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#1
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Slow Compaq
Just got done working on a Compaq of the following description:
Compaq Evo D300 Desktop Series Evo D310v Model with Intel 845G Chipset 1.8-GHz with 400-MHz Front Side Bus Has 128-MB DDR Synch Dram PC2100 (266-MHz) Non ECC Operating system is XP-Pro. It was slow to start with. No updates had been done. I updated it to SP1 and installed the rest of the critical updates. Norton was up to date. I did a full system scan... it was clean. Found a moderate amount of adware and spyware and removed it all. Only 5 items checked in Msconfig... all normal stuff. Task Manager doesn't show anything unusual running. It is *still* slow. I have a 850 Mhz machine of my own (one I built) that will run circles around this one. Dunno why it shipped with only 128 Mb ram and I have ordered another 128 for it, but I don't really look for that to speed it up much. I didn't look in bios but these days there's not much you can change and I don't want to make it unstable. Is this just the nature of the beast? -- I child-proofed my house but they are still getting in. |
#2
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On Sat, 15 May 2004 18:26:58 -0500 As another one bit the dust "Lil'
Abner" wrote : Just got done working on a Compaq of the following description: Compaq Evo D300 Desktop Series Evo D310v Model with Intel 845G Chipset 1.8-GHz with 400-MHz Front Side Bus Has 128-MB DDR Synch Dram PC2100 (266-MHz) Non ECC Operating system is XP-Pro. It was slow to start with. No updates had been done. I updated it to SP1 and installed the rest of the critical updates. Norton was up to date. Remove Norton. -- Free Windows/PC help, http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html email shepATpartyheld.de Free songs to download and,"BURN" :O) http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm |
#3
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On Sat, 15 May 2004 18:26:58 -0500, "Lil' Abner"
wrote: Just got done working on a Compaq of the following description: Compaq Evo D300 Desktop Series Evo D310v Model with Intel 845G Chipset 1.8-GHz with 400-MHz Front Side Bus Has 128-MB DDR Synch Dram PC2100 (266-MHz) Non ECC Operating system is XP-Pro. It was slow to start with. No updates had been done. I updated it to SP1 and installed the rest of the critical updates. Norton was up to date. Norton? Get rid of it. I did a full system scan... it was clean. Found a moderate amount of adware and spyware and removed it all. Only 5 items checked in Msconfig... all normal stuff. Task Manager doesn't show anything unusual running. It is *still* slow. I have a 850 Mhz machine of my own (one I built) that will run circles around this one. Dunno why it shipped with only 128 Mb ram and I have ordered another 128 for it, but I don't really look for that to speed it up much. Actually that may be by far the greatest performance increase possible. Constantly swapping out to pagefile is a dreadfully slow way to run an OS, let alone trying to get any work done... but even so, 256MB just barely adequate, typically 512MB plus is needed for more demanding jobs. I didn't look in bios but these days there's not much you can change and I don't want to make it unstable. Is this just the nature of the beast? Take a look at the services, disable everything unnecessary and uninstall 3rd party applications fitting same "unnecessary" description. This is particularly beneficial when running with so little memory. Differences in HDD age can also make a difference, and you didn't even mention if it's a Celeron or P4. If all else fails, backup the current OS partition and do a clean install, compare them. |
#4
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Lil' Abner wrote:
Just got done working on a Compaq of the following description: Compaq Evo D300 Desktop Series Evo D310v Model with Intel 845G Chipset 1.8-GHz with 400-MHz Front Side Bus Has 128-MB DDR Synch Dram PC2100 (266-MHz) Non ECC You really need more than 128 for WinXP... It's a resource hog (at least compared to linux) Operating system is XP-Pro. It was slow to start with. No updates had been done. I updated it to SP1 and installed the rest of the critical updates. Norton was up to date. Uninstall Norton I did a full system scan... it was clean. Found a moderate amount of adware and spyware and removed it all. Only 5 items checked in Msconfig... all normal stuff. Task Manager doesn't show anything unusual running. It is *still* slow. I have a 850 Mhz machine of my own (one I built) that will run circles around this one. Dunno why it shipped with only 128 Mb ram and I have ordered another 128 for it, but I don't really look for that to speed it up much. I didn't look in bios but these days there's not much you can change and I don't want to make it unstable. Is this just the nature of the beast? Defrag your disk and upgrade file system to NTFS if it's not already. Is this a new install of Xp or was it already there? |
#5
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On Sun, 16 May 2004 04:43:51 GMT, Ian Hopkins
wrote: Defrag your disk and upgrade file system to NTFS if it's not already. Except with very large partitions holding tons of small files, NTFS is slower. |
#6
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Ian Hopkins wrote in
: Lil' Abner wrote: Just got done working on a Compaq of the following description: Compaq Evo D300 Desktop Series Evo D310v Model with Intel 845G Chipset 1.8-GHz with 400-MHz Front Side Bus Has 128-MB DDR Synch Dram PC2100 (266-MHz) Non ECC You really need more than 128 for WinXP... It's a resource hog (at least compared to linux) Now you're talking my language! I have a dedicated machine running Red Hat 9.0. It's been "up" for over 3 months now. It *does* like memory, though. I'm running 512 Mb in that one but that may be overkill. Operating system is XP-Pro. It was slow to start with. No updates had been done. I updated it to SP1 and installed the rest of the critical updates. Norton was up to date. Uninstall Norton I did a full system scan... it was clean. Found a moderate amount of adware and spyware and removed it all. Only 5 items checked in Msconfig... all normal stuff. Task Manager doesn't show anything unusual running. It is *still* slow. I have a 850 Mhz machine of my own (one I built) that will run circles around this one. Dunno why it shipped with only 128 Mb ram and I have ordered another 128 for it, but I don't really look for that to speed it up much. I didn't look in bios but these days there's not much you can change and I don't want to make it unstable. Is this just the nature of the beast? Defrag your disk and upgrade file system to NTFS if it's not already. Is this a new install of Xp or was it already there? Factory install... NTFS. I'm personally not a big lover of NTFS but not for really valid reasons. I maintain our phone company's main computer and usually do what I do at night via a network connection NTFS has tight file restricitons and won't let me access system folders over the network. I can go in with PCAnywhere and do it, but that's draggy. I usually just drag my butt across the street and work on it. A Fat 32 installation doesn't have those restrictions. Thanks to all of you for your help and suggestions. I've replied to two different posts here and think I got all the questions covered. -- I child-proofed my house but they are still getting in. |
#7
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Trent© wrote in
: On Sat, 15 May 2004 18:26:58 -0500, "Lil' Abner" wrote: Just got done working on a Compaq of the following description: Compaq Evo D300 Desktop Series Evo D310v Model with Intel 845G Chipset 1.8-GHz with 400-MHz Front Side Bus Has 128-MB DDR Synch Dram PC2100 (266-MHz) Non ECC Operating system is XP-Pro. It was slow to start with. What is that 'it' that you speak of? A computer is simply a machine...that performs certain functions. Is it slow on booting?...on running a certain program?...on accessing new programs?...on browsing? You need to be more specific. It boots up fairly fast. It's slow opening control panel, My Computer, Windows Explorer. Office isn't installed, but even Word Pad takes forever to open. Internet Explorer opens slow, but seems to function pretty well once it's open. But I have a T1 here at the shop so that tends to make things look better than they are. No updates had been done. I updated it to SP1 and installed the rest of the critical updates. Norton was up to date As others mentioned...completely uninstall Norton...reboot...see if there's a difference. Its not unusual for Norton to provide updates that can slow a computer to a crawl. Yeah, I know... I use Norton myself, but if it's not doing updates it doesn't seem to slow me down. Since it isn't my machine and the guy paid for Norton, I didn't uninstall it, but I disabled it from starting just to do a compare. It booted a little faster, but other than that I didn't notice any difference. I did a full system scan... it was clean. Found a moderate amount of adware and spyware and removed it all. Only 5 items checked in Msconfig... all normal stuff. Task Manager doesn't show anything unusual running. It is *still* slow. What brand hard drive?...defragged?...temp internet files deleted?...OE compacted?...what size clusters?...etc. Ultra ATA/100 20 gig 5400 RPM (according to the specs) I *think* it's a Seagate, but I don't have it here to check right now. It's the original OEM installation... NTFS (to answer someone else's question too). I deleted all the temporary internet files... also the windows\temp files. Not defragged. I have a 850 Mhz machine of my own (one I built) that will run circles around this one. Run a good, intensive program from a boot floppy...mem tester, etc. See how it runs that way. OK... I've got Mem tester. Dunno why it shipped with only 128 Mb ram and I have ordered another 128 for it, but I don't really look for that to speed it up much. Again...speed WHAT up? I tried to cover that above. I have memory ordered. What I'll do is call the guy today and have him do the defrag. When the memory comes, I'll see how much that helps. I ordered a matching 128 Mb stick. If it's still slow, I'll test them individually and together with MemTest. On older machines I usually routinely do a defrag, but I overlooked it this time. I've never seen defrag make a *real* big difference, but it could be. I haven't had a whole lot of experience with defrag and NTFS... maybe NTFS is worse when it gets fragmented. -- I child-proofed my house but they are still getting in. |
#8
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On Sun, 16 May 2004 02:47:58 GMT, kony wrote:
Dunno why it shipped with only 128 Mb ram and I have ordered another 128 for it, but I don't really look for that to speed it up much. Actually that may be by far the greatest performance increase possible. Constantly swapping out to pagefile is a dreadfully slow way to run an OS, let alone trying to get any work done... but even so, 256MB just barely adequate, typically 512MB plus is needed for more demanding jobs. I feel the same way. In fact, you should find out if the computer supports odd-sized chips. Both Athalons I bought in the last year do. What I am saying is, if you can return the 128 MB you ordered and get a 256 MB, a total of 384 is going to really help over 256. Personally I feel that even 500 MBs is low (but adequate). Of course my system steals 64 MBs of RAM for the graphics. Go here to this page (below) and follow this guys advice. If the computer is not networked you can do everything he suggests. (I think I didn't change just one thing he suggested). You can save quite a bit of your very precious RAM by disabling some of this stuff. (Windows XP by default has all kinds of stuff turned on, but they are unnecessary for regular home users). http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm Go through them one by one, checking each setting (automatic, manual, or disabled). There is quite a bit to do, so use a couple of windows going back and forth, so you can keep track. Or else print it out. I would also track down how to disable Windows Messenger. It loads up as part of Win XP and even if you change it's own settings from within the program, it still is engaged. And then just use MSN Messenger when you want to be available. It is better anyway (uses the same network). Big Mac |
#9
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128 MB RAM is not enough to run WinXP, especially when part of it is dedicated to the video chipset. You should get another 256 MB. Lil' Abner wrote: Just got done working on a Compaq of the following description: Compaq Evo D300 Desktop Series Evo D310v Model with Intel 845G Chipset 1.8-GHz with 400-MHz Front Side Bus Has 128-MB DDR Synch Dram PC2100 (266-MHz) Non ECC Operating system is XP-Pro. It was slow to start with. No updates had been done. I updated it to SP1 and installed the rest of the critical updates. Norton was up to date. I did a full system scan... it was clean. Found a moderate amount of adware and spyware and removed it all. Only 5 items checked in Msconfig... all normal stuff. Task Manager doesn't show anything unusual running. It is *still* slow. I have a 850 Mhz machine of my own (one I built) that will run circles around this one. Dunno why it shipped with only 128 Mb ram and I have ordered another 128 for it, but I don't really look for that to speed it up much. I didn't look in bios but these days there's not much you can change and I don't want to make it unstable. Is this just the nature of the beast? -- I child-proofed my house but they are still getting in. -- Mike Walsh West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A. |
#10
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"Lil' Abner" wrote:
I have memory ordered. What I'll do is call the guy today and have him do the defrag. When the memory comes, I'll see how much that helps. I ordered a matching 128 Mb stick. If it's still slow, I'll test them individually and together with MemTest. On older machines I usually routinely do a defrag, but I overlooked it this time. I've never seen defrag make a *real* big difference, but it could be. I haven't had a whole lot of experience with defrag and NTFS... maybe NTFS is worse when it gets fragmented. The memory will make a BIG difference with XP; another thing you might want to take a quick peek at is the Windows font directory, and make sure the user hasn't installed 5,280 fonts. Jon |
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