[mythtv-users] Slightly OT: Dothan Centrino M unbelievably slow?

[Steven Adeff]

On Dec 31, 2007 2:48 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> Steven Adeff wrote:
> > My friend had a laptop he bought last year (Acer Aspire 3620) and the
> > screen died on him, so he let me have it and I'm trying to turn it
> > into a frontend for my bedroom but I'm finding that it seems to be
> > really slow.
> >
> > Now, I can't get speedstep-centrino working on it because I guess its
> > really buggy or something, what I'm finding on google is everyone has
> > to recompile their kernel after modifying the speedstep-centrino file.
> > BUT, x86info -mhz is showing the laptop is running at 1.6Ghz.
> >
> > But when I try and playback a simple AVI (downloaded Top Gear for
> > instance) its too slow to handle it. As well, running top it shows
> > that top itself is taking about 10-20% CPU%?!!
>
> Top often shows as a lot of CPU at first, then settles down after a few
> seconds.
>
> >
> > So I think something seriously wrong is going on here but I can't
> > figure out what. Anyone have any idea or is this processor just
> > rediculously slow?
>
> "Centrino" is not a CPU, it just means that the laptop maker bought the
> CPU, main mobo logic and WiFi radio all from Intel. It is a trademark,
> not hardware.
>
> If what you have is a Celeron, which is very likely, you may well run
> into trouble with CPU capability, and laptop mobos and harddrives are
> not at the top of the performance heap.
>
> Make sure everything not really needed is not running. Try using a
> lightweight desktop. Make sure you have sufficient RAM.
>
> beww

ok, well, its a Dothan 1.6Ghz, which wikipedia says is a Celeron. It's
only got 512MB of RAM with a 2GB swap space. Which is what I have on
my personal Turion64 1.6Ghz laptop. Both are running Gutsy with KDE,
but this Dothan feels muuuch slower. I can easily watch avi's and HDTV
mpeg streams on mine whereas the Dothan is struggling.

Hopefully it's fast enough to watch DVD's and standard definition
recordings then it won't be a bad holdover until I can budget in a Mac
Mini or something.

Thanks!

-- 
Steve