XP Performance too slow

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Guest

I have a Dell system that I bought last year that has a 2.0GHZ Celeron processor and 256M of ram. I have noticed that since I bought it new that it runs too slow(30-45sec) when trying to open up programs either from the start menu or desktop icons.
I found a tip in PC Magazine once that talked about going into regedit and editing the start menu time. I have done this and it helps the start menu but not the programs. I'm not talking about any big programs either. Just any MS office program, Internet explorer or Outlook Express. What could be the cause?
 
Paul Ferguson said:
I have a Dell system that I bought last year that has a 2.0GHZ Celeron processor and 256M of ram. I have noticed that since I bought it new that it runs too slow(30-45sec) when trying to open up programs either from the start menu or desktop icons.
I found a tip in PC Magazine once that talked about going into regedit and editing the start menu time. I have done this and it helps the start menu but not the programs. I'm not talking about any big programs either. Just any MS office program, Internet explorer or Outlook Express. What could be the cause?
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With 256 mb of RAM it could be that need additional RAM.

The key factor for memory upgrades is actual usage of the paging file.
If Windows is actively moving memory pages back and forth between RAM
and the paging file because there is not enough RAM to hold everything
then performance will suffer.

Unfortunately Windows XP does not contain a reporting tool that shows
actual paging activity. You can, however, download a free utility rom
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm or from
http://billsway.com/notes_public/WinXP_Tweaks/ and run it to check how
much of the paging file space consists of active memory pages that
have been moved from RAM.

A value of 50 mb or more indicates that there is probably extensive
paging activity occurring and therefore adding more RAM will result in
improved performance.

Good luck



Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
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