Really Slow Computer, Why?

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Mulligan

My friend has a Dell 8300 computer running Windows XP. 1.8 mg, 128 ram and
40 gig HD. The HD is 3/4 empty. I have removed everything I could from
Start Up. I have also defragged HD. The computer is running so slow it is
worse than an old Pentium II. Does anyone have a suggestion that I could
try? Could it be bad memory? Is there any kind of diagnostic program I
could run? thank you
 
My friend has a Dell 8300 computer running Windows XP. 1.8 mg, 128 ram and
40 gig HD. The HD is 3/4 empty. I have removed everything I could from
Start Up. I have also defragged HD. The computer is running so slow it is
worse than an old Pentium II. Does anyone have a suggestion that I could
try? Could it be bad memory? Is there any kind of diagnostic program I
could run? thank you
Click to expand...


Thats a really low amount of memory. You should get at the very least
256 and 512 wouldnt hurt. Unfortunately memory prices have firmed a
bit though you can still find some cheap generic deals around.
 
Yep. I have a friend who has a pentium 2.0 Ghz Dell 8200. He had 128Mb
of memory. The machine seemed rather sluggish for a 2.0Ghz pc. I had
him order a 256MB memory stick from Crucial and he noticed a substantial
difference. I find that XP runs decently with 256MB, anything less and
performance starts to drop a bit. It will work, mind you, but it won't be
very zippy.
 
Yep. I have a friend who has a pentium 2.0 Ghz Dell 8200. He had 128Mb
of memory. The machine seemed rather sluggish for a 2.0Ghz pc. I had
him order a 256MB memory stick from Crucial and he noticed a substantial
difference. I find that XP runs decently with 256MB, anything less and
performance starts to drop a bit. It will work, mind you, but it won't be
very zippy.
Click to expand...

My second PC is running 256 , I got some Kingston 2100 DDR for $20 a
few weeks ago. Sometimes it feels peppy and sometimes it gets really
slow. I was thinking of adding another stick. My other PC runs great
with 512 but Im thinking of adding another stick for video editing.
 
My friend has a Dell 8300 computer running Windows XP. 1.8 mg, 128 ram
and 40 gig HD. The HD is 3/4 empty. I have removed everything I could
from Start Up. I have also defragged HD. The computer is running so slow
it is worse than an old Pentium II. Does anyone have a suggestion that I
could try? Could it be bad memory? Is there any kind of diagnostic
program I could run? thank you
Click to expand...

There are alot of good suggestions so far. here's my two cents

yes that system needs more memory (think 512)

Often when I see windows systems that are running slower than normal there
is too much running in the background. Seems that nowadays you can't
install a program without it installing a bunch of crap you didn't want,
and lots of things like to run at boot. Unfortunately you cannot disable
everything from the startup folder or from the msconfig editor. Sometimes
you need to edit the registry...which is more than I want to go into right
now.

There may be some spyware/adware running, using up your puny system
resources, and no they are usually too smart to show up in msconfig. Grab
a copy of adaware and if there is such crap on the system it will remove
it, including any registry entries.

____________________________________________________________________
Please remove your windows partition when replying by email
 
Mulligan said:
My friend has a Dell 8300 computer running Windows XP. 1.8 mg, 128
ram and 40 gig HD. The HD is 3/4 empty. I have removed everything I
could from Start Up. I have also defragged HD. The computer is
running so slow it is worse than an old Pentium II. Does anyone
have a suggestion that I could try? Could it be bad memory? Is
there any kind of diagnostic program I could run? thank you
Click to expand...

You might also want to check in Device Manager to ensure the drive
controllers are using UDMA mode and not PIO.

Check your virtual memory (pagefile) size.

You sure the clock speed and multiplier are correct in the BIOS (that it
didn't default to lower values and you have to up them to whatever you
have for CPU and memory)?

Have you tried using msconfig.exe to eliminate all startup programs for
a *normal* but clean boot to see if speed improves?

Have you ran a FULL virus scan using a recently updated anti-virus
product? Anything continually sucking up lots of CPU usage in Task
Manager? Is the drive always busy?
 
Mulligan said:
My friend has a Dell 8300 computer running Windows XP. 1.8 mg, 128 ram and
40 gig HD. The HD is 3/4 empty. I have removed everything I could from
Start Up. I have also defragged HD. The computer is running so slow it is
worse than an old Pentium II. Does anyone have a suggestion that I could
try? Could it be bad memory? Is there any kind of diagnostic program I
could run? thank you
Click to expand...
Enter CMOS and MAKE SURE your cache memory is enabled. Cache memory
being disabled will make your computer run REAL SLOW!!!! It could be
other things, but this is worth checking.
 
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