Need help with my pc.

[MrHelpMe]

Hello,

I have upgraded an old p.c to 800 mhz Intel pentium III with 524 megs of Ram. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I think my p.c. should run fairly quickly. Well the problem is after I reformatted my two hard drives(20 gigs) each and fresh install of windows xp pro, my system is much slower then my original 700 mhz 128 megs of Ram with the same OS). I then updated service pack 1a(I don't want service pack 2), and still the same slowness. I boot my p.c up and the hard drive light continuously runs(almost like I need more Ram) even after the desktop is shown. About 10 minutes after that. I have defragged the drives(diskeeper), moved the swap file to the empty drive D:/ and gave it min 1500 and max 1500. Also left min 2 and max 50 on the master drive. There is no spyware or virusus on the p.c as I scanned. I have tweaked the sofwtare as best as I can to see if this helps(shut down services, desktop enhancements, folder options, visual effects etc). Still nothing. Can anybody think of anything. Could the jumpers be incorrectly set on the CPU, is RAM/CPU bad. How do I test for these? Any software you recommend to test. I also installed tune up utilites 2006 to see if that helps but still slow p.c Everything seems to lag, yet the memory under performance monitor seems rather low. Thanks for your help. Please let me know if this is clear.

 

[longhair]

SalvatoreF,
using the correct drivers for the hd's?
what's running at startup?
regards,
longhair

 

[BadBigBen]

1.) turn of Prefetching, right click on the drives and go to properties, uncheck the Index feature....

2.) under services, turn of the Index Service...

3.) under Services turn WIA to Manual... to leave the service active when needed and not active at boot...

4.) set your TCP/IP adress to a static one... Windows looks for a Network to give the IP adress to the NIC that may be installed...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[linney]

FAQ779-4784 may help.

windows XP running very slow
thread779-796508

Try Safe Mode (Do you have this problem in Safe Mode?).

Try another user profile in case a corrupt profile is the cause?

811151 - How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151

To get further information about the error look in your Event viewer.

Look in the System or Application folder. You can get to the Event Viewer via right click My Computer icon and select Manage.

Any errors logged in the Event Viewer can be expanded by double clicking on the error line.

Take any event error I.D. number and search for it on these sites.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr.../prodtechnol/winxppro/support/EE_winxppro.asp

http://www.eventid.net/events.asp

If the problem occurred after installing a device driver or application, try using Safe Mode and removing the driver or program.

To check your RAM.

http://www.memtest86.com/

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

To check your Hard Drive.

The drive manufacturer will have free diagnostic software to check your drive for problems.

You can also load the Recovery Console and run ChkDsk /r to check for problems.

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console for Windows XP (Q307654)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q307/6/54.asp

To check your drivers.

HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/5/14.asp

To check conflicting software.

310353 - How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

316434 - HOW TO: Perform Advanced Clean-Boot Troubleshooting in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316434&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

310560 - How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310560&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Removing adware & spyware
FAQ608-4650

Will check your computer for spyware and adware.



See if you have any services that are flagging as "Starting" but not actually running.


Some general things to try.

See if System Restore will get you back to a restore point before your problem with Windows.

Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking.

Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy.

If they don't work you could try repairing windows itself by running it over itself. You will lose all your windows updates but your files will be untouched.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/3/41.asp