Why is ubuntu so slow on windows 7 capable system?

Question

I love Linux and I think it is the best OS out there, but for some reason it is noticeably slower than windows 7 on my machine. It hangs a lot, and none of the animations are smooth. It is a HP pavilion dv9700 laptop. I have 2 gb of ram and a dual core intel processor. I will add the hardware output from lshw in the end of this question. I hope you can help me because I really love the Linux philosophy and don't want to have to go back to microsoft and windows.

PS: I tried Mint and Ubuntu and also installed the XFCE and LXDE versions of Ubuntu. Still it lags a lot, which shouldn't be so bad with my specs I think. I guess it may be a compatibility problem, but I can't put my finger to it. That's why I will add my specs in the lshw at the bottom, maybe you guys can find the problem?

description: Notebook
    product: HP Pavilion dv9700 Notebook PC (FN466EA#UUG)
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    version: Rev 1
    serial: CNF83019HR
    width: 64 bits
    capabilities: smbios-2.4 dmi-2.4 vsyscall32
    configuration: boot=oem-specific chassis=notebook family=103C_5335KV sku=FN466EA#UUG uuid=434E4638-3330-3139-4852-001E6885BE89
  *-core
       description: Motherboard
       product: 30CB
       vendor: Quanta
       physical id: 0
       version: 79.2E
       serial: None
     *-firmware
          description: BIOS
          vendor: Hewlett-Packard
          physical id: 0
          version: F.59
          date: 11/25/2008
          size: 100KiB
          capacity: 960KiB
          capabilities: isa pci pnp upgrade shadowing escd cdboot bootselect int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer acpi usb agp smartbattery biosbootspecification
     *-cpu
          description: CPU
          product: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual  CPU  T2410  @ 2.00GHz
          vendor: Intel Corp.
          physical id: 4
          bus info: cpu@0
          version: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T2410
          slot: U2E1
          size: 1067MHz
          capacity: 2GHz
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 533MHz
          capabilities: fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx x86-64 constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm dtherm cpufreq
        *-cache:0
             description: L1 cache
             physical id: 5
             slot: L1 Cache
             size: 64KiB
             capacity: 64KiB
             capabilities: asynchronous internal write-back
        *-cache:1
             description: L2 cache
             physical id: 6
             slot: L2 Cache
             size: 1MiB
             capacity: 1MiB
             capabilities: burst external write-back
     *-memory
          description: System Memory
          physical id: c
          slot: System board or motherboard
          size: 2GiB
        *-bank:0
             description: DIMM DDR2 Synchronous 533 MHz (1,9 ns)
             physical id: 0
             slot: DIMM 1
             size: 1GiB
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 533MHz (1.9ns)
        *-bank:1
             description: DIMM DDR2 Synchronous 533 MHz (1,9 ns)
             physical id: 1
             slot: DIMM 2
             size: 1GiB
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 533MHz (1.9ns)
     *-pci
          description: Host bridge
          product: Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub
          vendor: Intel Corporation
          physical id: 100
          bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
          version: 0c
          width: 32 bits
          clock: 33MHz
        *-pci:0
             description: PCI bridge
             product: Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1
             bus info: pci@0000:00:01.0
             version: 0c
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pci pm msi pciexpress normal_decode bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=pcieport
             resources: irq:40 ioport:2000(size=4096) memory:cc000000-ceffffff ioport:d0000000(size=268435456)
           *-display
                description: VGA compatible controller
                product: G86 [GeForce 8400M GS]
                vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
                version: a1
                width: 64 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
                configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
                resources: irq:16 memory:ce000000-ceffffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:cc000000-cdffffff ioport:2000(size=128)
        *-usb:0

@ArchismanPanigrahi I would rather suggest that the animations aren't smooth because of non-optimal closed source drivers. That was my observation with Unity. — LiveWireBT, Oct 30 '13 at 08:01
On the other side if you take a coser look, this was already a low end machine when it was released (Pentium was a low end brand by then already). No surprise here. Slow speed and stability in comparison to Windows 7 is partly due to bugs in desktop components and partly opinonated. — LiveWireBT, Oct 30 '13 at 08:07

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 29 '13 at 05:47

I tried Mint and Ubuntu and also installed the XFCE and LXDE versions of Ubuntu. Still it lags a lot.

I don't know the details, but in such cases is either, graphics card incompatible (if it's only the animations and no the real RAW performance) or a hardware failure, like memory or HDD.

Troubleshooting this may prove not be easy. You need to install the privative Nvidia drivers if you haven't done so. If you don't see improvement in the graphics performance, then be almost assured that is bad RAM modules or the Hard Disk failing. The hard disk can be tested if you use a Live system (should be USB to properly measure the fastest performance, since CD's are slow), bad memory modules come often accompanied with other random errors but it worth a shot testing it.

As a final test, you should also check if your BIOS settings are optimum, and the BIOS is updated, your laptop isn't filled with dust (dust tends to traps heat, and the system throttle performance when hot).

You should probably noticed by now, that I could still list more reasons, since system performance could be affected even if the combination of hardware components/software is not adequate and finding out the perfect balance is, well... difficult.

Upvote for suggesting checking memory and dust cleaning. – LiveWireBT Oct 30 '13 at 08:06 — LiveWireBT, Oct 30 '13 at 08:06

score -3 · Answer 2 · answered May 14 '13 at 18:02

-3

You will seldom get optimum speed with dual boot, but it should be good at most of time.

You may have to clean RAM from within ubuntu and reboot to ubuntu first.

To clean RAM

As root

#: free -m verify actual RAM status

#: sync Force changed blocks to disk, update the super block.

#: echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches Writing to this will cause the kernel to drop caches, dentries and inodes from memory, causing that memory to become free.

answered May 14 '13 at 18:02

22lk94k943 only

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how does dual boot reduce speed? AFAIK, it only eats more HDD space and nothing more. After GRUB menu you have single OS loaded! – Stefano Mtangoo May 14 '13 at 19:35
I am not even running dual boot, I always do a full install. So that couldn't be the problem. – user158656 May 14 '13 at 19:52
@Stefano In dual boot Both OS use RAM simultaneously that makes many programs load slower then they should. – 22lk94k943 only May 15 '13 at 04:30
@user158656 there may be another reasons too. A hard disk problem may give such result, check with a Hard drive utility from the manufacturer. And if it's Raring you talking about then try to update the kernel to mainline 3.9 – 22lk94k943 only May 15 '13 at 04:35
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Dual booting does not cause the operating systems to share any resource besides hard drive space; nor is the OP dual booting. – Travis G. Oct 29 '13 at 00:32
in dual boot both OS use RAM simultaneously? that's some gross misinformation – prusswan Jul 09 '14 at 07:39

Why is ubuntu so slow on windows 7 capable system?

2 Answers2