On 2/1/2018 08:39, KenK wrote:


I have an old Compaq Presario 5000 running XP I got as a gift. It did not
include the XP install disk.

This system is extremely slow. I DLed and printed several web sites'
suggestions to speed up XP with no results. I'm thinking about installing
Ubuntu Linux as dual-boot as I can't reinstall XP.

To determine whether the problem is the XP OS or the hardware I'd like
any suggestions on something I can run on it as a test to see if it
operates at a normal speed. If so, it's XP, if not I can abandon the
computer; it's the hardware and I have no idea how to fix it - probably
not worth the expense and time for this very old computer.

I ran an equally old copy of Spinrite to see if the HD was ok and as I
recall it took several days to cycle. I don't recall how long it usually
takes but I suspect that was VERY slow, indicating a hardware problem.

I'm assuming this an early 2000 model Presario that originally came with
XP.

Sounds like RAM is being used up and the system is using Virtual
Memory. Also, run Task Manager to see if anything is hogging the CPU.
Check RAM/Virtual Memory usage at the same time.

I had a similar issue trying to restask an old system (Windows 95
originally) for a friend for web browsing, email and word processing.
Lack of sufficient RAM was the problem. IIRC it only had 64MB. I max'd
it out to 512MB (used sticks off eBay -- $25 total) and gave them a
larger, but used hard drive I had laying around (the original one
had died), and it worked fine.

I wouldn't go with Ubuntu on a system that old. Ubuntu is designed to
run on a modern system. Look for a Linux distro designed specifically
for old systems. Not all are. VectorLinux comes to mind. Use a
lightweight desktop like LXDE or XFCE, or just a window manager.

http://distrowatch.org/ lists and has evaluations for just about all the
300+ Linux distributions.

Good Luck

Stef