Tell me it ain't so

[IQChallenged]

I've been a computer junkie for years but never had a laptop because I didn't think I needed one. But I always assumed they were slower simply because of space constraints. Over the past year or so I decided I did need a laptop after all. And quite a few people told me you could get a fast one if you didn't mind paying for it. So I ordered a Lenovo 500W which claims to be a workstation rather than simply a PC. It has a vid card said to be particularly fitting for CAD. For my CNC work I use SketchUp (as my CAD), Sheetcam, Mach3. The specs of this laptop meet or exceed the recommendations for all these programs. My antiquated desktop does not. While in Sketchup the program crashes often and runs noticeably slower than my old desktop when it's not. Am I expecting too much? Are laptops inherently slower (much slower) even when the specs are superior? Did I spend money for a laptop when laptops simply can't do our thing?

The specifics are Intel Core 2 Duo processor T9400 (2.53Hz 1066MHz 6MBL2); 3GB PC3-8500 DDR SDRAM; AT1 Mobility FireGL V5700 with 512MB VRAM;XP PRO; 160GB HD 7200rpm; Intel Turbo Memory 2GB.

[laszlozoltan]

those programs don't sound like they should be taxing your laptop at all- I believe your problem might be the drivers, particularily for the integrated gpu on your motherboard. check the support forum for your laptop, should help.

[WayneHill]

You have the horse power. Did the laptop arrive bundled with Anti-Virus programs and other crappy demo software that expires in 30 days?

[blackbeard52]

Is it Xp or Vista?... Many are having the same issues with Vista.... Sad but you might want to switch.....

Bob

[DareBee]

With that FireGL vid card and running XP Pro - you should be laughing. None of those programs you are running require special hardware and you have a computer that is built for running some serious CAD.

You either have driver issues or some of the hardware has physically gone bad.
With you being a computer geek, I don't need to tell you how to proceed from here.