My friend has a 5 year old Dell PC that came with XP Home. It has
become painfully slow.
The Desktop comes up ok but then it takes a long time to bring up
programs like IE Explorer. He's on DSL and I tried it without DSL
connected and it made no difference. It's just generally slow no
matter what you do, on the net or not.
He has an 80 GB drive and 256 MB memory. I don't know the processor
speed yet. The swap file is managed by the system. The drive has
about 50 GB free.
The Startup Group is loaded with *.dll's. Both in Msconfig and
MSinfo32.
I searched the drive for *.tmp files and deleted them except for the
Windows\Temp folder which has 313 tmp files and 10 sub folders.
I'm planning to delete everything in the Windows\Temp folder hoping
that may speed it up. He has a Reg Cleaner he uses periodically,
don't know the name of it yet. He bought it.
Would appreciate any ideas.
Regards,
Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
Slow PC, XP Home
Moderators: DllAdmin, DLLADMIN ONLY
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r. mccarty
- Posts: 20
- Joined: 17 Mar 2009, 00:00
Re: Slow PC, XP Home
Defrag the system volume. 256 Megabytes of RAM is marginal but
usable for basic things ( Email, Browsing ). You should review all of
the Startups & Watchdogs since the machine has no spare RAM to
allocate to all those items.
SysInternals AutoRuns is a good tool for doing this.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 63902.aspx
"Bill Watt" <nobwatt@ptd.net> wrote in message
news:fguvr4h740fsmrjbn175jp28i7eth72ppj@4ax.com...
>
> My friend has a 5 year old Dell PC that came with XP Home. It has
> become painfully slow.
>
> The Desktop comes up ok but then it takes a long time to bring up
> programs like IE Explorer. He's on DSL and I tried it without DSL
> connected and it made no difference. It's just generally slow no
> matter what you do, on the net or not.
>
> He has an 80 GB drive and 256 MB memory. I don't know the processor
> speed yet. The swap file is managed by the system. The drive has
> about 50 GB free.
>
> The Startup Group is loaded with *.dll's. Both in Msconfig and
> MSinfo32.
>
> I searched the drive for *.tmp files and deleted them except for the
> Windows\Temp folder which has 313 tmp files and 10 sub folders.
>
> I'm planning to delete everything in the Windows\Temp folder hoping
> that may speed it up. He has a Reg Cleaner he uses periodically,
> don't know the name of it yet. He bought it.
>
> Would appreciate any ideas.
>
> Regards,
>
> Bill Watt
> Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
>
usable for basic things ( Email, Browsing ). You should review all of
the Startups & Watchdogs since the machine has no spare RAM to
allocate to all those items.
SysInternals AutoRuns is a good tool for doing this.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 63902.aspx
"Bill Watt" <nobwatt@ptd.net> wrote in message
news:fguvr4h740fsmrjbn175jp28i7eth72ppj@4ax.com...
>
> My friend has a 5 year old Dell PC that came with XP Home. It has
> become painfully slow.
>
> The Desktop comes up ok but then it takes a long time to bring up
> programs like IE Explorer. He's on DSL and I tried it without DSL
> connected and it made no difference. It's just generally slow no
> matter what you do, on the net or not.
>
> He has an 80 GB drive and 256 MB memory. I don't know the processor
> speed yet. The swap file is managed by the system. The drive has
> about 50 GB free.
>
> The Startup Group is loaded with *.dll's. Both in Msconfig and
> MSinfo32.
>
> I searched the drive for *.tmp files and deleted them except for the
> Windows\Temp folder which has 313 tmp files and 10 sub folders.
>
> I'm planning to delete everything in the Windows\Temp folder hoping
> that may speed it up. He has a Reg Cleaner he uses periodically,
> don't know the name of it yet. He bought it.
>
> Would appreciate any ideas.
>
> Regards,
>
> Bill Watt
> Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
>
Re: Slow PC, XP Home
On Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:32:59 -0400, Bill Watt <nobwatt@ptd.net> wrote:
>
>My friend has a 5 year old Dell PC that came with XP Home. It has
>become painfully slow.
>
>The Desktop comes up ok but then it takes a long time to bring up
>programs like IE Explorer. He's on DSL and I tried it without DSL
>connected and it made no difference. It's just generally slow no
>matter what you do, on the net or not.
>
>He has an 80 GB drive and 256 MB memory. I don't know the processor
>speed yet. The swap file is managed by the system. The drive has
>about 50 GB free.
>
>The Startup Group is loaded with *.dll's. Both in Msconfig and
>MSinfo32.
>
>I searched the drive for *.tmp files and deleted them except for the
>Windows\Temp folder which has 313 tmp files and 10 sub folders.
>
>I'm planning to delete everything in the Windows\Temp folder hoping
>that may speed it up. He has a Reg Cleaner he uses periodically,
>don't know the name of it yet. He bought it.
>
>Would appreciate any ideas.
>
>Regards,
>
>Bill Watt
>Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
When did he last cleanup and defrag ?
>
>My friend has a 5 year old Dell PC that came with XP Home. It has
>become painfully slow.
>
>The Desktop comes up ok but then it takes a long time to bring up
>programs like IE Explorer. He's on DSL and I tried it without DSL
>connected and it made no difference. It's just generally slow no
>matter what you do, on the net or not.
>
>He has an 80 GB drive and 256 MB memory. I don't know the processor
>speed yet. The swap file is managed by the system. The drive has
>about 50 GB free.
>
>The Startup Group is loaded with *.dll's. Both in Msconfig and
>MSinfo32.
>
>I searched the drive for *.tmp files and deleted them except for the
>Windows\Temp folder which has 313 tmp files and 10 sub folders.
>
>I'm planning to delete everything in the Windows\Temp folder hoping
>that may speed it up. He has a Reg Cleaner he uses periodically,
>don't know the name of it yet. He bought it.
>
>Would appreciate any ideas.
>
>Regards,
>
>Bill Watt
>Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
When did he last cleanup and defrag ?
Re: Slow PC, XP Home
Thanks for the replies, I hope to get over to his house tomorrow and
I'll post back.
Regards,
Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
____________________________________________________
On Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:32:59 -0400, Bill Watt <nobwatt@ptd.net>
wrote:
>
>My friend has a 5 year old Dell PC that came with XP Home. It has
>become painfully slow.
>
>The Desktop comes up ok but then it takes a long time to bring up
>programs like IE Explorer. He's on DSL and I tried it without DSL
>connected and it made no difference. It's just generally slow no
>matter what you do, on the net or not.
>
>He has an 80 GB drive and 256 MB memory. I don't know the processor
>speed yet. The swap file is managed by the system. The drive has
>about 50 GB free.
>
>The Startup Group is loaded with *.dll's. Both in Msconfig and
>MSinfo32.
>
>I searched the drive for *.tmp files and deleted them except for the
>Windows\Temp folder which has 313 tmp files and 10 sub folders.
>
>I'm planning to delete everything in the Windows\Temp folder hoping
>that may speed it up. He has a Reg Cleaner he uses periodically,
>don't know the name of it yet. He bought it.
>
>Would appreciate any ideas.
>
>Regards,
>
>Bill Watt
>Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
I'll post back.
Regards,
Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
____________________________________________________
On Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:32:59 -0400, Bill Watt <nobwatt@ptd.net>
wrote:
>
>My friend has a 5 year old Dell PC that came with XP Home. It has
>become painfully slow.
>
>The Desktop comes up ok but then it takes a long time to bring up
>programs like IE Explorer. He's on DSL and I tried it without DSL
>connected and it made no difference. It's just generally slow no
>matter what you do, on the net or not.
>
>He has an 80 GB drive and 256 MB memory. I don't know the processor
>speed yet. The swap file is managed by the system. The drive has
>about 50 GB free.
>
>The Startup Group is loaded with *.dll's. Both in Msconfig and
>MSinfo32.
>
>I searched the drive for *.tmp files and deleted them except for the
>Windows\Temp folder which has 313 tmp files and 10 sub folders.
>
>I'm planning to delete everything in the Windows\Temp folder hoping
>that may speed it up. He has a Reg Cleaner he uses periodically,
>don't know the name of it yet. He bought it.
>
>Would appreciate any ideas.
>
>Regards,
>
>Bill Watt
>Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
Re: Slow PC, XP Home
On Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:00:29 +0000, Jim <bojimbo261@aol.com> wrote:
>>I'm planning to delete everything in the Windows\Temp folder hoping
>>that may speed it up. He has a Reg Cleaner he uses periodically,
>>don't know the name of it yet. He bought it.
>>
>>Would appreciate any ideas.
>>
>>Regards,
>>
>>Bill Watt
>>Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
>
>When did he last cleanup and defrag ?
He defrags about every 10 days. Haven't run Disk Cleanup yet.
The disk runs all the time. I'll check memory when I get back over
there, it's like he has none at all.
We may add more memory as soon as I find out what kind to get. May
call Dell.
Regards,
Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
>>I'm planning to delete everything in the Windows\Temp folder hoping
>>that may speed it up. He has a Reg Cleaner he uses periodically,
>>don't know the name of it yet. He bought it.
>>
>>Would appreciate any ideas.
>>
>>Regards,
>>
>>Bill Watt
>>Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
>
>When did he last cleanup and defrag ?
He defrags about every 10 days. Haven't run Disk Cleanup yet.
The disk runs all the time. I'll check memory when I get back over
there, it's like he has none at all.
We may add more memory as soon as I find out what kind to get. May
call Dell.
Regards,
Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
Re: Slow PC, XP Home
On Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:17:24 -0400, "Daave"
<dcwashNOSPAM@myrealboxXYZ.invalid> wrote:
>"Bill Watt" <nobwatt@ptd.net> wrote in message
>news:fguvr4h740fsmrjbn175jp28i7eth72ppj@4ax.com...
>>
>> My friend has a 5 year old Dell PC that came with XP Home. It has
>> become painfully slow.
>>
>> The Desktop comes up ok but then it takes a long time to bring up
>> programs like IE Explorer. He's on DSL and I tried it without DSL
>> connected and it made no difference. It's just generally slow no
>> matter what you do, on the net or not.
>>
>> He has an 80 GB drive and 256 MB memory. I don't know the processor
>> speed yet. The swap file is managed by the system. The drive has
>> about 50 GB free.
>>
>> The Startup Group is loaded with *.dll's. Both in Msconfig and
>> MSinfo32.
>
>It's most likely malware and/or too many resource-hungry programs or
>processes running (he has only 256MB of memory!). Why don't you
>configure a clean boot to see what happens:
>
>http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353
>
Thanks,
The URL is helpful, I did run a clean boot but I also disabled some
MS Services and It would not go on the Web. I'll do it again, it
made no difference. The disk runs all the time even when no programs
are running.. I'll check the CPU usage. We plan to install more
memory as soon as we find out what kind to get. I'll also check the
memory.
Regards,
Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
<dcwashNOSPAM@myrealboxXYZ.invalid> wrote:
>"Bill Watt" <nobwatt@ptd.net> wrote in message
>news:fguvr4h740fsmrjbn175jp28i7eth72ppj@4ax.com...
>>
>> My friend has a 5 year old Dell PC that came with XP Home. It has
>> become painfully slow.
>>
>> The Desktop comes up ok but then it takes a long time to bring up
>> programs like IE Explorer. He's on DSL and I tried it without DSL
>> connected and it made no difference. It's just generally slow no
>> matter what you do, on the net or not.
>>
>> He has an 80 GB drive and 256 MB memory. I don't know the processor
>> speed yet. The swap file is managed by the system. The drive has
>> about 50 GB free.
>>
>> The Startup Group is loaded with *.dll's. Both in Msconfig and
>> MSinfo32.
>
>It's most likely malware and/or too many resource-hungry programs or
>processes running (he has only 256MB of memory!). Why don't you
>configure a clean boot to see what happens:
>
>http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353
>
Thanks,
The URL is helpful, I did run a clean boot but I also disabled some
MS Services and It would not go on the Web. I'll do it again, it
made no difference. The disk runs all the time even when no programs
are running.. I'll check the CPU usage. We plan to install more
memory as soon as we find out what kind to get. I'll also check the
memory.
Regards,
Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
Re: Slow PC, XP Home
SNIP
On Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:26:04 -0400, "Daave"
<dcwashNOSPAM@myrealboxXYZ.invalid> wrote:
>>> It's most likely malware and/or too many resource-hungry programs or
>>> processes running (he has only 256MB of memory!). Why don't you
>>> configure a clean boot to see what happens:
>>>
>>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353
>>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> The URL is helpful, I did run a clean boot but I also disabled some
>> MS Services and It would not go on the Web. I'll do it again, it
>> made no difference. The disk runs all the time even when no programs
>> are running.. I'll check the CPU usage. We plan to install more
>> memory as soon as we find out what kind to get. I'll also check the
>> memory.
>
>Next I would try Safe Mode. If you still experience sluggishness, I
>would suspect malware. Before adding memory (which is not a bad idea), I
>would address the immediate problem. Again, I'm thinking malware. Boot
>off a rescue disk like Bart PE, UBCD4Win, or Knoppix (any
>sluggishness?). I think this page is a great resource with regard to
>combatting malware:
>
>http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/pag ... es_Malware
>
More info.
it ran ok after a clean boot. Deleted the contents of Windows\Temp.
He has Outlook Express frequently checking and loading mail, then
AVG checks the Mail as it comes in. He's going to change the
frequency of that and see what happens. We will then go over the
start up group again and get rid of things like Google Tool Bar.
Then we'll check ADD\REMOVE and uninstall stuff he doesn't actually
need.
Thanks for all the replies and good information.
Regards,
Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
On Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:26:04 -0400, "Daave"
<dcwashNOSPAM@myrealboxXYZ.invalid> wrote:
>>> It's most likely malware and/or too many resource-hungry programs or
>>> processes running (he has only 256MB of memory!). Why don't you
>>> configure a clean boot to see what happens:
>>>
>>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353
>>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> The URL is helpful, I did run a clean boot but I also disabled some
>> MS Services and It would not go on the Web. I'll do it again, it
>> made no difference. The disk runs all the time even when no programs
>> are running.. I'll check the CPU usage. We plan to install more
>> memory as soon as we find out what kind to get. I'll also check the
>> memory.
>
>Next I would try Safe Mode. If you still experience sluggishness, I
>would suspect malware. Before adding memory (which is not a bad idea), I
>would address the immediate problem. Again, I'm thinking malware. Boot
>off a rescue disk like Bart PE, UBCD4Win, or Knoppix (any
>sluggishness?). I think this page is a great resource with regard to
>combatting malware:
>
>http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/pag ... es_Malware
>
More info.
it ran ok after a clean boot. Deleted the contents of Windows\Temp.
He has Outlook Express frequently checking and loading mail, then
AVG checks the Mail as it comes in. He's going to change the
frequency of that and see what happens. We will then go over the
start up group again and get rid of things like Google Tool Bar.
Then we'll check ADD\REMOVE and uninstall stuff he doesn't actually
need.
Thanks for all the replies and good information.
Regards,
Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
Re: Slow PC, XP Home
SNIP
On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 10:44:53 -0400, "Daave"
<dcwashNOSPAM@myrealboxXYZ.invalid> wrote:
>
>> More info.
>>
>> it ran ok after a clean boot. Deleted the contents of Windows\Temp.
>>
>> He has Outlook Express frequently checking and loading mail, then
>> AVG checks the Mail as it comes in. He's going to change the
>> frequency of that and see what happens. We will then go over the
>> start up group again and get rid of things like Google Tool Bar.
>> Then we'll check ADD\REMOVE and uninstall stuff he doesn't actually
>> need.
>>
>> Thanks for all the replies and good information.
>
>You're welcome, Bill. It sounds like you're on the right track.
>
>This is the method I use to determine whether or not one needs more RAM:
>
>Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then
>note the three values under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand
>corner: Total, Limit, and Peak.
>
>The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
>very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
>used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
>Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
>
>Another way to determine if you have enough RAM is to run Page File
>Monitor for Windows XP:
>
>http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm
Thanks, I'll look at that again. I did run MEM and MEM/Debug from
Dos and it reports all the memory. Need to try Safe Mode next.
Regards,
Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 10:44:53 -0400, "Daave"
<dcwashNOSPAM@myrealboxXYZ.invalid> wrote:
>
>> More info.
>>
>> it ran ok after a clean boot. Deleted the contents of Windows\Temp.
>>
>> He has Outlook Express frequently checking and loading mail, then
>> AVG checks the Mail as it comes in. He's going to change the
>> frequency of that and see what happens. We will then go over the
>> start up group again and get rid of things like Google Tool Bar.
>> Then we'll check ADD\REMOVE and uninstall stuff he doesn't actually
>> need.
>>
>> Thanks for all the replies and good information.
>
>You're welcome, Bill. It sounds like you're on the right track.
>
>This is the method I use to determine whether or not one needs more RAM:
>
>Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then
>note the three values under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand
>corner: Total, Limit, and Peak.
>
>The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
>very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
>used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
>Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
>
>Another way to determine if you have enough RAM is to run Page File
>Monitor for Windows XP:
>
>http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm
Thanks, I'll look at that again. I did run MEM and MEM/Debug from
Dos and it reports all the memory. Need to try Safe Mode next.
Regards,
Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/