We have two laptops, one is an older XP, one a newer Vista. Both essentially the same computer tho. Just got the Vista one for $150 cheaper a year later

Anyway, the Vista laptop needs more RAM as it only has 512 in there. The XP has the same but being XP runs just fine.

So, my problem is the wireless reception on the Vista laptop is terrible. The connection often drops off, it can be very slow to load. I could barely get TV to work today. I thought maybe it was because my nephew was playing some online video game on the desktop so I powered up the XP laptop to compare, and all websites loaded fine on the XP laptop.

So, is it because the Vista laptop is low on RAM or could it be some other issue instead?

Vista is notoriously suspect when it comes to wireless connections. I bought my wife a Sony Vaio laptop which came with Vista pre-installed. We had exactly the problems you have described which I researched on the net. It struck me that this is one of the many problems that multiple Vista users encounter.

After a week of trying I formatted the laptop and installed XP - wireless connections are now fast and faultless.

With some of the versions of XP available now you get all the Vista functionality with the XP reliability.

Try connecting with Ethernet (wired, cable) to see if you have the same performance issues. Alternatively try a differnt WiFi AP to see if you have the same problem. Also Google your notebook model, integrated WiFi adapter and Vista to see if others have issues. Could be an issue with the adapter, or driver. It's not clear this is a reception or RAM issue, maybe even a browser, firewall/blocker, java, etc. issue?

I have two wifi points (the modem itself and a wifi access point because the modem doesn't reach all parts of the house) same with both.

Its not that it won't load but that it takes forever! The signal is always weaker than the XP laptop.

I will google the adapter and see if that is different from the XP laptop. Thanks for the tips guys. It has been very frustrating.

If all of that fails then I am going to go with xp. I've had enough of Vista.

Final thought, would updating the drivers help at all?

OK, tried the ethernet cable, no problems at all. And now that my nephew is off the internet, it is working much faster.

Why would one laptop slow down if someone is using the internet but the other one not?