Windows XP

Hi,....Can anyone offer some suggestions on why for some reason, other than the basic ones, my Gateway XP machine is slow...doing anything? Cleaned temp files, ran scandisk and defrag. Cannot figure out...No changes to the system can I relate
this to either....Any mouse click you do takes much longer than it should to respond.. it does respond eventually but this is ridiculous!!! Thanks again for your time!!!

JD

 

My Son-in-Law has a new SONY Machine with XP on it.

I can not say why it did it but when I was there last week and using the machine I found it to take about three times longer to boot than my 98 Machine(s) does ( do ).

I also saw the same slowness when going to the Internet. Everytime I would try to connect it would take 15-20 seconds before the connection window came up.

And if I did not wait at least 5-10 minutes after booting it would not go to the Internet anyway.

My thoughts are that it may have something to do with all of the stuff that OEM machines may install along with the OS.

Of course I could not ( and would not ) do much investigating as I was not there long enough and have had no other experience with XP to do so anyway.

BillyBob

PS.
Plus I did not want my Daughter angry with me for messing up their machine.

 

szvpvp - is this new behavior or since you got the PC?

Also, XP-pro or XP-home?

 

Hey everyone -- I know I'm not the only one in here that watches "The Screen Savers" - And on their recommendation, I went to a site http://www.blkviper.com
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On his site, he lists many many processes that XP runs automatically, explains what each process does, its' dependencies and wether or not you can turn that process off.
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I followed his chart and shut off a good number of programs that XP runs by default, and it has made a significant difference in the speed of my machine.. I would suggest going to his site and checking it out.
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(I mean, I'm running XP home on a lowly, old AMD K62/450MHz and it's running just fine )
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Good luck!!

 

Donniesito

Your reply goes right along with my theory. I really do think that is the reason for my Son-In-Laws' machine being so slow.

Every time I went to the Internet SOMETHING wanted to be updated. Printer software and Photo software and a lot of other stuff. And most of it had nothing to actually do with XP as the OS. And one or two things kicked in while I was there and at this site and stopped me for about 2 minutes and then had to restart XP. The machine is on a Dial-Up ISP.

When I saw how many things were in the Systray I almost flipped my lid. But not being my machine I did nothing about it.

But I sure would have if it were mine.

In general the FIRST thing I do when re-installing my OS or any software is to find what **** it may want to load and shut it down.

BillyBob

 

Hi All,

I just bought my daughter a new XP machine. Athlon XP 1.7 processor and 256 MB of RAM. It was a real pig! Just really sluggish is the only way to describe its performance. I added another 256 MB of RAM, set it to "classic desktop," deleted a TON of OEM junk software, got rid of a lot of the items in the systray, and now it runs *almost* as quickly as a Win98 machine with a lot less hardware. XP is just SSSLLLLLOOOOOOWWWWWW. At least as far as I can tell.

Jim

 

Actually, I have found the opposite on my rather antiquated machine.. XP loads a LOT faster than 98 did, and most (not all) applications run just as fast, if not a tad bit faster...

I bought the XP update myself, and would never purchase a computer with an OS preinstalled... There's simply too much junk.. I have done this for years -- I purchase the actual OS (and throw away the CD most manufacturers include with their PCs)

Then I format the drive and finally, I install the OS from the purchased disc.. (I know this seems a waste to many people, but from my experience, MOST OEM discs include extra software and "features" that are simply a waste of time and resources... (And you usually aren't given a choice of what to install when you're dealing with OEM discs)

I am currently (and slowly) building a new system, purchasing each and every piece of hardware seperately... This way, I can make decisions on EXACTLY what I want my system to have. (Granted, it's a bit more expensive doing it this way, but I'll end up with a better machine, I feel..)

I think my brain fried... Did I make sense there? Bah.. Need more coffee, that'll fix everything...

 

Donniesito

No fried brain there. It all makes sense to me. But not everyone can do that like you and me.

I build all of mine from scratch.

The one question I might have would be;

Have you had many problems with finding drivers for the OEM hardware ?

As to how fast or slow any OS loads I think may depend more on the individual machine contents and set up of same rather than on the OS itself. The OS itself ( if purchased separately ) should be the same for all. Sometimes the OS gets blamed for things that are not its fault.

OEM versions can vary greatly from one to the other even though the basic OS itself is supposed to be the same.

One thing that can really make a HUGH difference is the original install. If it don't go in right nothing may work properly no matter what we do.

I had two machines with Cyrix 686/150 CPUs but different Motherboards using the same Win98 FE. One was **** ( at first till I found the stupid Modem was causing IRQ problems ) and the other ( with external modem ) was fine right from the time that I pressed ENTER after typing E:\Options setup.

BillyBob