Speed up a Dell PC?

  • Thread starter Thread starter jtsnow
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J

jtsnow

My wife inherited my 2001 Dimension XPS. Its a P3 with 256K and a 7200 RPM
20 GB with XP Home installed (the config is attached below). Had not used
it in some time and ....

It is slower the mollasses!

I thought it was slow HD as it seems to spend of lot of time accessing the
drive. So I bought a 7200 RPM drive but now see it had one of that RPM
already and did not install the new drive. I thought 256M of memory was
adequate.

Is there a way to help speed up the thing?

YOU think the new 120MB 7200 RPM drive I got will be a lot faster then the
20G 7200 RPM drive thats in it now?

Any tips appreciated.
 
jtsnow said:
I thought it was slow HD as it seems to spend of lot of time accessing the
drive.
Click to expand...

Lots of time accessing the HDD is a classic sign of not enough memory. I'd
go for 512 or more. Uninstalling any unused programs might help (or a fresh
install of XP).

Michael
 
My wife inherited my 2001 Dimension XPS. Its a P3 with 256K and a 7200 RPM
20 GB with XP Home installed (the config is attached below). Had not used
it in some time and ....

It is slower the mollasses!

I thought it was slow HD as it seems to spend of lot of time accessing the
drive. So I bought a 7200 RPM drive but now see it had one of that RPM
already and did not install the new drive. I thought 256M of memory was
adequate.

Is there a way to help speed up the thing?
Click to expand...

If the operating system is cluttered up, it may help to
uninstall a few things... or a clean OS install. If the
system has been vulnerable to viri, spyware, trojans, etc,
scan it with appropriate software to get those nasties
removed.
YOU think the new 120MB 7200 RPM drive I got will be a lot faster then the
20G 7200 RPM drive thats in it now?
Click to expand...

Yes, the new drive should be significantly faster. While it
has same RPM, it has higher platter density. Additionally,
the higher capacity means the operating system will reside
on the outer portion of the platters (at least
proportionally) than it would on the 20GB drive.

Adding more memory is likely to help. If it's running Win2K
or XP you can see the "Commit Charge" "Peak" value in Task
Manager. The Peak should always be less than the amount of
memory installed, and better still for it to be at least
128MB below that as "usused" memory is still put to use as a
file cache to reduce rereads from the HDD.

As for other sluggishness if the aforementioned doesn't
help, you'll have to focus on the specifics of the task that
is sluggish. If it's general windows GUI navigation it will
help to disable some of the special effects and/or other
operating system tweaks. Google search for those, using a
search phraset something like "Windows <insert version here>
tweaks"
 
thats some nice help..thanks.

Its mainly the disk drive access I think. Machine itself is fast enough but
whenver disk is in play its very slow getting data on/off.

I got a 120G 7200 I can try. I dont mind adding memory too. It has 3 slots
in it.
Know where to buy the cheapest memory for Dell?

thx again
 
jtsnow said:
My wife inherited my 2001 Dimension XPS. Its a P3 with 256K and a 7200 RPM
20 GB with XP Home installed (the config is attached below). Had not used
it in some time and ....

It is slower the mollasses!

I thought it was slow HD as it seems to spend of lot of time accessing the
drive. So I bought a 7200 RPM drive but now see it had one of that RPM
already and did not install the new drive. I thought 256M of memory was
adequate.

Is there a way to help speed up the thing?

YOU think the new 120MB 7200 RPM drive I got will be a lot faster then the
20G 7200 RPM drive thats in it now?

Any tips appreciated.
Click to expand...

Is the IDE cable for the HD an 80 conductor one? Using a 40 conductor
one might slow down the HD significantly.
 
My wife inherited my 2001 Dimension XPS. Its a P3 with 256K and a 7200 RPM
20 GB with XP Home installed (the config is attached below). Had not used
it in some time and ....

It is slower the mollasses!

I thought it was slow HD as it seems to spend of lot of time accessing the
drive. So I bought a 7200 RPM drive but now see it had one of that RPM
already and did not install the new drive. I thought 256M of memory was
adequate.

Is there a way to help speed up the thing?

YOU think the new 120MB 7200 RPM drive I got will be a lot faster then the
20G 7200 RPM drive thats in it now?

Any tips appreciated.
Click to expand...


That old drive is probably cluttered up and fragmented. I'd wipe
everything off it including the partitions and start anew. 256 mb of ram
is fine for an old p3. There also might be alot of dust in the case
causing heat buildup, and there might be corrosion on the contacts of
the ribbon cables and memory, depending on how long it's been sitting...

So, what I'd do: clean out the inside of the case, wipe the hdd and
reinstall, and then see where you are.
 
thats some nice help..thanks.

Its mainly the disk drive access I think. Machine itself is fast enough but
whenver disk is in play its very slow getting data on/off.

I got a 120G 7200 I can try. I dont mind adding memory too. It has 3 slots
in it.
Know where to buy the cheapest memory for Dell?

thx again
Click to expand...


There are a few shady dealers selling generic memory for
cheapest prices but it's best to avoid them entirely.

Try http://www.crucial.com , they have a memory selector
(Memory Advisor™ tool) and guaranteed compatibility.
 
Machine should not be constantly accessing disk drive. That
may be a symptom of too much 'trash' loaded. But you have the
one tool that tells us numbers we do not have. Task Manager
permits you to look at many parameters such as page faults,
memory usage, CPU time, thread count, handles, etc. We can
speculate all day long what may and may not be slowing the
machine down. You have the numbers. What processes are
running and which ones are doing all the activity?

Its not a slow disk drive. Too much access to a disk drive
is a symptom of a system that has other problems.

256K is enough memory for XP if you are not automatically
loading excessive processes. Fix the system so that it works
respectfully at 256K. Then upgrade the memory to make it
running even faster. Fix the problem before upgrading memory.

Things you know are not causing a slow computer - excess
dust and corrosion on cable contacts. Also no need to nuke
the drive. Some people just recommend things as if cleaning
the house would fix a roof.
 
So, what I'd do: clean out the inside of the case, wipe the hdd and
reinstall, and then see where you are.
Click to expand...

I better clarifies this for the newbies reading this.

When he means by wiping the hard drive. Is use a program that will
run from a floppy or a boot cd that will wipe the data off the hard
drive. This does take a long time.

If you cleaning inside a case use a static wrist strap.

You should never ever open up a hard drive. This would totally
destroy it.
 
I better clarifies this for the newbies reading this.

When he means by wiping the hard drive. Is use a program that will
run from a floppy or a boot cd that will wipe the data off the hard
drive. This does take a long time.
Click to expand...


Err, not necessarily, a simple quick format will do the job.
Some HDD manufacturers also have utilities that'll just zero
the beginning and end of a drive too, which is also an
easy/lazy/quick way to get rid of a drive overlay.
 
Without replacing everything from the motherboard on up, you are going to
have a slow computer. Admit it, it's an older computer from a previous
generation of hardware.
 
Without replacing everything from the motherboard on up, you are going to
have a slow computer. Admit it, it's an older computer from a previous
generation of hardware.
Click to expand...


Slow is a relative term... I have a p200 running 98... THAT'S slow. I
also have a p2 333 celeron running xp pro. It's fast enough to be used
for stuff like web, email, etc. with no problem.
 
When he means by wiping the hard drive. Is use a program that will
run from a floppy or a boot cd that will wipe the data off the hard
drive. This does take a long time.

You should never ever open up a hard drive. This would totally
destroy it.
Click to expand...

now you tell me


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XXX/ |X <_> XXXX/ | | | |_|
|___|XXXX| |XXXXXXXXX|___| | \
XXXXXX/ \XXXXXXXX |____|
|_____|XX
 
Without replacing everything from the motherboard on up, you are going to
have a slow computer. Admit it, it's an older computer from a previous
generation of hardware.
Click to expand...


P3 box with adequate memory and a fast, WD Raptor, Maxtor
Maxline, or higher RPM SCSI drive, will be faster at typical
uses (office, email, surfing), that a ~ 3.6GHz P4 with
budget grade HDD. It all depends on the tasks. Admit it,
there is no need to go replacing everthing, only the
bottlenecks per the needed tasks... which might very well
be CPU, mobo, etc, etc, too, but NOT necessarily.
 
kony:
P3 box with adequate memory and a fast, WD Raptor, Maxtor
Maxline, or higher RPM SCSI drive, will be faster at typical
uses (office, email, surfing), that a ~ 3.6GHz P4 with
budget grade HDD.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting claim. Can you prove it, with numbers? I mean have
you actually run benchmarks and know this to be true? You could run
Business Winstone or Sysmark and PC Worldbench.
 
P3 box with adequate memory and a fast, WD Raptor, Maxtor
That's an interesting claim. Can you prove it, with numbers? I mean
have you actually run benchmarks and know this to be true? You could
run Business Winstone or Sysmark and PC Worldbench.
Click to expand...

I'll take silence as a no.
 
I'll take silence as a no.
Click to expand...

Sorry, somehow I completely overlooked this thread.
No I can't prove it, have simply observed these uses mostly
lagging in load times (or temporary file for surfing) and
responding to HDD upgrade moreso than same old HDD on a
faster platform. Those tasks just don't (usually) put much
strain on the CPU.
 
kony:
Sorry, somehow I completely overlooked this thread.
No I can't prove it, have simply observed these uses mostly
lagging in load times (or temporary file for surfing) and
responding to HDD upgrade moreso than same old HDD on a
faster platform. Those tasks just don't (usually) put much
strain on the CPU.
Click to expand...

The reason I asked is that I've never been one to eeek all the performance
out of a machine, so I typically buy whatever drive is popular and
reliable, but not too expensive. I never was really sure how much
difference a really fast drive would make.
 
kony:


The reason I asked is that I've never been one to eeek all the performance
out of a machine, so I typically buy whatever drive is popular and
reliable, but not too expensive. I never was really sure how much
difference a really fast drive would make.
Click to expand...

Often when I buy new drives, I rotate out the older ones.
Regardless of the age of the system, if it's one frequently
used it'll get a new drive, and new builds would too.
Result is that often I've older boxes with relatively new
drives and older drives left over for backup purposes,
testbeds, and temporary drives for new builds.

On a new build I'll grab an older drive that's lying around
- by older I mean something 40GB or larger. After getting
system set up it is observed to be sluggish compared to
older box running newer drive, at least in the common
things, certainly nothing really stressfull on CPU. So I
pause to wonder if system is misconfigured somehow, if I
dont' recall that it's an older drive then I'll run
benchmarks, but usually I remember this and observe the
change again after the older drive is imaged to the new
drive to be used for the build.

It is relative though, if the new drive isn't much faster,
of course the difference is smaller and closer to being made
up by the CPU/memory/etc differences. Also it may not
effect some users as much as others. Someone who has plenty
of memory and doesn't reboot their box very often may have
most of their files cached so HDD performance matters less.
But by the same token, someone with insufficient memory will
also benefit more from the faster drive, though I could
hardly recommend paying more for the drive instead of more
memory in such a situation.
 
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