Sloooooow Computer

NotMe

I have a computer at home running XP and some things run really slow on it. Internet browsing: ping works at reasonable times but browsers take ~10 minutes to load a page. Clicking on another computer in Network Neighbourhood just causes Explorer to freeze. And accessing the floppy drive is real slow.

I don't think the computer can handle XP, it had Win98 before but it is above the minimum requirements:
CPU 475Mhz
RAM 120MB

Is there anything I can do to speed it up or would it be best to just uninstall XP?

Adam

Uninstall XP, they (MS) recommend at least 1GHz cpu and i think 512Mb RAM, your way under par im afraid....

jessy

fade_to_grey wrote:

Uninstall XP, they (MS) recommend at least 1GHz cpu and i think 512Mb RAM, your way under par im afraid....

Your way of the mark there mate. here what Ms actualy say.
"Here's What You Need to Use Windows XP Professional
•

PC with 300 megahertz or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233 MHz minimum required (single or dual processor system);* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, or AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended
•

128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)
•

1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space*
•

Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor
•

CD-ROM or DVD drive
•

Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device"

OfflerCrocGod

I agree with grey - Microsoft's figures are pure bull****.

Mutant_Fruit

Fine, you can run the OS with a 300mhz computer. Just don't expect it to do anything except sit at the desktop.

It was very slow for me with 128mb ram, and an 850mhz AMD processor.

I wouldn't touch XP with less than 512mb ram, especially if you want to play games, or do ANY kind of work other than basic word processing. My advice, get rid of XP asap. The computer is way to slow.

Adam

Your right, i apologise profoundly however i have installed XP on multiple systems with varying specs and know that it tends to lag on anything relatively taxing with anything less than that... i have a similar system to yours notme, its jus a second pc i use for bits and bobs and it is also equally as slow tbh, except IE, i dont have a connection on it so im not sure how it would perform. surely ten mins is an exaggeration though??

jessy

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

I agree with grey - Microsoft's figures are pure bull****.

The cpu might be but i know loads of people who are running it on 128 without anytrouble.


i would run a virus scan and check for spyware befour id do an uninstall.

sixpack's little hat

I used XP pro on a ~300 MHz laptop with 192M RAM for six months on work placement over the summer and it ran fine using IE, firefox, access,excel, word etc.

OfflerCrocGod

sixpack's little hat wrote:

I used XP pro on a ~300 MHz laptop with 192M RAM for six months on work placement over the summer and it ran fine using IE, firefox, access,excel, word etc.

Ye you had enough RAM, I would have loved to see it with 64-128MB RAM the amount of disk trashing would be a joke.

Stephen

Windows 2000 would work great on your machine, NotMe.

jessy

disable all xps visual features, Like skins and the like, get rid of most of the networking stuff that starts at bootup.
resort back to the classic look.

should speed it up a bit.

Shrimp

fade_to_grey wrote:

Uninstall XP, they (MS) recommend at least 1GHz cpu and i think 512Mb RAM, your way under par I'm afraid....

I am running XP on 750mhz 198Mb Ram!! Laptop! Works Perfectly....

greglo23

if you want to keep xp your best bet would be to stick in more ram as some of the others above said. it would be the quickest and easiest way to speed it up !! imho 512 would be the least to go for.

BloodBath

If you stick to basics, xp runs fine on 256mb of ram. I have a second pc doing this and it's pretty fast although it is ddr400.


BloodBath

NotMe

Thanks for replying people.

fade_to_grey wrote:

surely ten mins is an exaggeration though??

actually it can load up the google page quick enough but for any other webpage it will usually timeout.

jessy wrote:

i would run a virus scan and check for spyware befour id do an uninstall.

that's the first thing I did.

jessy wrote:

disable all xps visual features, Like skins and the like, get rid of most of the networking stuff that starts at bootup. resort back to the classic look. should speed it up a bit.

I've done all of this aswell.

Actually it's my mams computer and she bought XP and Word/Excel/Powerpoint for it so if I go back to Win98 then these will be useless. But then again she needs to be able to access the web on it so it's pretty useless anyway. I might try putting more RAM in.

stevenmu

Try disabling as many services as possible too, that can signifigantly reduce memory usage. I've found XP with most services disabled runs better than 2000 in low memory situations.

edit: tweakxp.com have a page here with a list of performance tweaks, the best one for you would be "Disable unnecessary services to free system resources", but the others could help too.

Dempsey

NotMe wrote:

I have a computer at home running XP and some things run really slow on it. Internet browsing: ping works at reasonable times but browsers take ~10 minutes to load a page. Clicking on another computer in Network Neighbourhood just causes Explorer to freeze. And accessing the floppy drive is real slow.

I don't think the computer can handle XP, it had Win98 before but it is above the minimum requirements:
CPU 475Mhz
RAM 120MB

Is there anything I can do to speed it up or would it be best to just uninstall XP?

What OS are the other PC's on the network?

On the hardware that you have, XP isnt ideal but will run ok. W2K Pro SP4 uses about 120MB on startup when you first install it. XP uses more with SP1, never mind SP2. What programs are you using on the PC?

stevenmu

Another problem may be with the networking setup. Check what protocols are installed. You'll probably just need TCP/IP, if there's any others like IPX/SPX or NetBeui uninstall them. Having more than one protocol running over a network can lead to problems like you described with network neighbourhood

I am MAN

My last machine ran xpPRO fine

p500
128mb ram

NotMe

Dempsey wrote:

What OS are the other PC's on the network?

On the hardware that you have, XP isnt ideal but will run ok. W2K Pro SP4 uses about 120MB on startup when you first install it. XP uses more with SP1, never mind SP2. What programs are you using on the PC?

The other computers are running XP aswell. I just need to be able to use Word, Powerpoint, Photoshop Elements and Firefox/ Thunderbird.

I only have TCP/IP installed.

Looking at task manager at startup with no programs running:
Physical Memory:
Total 122360
Available 34868

smileyrecords

1. install windows 2000pro or hack Windows Server 2003 into workstation
2. buy/built new pc

greglo23

here`s another useful link for services http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Dempsey

NotMe wrote:

The other computers are running XP aswell. I just need to be able to use Word, Powerpoint, Photoshop Elements and Firefox/ Thunderbird.

I only have TCP/IP installed.

Looking at task manager at startup with no programs running:
Physical Memory:
Total 122360
Available 34868

Then XP will be fine, 2K would use less resources, maybe slower on default net settings but its up to you