rid of it all imo.Sucka is right XP manages
Wi-Fi fine.

[walters]

I just registered for these forums and just last night bought a 5672 X1400 at CompUSA. I've been reading the (mostly) good comments in various places. This thread is interesting to me because I want to format and install XP Pro. The computer is really for my son who is going to the University of Colorado to start college in a few weeks. Their website says not to use XP home. My wife is an ex Microsoft employee, so we get the software cheap anyway.

I'll have a bunch of questions when I actually get started, which will be in a few days. I did this same thing to my 5 year old Compaq and didn't reinstall any of the Compaq stuff. Can't say I've missed it.

I do have a question about the wireless performance. I'm on Comcast cable and get over 6 Mbps speed (via testmy.net) with wired ethernet both on my desktop and on this new 5672. But on wireless I'm only getting about 1.5 Mbps, even though the signal is reported as "very good" and the speed 11Mbps. Have you guys noticed this behavior. Unfortunately my old laptop is at another location and I can't compare right now. But I'm pretty sure it was faster, even with the old Lucent PC card!

Thanks, and nice to meet you.

[fjgold1]

I just registered for these forums and just last night bought a 5672 X1400 at CompUSA. I've been reading the (mostly) good comments in various places. This thread is interesting to me because I want to format and install XP Pro. The computer is really for my son who is going to the University of Colorado to start college in a few weeks. Their website says not to use XP home. My wife is an ex Microsoft employee, so we get the software cheap anyway.

I'll have a bunch of questions when I actually get started, which will be in a few days. I did this same thing to my 5 year old Compaq and didn't reinstall any of the Compaq stuff. Can't say I've missed it.

I do have a question about the wireless performance. I'm on Comcast cable and get over 6 Mbps speed (via testmy.net) with wired ethernet both on my desktop and on this new 5672. But on wireless I'm only getting about 1.5 Mbps, even though the signal is reported as "very good" and the speed 11Mbps. Have you guys noticed this behavior. Unfortunately my old laptop is at another location and I can't compare right now. But I'm pretty sure it was faster, even with the old Lucent PC card!

Thanks, and nice to meet you.
Welcome walters,
Congrats on your purchase. I've had this great machine for 3 mos. now.
I love it. I can't wait to upgrade to the Merom proc when it becomes available.
I am a Comcast customer also. My service is supposed to be 6 Mbit/sec.
I am writing this using my wi-fi. I use toast.net to test throughput.
http://performance.toast.net/ I use the Nibble Info Systems site for the
test. It is in Chicago the closest to me. I consistently get 7-9 Mbit/sec
Down and 365Kbs Up, as I am now. Regardless of whether I'm on wi-fi
or not. I normally don't use wi-fi at home and when I use it like right now
I am only 18" from router. I do use when on the road however (I am a contractor
in the US Nuclear Power Industry). My job takes me to all parts of this great
country. My criteria for a decent motel room must include broadband service.
Usually it is Wi-Fi. I get results ranging from adequate to fantastic, but
always better than dialup. Check out this little free tool
http://www.majorgeeks.com/TCP_Optimizer_d2104.html
just download and place anywhere you want on your HDD.
I place mine in a folder in C:/program files I call TCPopt and make a shortcut to it
on my desktop. No other install needed. Run the program and set the Connection
speed slider to your measured connection speed. From the network adaptor
dropdown choose the your wireless card and click optimal settings radio button at bottom. Apply changes and exit. Reboot. This will set your receive window (rwin) to the optimimum for your connection speed and increase you maximum IE connections from 2 to 10 and disable negative dns cache amongst other stuff. An easy way to optimize your internet connection.

When you are ready post here with any additional questions. BTW, if you check
out my sig you will see that I have Ubuntu linux installed dual boot on this
machine. If you are interested I can help you do the same.

[randomperson2]

I do have a question about the wireless performance. I'm on Comcast cable and get over 6 Mbps speed (via testmy.net) with wired ethernet both on my desktop and on this new 5672. But on wireless I'm only getting about 1.5 Mbps, even though the signal is reported as "very good" and the speed 11Mbps. Have you guys noticed this behavior. Unfortunately my old laptop is at another location and I can't compare right now. But I'm pretty sure it was faster, even with the old Lucent PC card!

I've got comcast cable too. But I'm thinking you should upgrade your wireless to maybe 802.11g or something. 802.11b is kinda cheap. I'm using a belkin pre-n wireless router and the pre-n wireless nic. I'm getting 108Mbps on my laptop with no problems, it's faster than my wired computer downstairs at very good signal strength.

[fjgold1]

I've got comcast cable too. But I'm thinking you should upgrade your wireless to maybe 802.11g or something. 802.11b is kinda cheap. I'm using a belkin pre-n wireless router and the pre-n wireless nic. I'm getting 108Mbps on my laptop with no problems, it's faster than my wired computer downstairs at very good signal strength.
That's a good observation. I myself am using a Linksys WRT54GL with
Thibors HyperWRT (hacked) firmware. Of course my lappy uses 802.11g.
I have my router and wireless set to use "g" only.

[KinzaKracker]

yea, clean install best bet, and then maybe load orbicam (drivers only) and maybe ePower mgmt software as to adjust the brightness levels and cpu usage real simple. also there are some threads on disabling nonessential services.. which u could look into but make sure u read the discriptions, as one could disable network printer capabilities. or another using certain mp3 players,