SP2 Slows Dell GX PCs to a crawl

[Steve Poeppe, CISSP]

Before deploying to the enterprise i setup a test lab of 6 XP pcs. Five of
the PCs came to a crawl after the SP2 update. (DELL GX260, 270, and 280s)
I reinstalled XP pro from scratch, installed the Dell drivers, jointed our
domain, and rebooted. Everything worked well.

Then installed SP2. Now we are back to snail pace (2-4 minute login times).
Once the desktop appears I am able to click START, CONTROL PANELS, then the
snail pace starts again. 2 minutes for the control panels to appear.

No other software is installed, no antiviurs or 3rd party firewalls.

CTRL-ALT-DEL works at regular speeds, Idle process is at 99%, no HD activity
or network activity.

If I boot into safe mode and remove SP2, the speed issue goes away.

Thanks for your help.

[LargeNostril]

It's probably a RAM issue. I don't know anything about your models but Del
typically uses little RAM (128-256mb). My parents computer came with 256 and
once I installed SP2, it nearly halted. I put another 256mb of RAM in it and
it works fine (well as fine as a Dell can work). Dell, like almost every
other computer manufacturer, always loads their PCs with the most useless
junk. Press Ctr-Alt-Del and click the performance tab and see how much of
the RAM is being used, mine will usually use about 100-128 without any
programs running. My parents will usually be pretty close. If the usage is
much beyond this, try terminating all the processes except these:

alg.exe - 3,284k
crss.exe - 3,248k
ctfmon.exe - 3,760k
explorer.exe - 14,996k
lsass.exe - 1,012k
services.exe - 3,824k
smss.exe - 372k
svchost.exe (5 instances) - 28,450k
System - 212k
System Idle Process - 16k
winlogon.exe (I think this can be terminated) - 928k

If the RAM usage is nearer to the 100mb range, then Dell is probably booting
a buch of useless junk like technical support and blah blah blah... To fix
this, use Advanced Startup Manager
(http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/Advanced-StartUp-Manager.shtml)
and remove all the programs that are starting-up with Windows except for ones
that you want to startup. Best of luck.

"Steve Poeppe, CISSP" wrote:

> Before deploying to the enterprise i setup a test lab of 6 XP pcs. Five of
> the PCs came to a crawl after the SP2 update. (DELL GX260, 270, and 280s)
> I reinstalled XP pro from scratch, installed the Dell drivers, jointed our
> domain, and rebooted. Everything worked well.
>
> Then installed SP2. Now we are back to snail pace (2-4 minute login times).
> Once the desktop appears I am able to click START, CONTROL PANELS, then the
> snail pace starts again. 2 minutes for the control panels to appear.
>
> No other software is installed, no antiviurs or 3rd party firewalls.
>
> CTRL-ALT-DEL works at regular speeds, Idle process is at 99%, no HD activity
> or network activity.
>
> If I boot into safe mode and remove SP2, the speed issue goes away.
>
> Thanks for your help.

[Steve Poeppe, CISSP]

I performed a clean install of XP, no dell apps (loaded dell drivers). 84Mb
are in use, 400MB available. Still slow.

Thanks for the suggestions.


"LargeNostril" wrote:

> It's probably a RAM issue. I don't know anything about your models but Del
> typically uses little RAM (128-256mb). My parents computer came with 256 and
> once I installed SP2, it nearly halted. I put another 256mb of RAM in it and
> it works fine (well as fine as a Dell can work). Dell, like almost every
> other computer manufacturer, always loads their PCs with the most useless
> junk. Press Ctr-Alt-Del and click the performance tab and see how much of
> the RAM is being used, mine will usually use about 100-128 without any
> programs running. My parents will usually be pretty close. If the usage is
> much beyond this, try terminating all the processes except these:
>
> alg.exe - 3,284k
> crss.exe - 3,248k
> ctfmon.exe - 3,760k
> explorer.exe - 14,996k
> lsass.exe - 1,012k
> services.exe - 3,824k
> smss.exe - 372k
> svchost.exe (5 instances) - 28,450k
> System - 212k
> System Idle Process - 16k
> winlogon.exe (I think this can be terminated) - 928k
>
> If the RAM usage is nearer to the 100mb range, then Dell is probably booting
> a buch of useless junk like technical support and blah blah blah... To fix
> this, use Advanced Startup Manager
> (http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/Advanced-StartUp-Manager.shtml)
> and remove all the programs that are starting-up with Windows except for ones
> that you want to startup. Best of luck.
>
> "Steve Poeppe, CISSP" wrote:
>
> > Before deploying to the enterprise i setup a test lab of 6 XP pcs. Five of
> > the PCs came to a crawl after the SP2 update. (DELL GX260, 270, and 280s)
> > I reinstalled XP pro from scratch, installed the Dell drivers, jointed our
> > domain, and rebooted. Everything worked well.
> >
> > Then installed SP2. Now we are back to snail pace (2-4 minute login times).
> > Once the desktop appears I am able to click START, CONTROL PANELS, then the
> > snail pace starts again. 2 minutes for the control panels to appear.
> >
> > No other software is installed, no antiviurs or 3rd party firewalls.
> >
> > CTRL-ALT-DEL works at regular speeds, Idle process is at 99%, no HD activity
> > or network activity.
> >
> > If I boot into safe mode and remove SP2, the speed issue goes away.
> >
> > Thanks for your help.

[LargeNostril]

Is that 84mb of RAM or 84mb of page file? If it's RAM, what's the page file
usage (under Task Manager > Performace)?

"Steve Poeppe, CISSP" wrote:

> I performed a clean install of XP, no dell apps (loaded dell drivers). 84Mb
> are in use, 400MB available. Still slow.
>
> Thanks for the suggestions.
>
>
> "LargeNostril" wrote:
>
> > It's probably a RAM issue. I don't know anything about your models but Del
> > typically uses little RAM (128-256mb). My parents computer came with 256 and
> > once I installed SP2, it nearly halted. I put another 256mb of RAM in it and
> > it works fine (well as fine as a Dell can work). Dell, like almost every
> > other computer manufacturer, always loads their PCs with the most useless
> > junk. Press Ctr-Alt-Del and click the performance tab and see how much of
> > the RAM is being used, mine will usually use about 100-128 without any
> > programs running. My parents will usually be pretty close. If the usage is
> > much beyond this, try terminating all the processes except these:
> >
> > alg.exe - 3,284k
> > crss.exe - 3,248k
> > ctfmon.exe - 3,760k
> > explorer.exe - 14,996k
> > lsass.exe - 1,012k
> > services.exe - 3,824k
> > smss.exe - 372k
> > svchost.exe (5 instances) - 28,450k
> > System - 212k
> > System Idle Process - 16k
> > winlogon.exe (I think this can be terminated) - 928k
> >
> > If the RAM usage is nearer to the 100mb range, then Dell is probably booting
> > a buch of useless junk like technical support and blah blah blah... To fix
> > this, use Advanced Startup Manager
> > (http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/Advanced-StartUp-Manager.shtml)
> > and remove all the programs that are starting-up with Windows except for ones
> > that you want to startup. Best of luck.
> >
> > "Steve Poeppe, CISSP" wrote:
> >
> > > Before deploying to the enterprise i setup a test lab of 6 XP pcs. Five of
> > > the PCs came to a crawl after the SP2 update. (DELL GX260, 270, and 280s)
> > > I reinstalled XP pro from scratch, installed the Dell drivers, jointed our
> > > domain, and rebooted. Everything worked well.
> > >
> > > Then installed SP2. Now we are back to snail pace (2-4 minute login times).
> > > Once the desktop appears I am able to click START, CONTROL PANELS, then the
> > > snail pace starts again. 2 minutes for the control panels to appear.
> > >
> > > No other software is installed, no antiviurs or 3rd party firewalls.
> > >
> > > CTRL-ALT-DEL works at regular speeds, Idle process is at 99%, no HD activity
> > > or network activity.
> > >
> > > If I boot into safe mode and remove SP2, the speed issue goes away.
> > >
> > > Thanks for your help.