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#1
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Performance issues
I have XP Pro installed on a Toshiba Satellite laptop,
1.8GHz Pentium IV, 256 Mb RAM. It was a clean install with a new machine. I am running Office, Acrobat, scanner software, and a few other odds and ends such as a time clock program. All of the many updates and patches are installed. I have full administrative rights to the machine. XP does some things very well, but in other areas it seems to have taken a large step backward from previous OS versions. My chief complaint is that in some operations it is very slow. It always has been, since the machine was new. In particular, deleting a file (network or local) takes up to ten seconds. Also, shut down takes several minutes, and about one time out of five stops at the final blue screen. The other problem with speed occurs especially after the computer has been inactive and gone on standby. When it wakes up again, it writes to the hard drive constantly for at least five minutes. During that time whatever it is doing to attempt to revive itself consumes system resources so extensively that it is virtually impossible to so much as navigate in Windows Explorer or access a menu in Word. Such operations are very slow, and attempting them can lead to freezes. I am using the laptop on AC power most of the time, so power conservation is not much of an issue. I have been into msconfig to disable what I recognize as unnecessary, such as Acrobat Assistant and HP Share-to- Web, which came with the scanner. I would like to disable everything I don't need, which leads me to the question of what is necessary at Startup. Same for Services. I have disabled the worthless Error Reporting Service, but would like to disable anything I can that consumes system resources. What else can I do to speed up this clunker? All of the gains in XP are lost because of a few time-consuming, resource-hogging "features". If I could disable some of the extra garbage that is going on behind the scenes and devote the extra processor time to the work I am trying to do, this could actually be a pretty good OS. Now if they would only do something about Find. |
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#2
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Performance issues
Poor system performance can be the result of a single problem or a combination of factors. Listed below are issues, which you may wish to examine if you are experiencing poor performance after the boot process has completed. Some items may help with slow starting of Windows XP but the list has not been prepared for tackling that problem. Work through the list until you achieve an acceptable result. Regular and effective housekeeping is essential. What you do and how often you do it will depend on how you use your computer. A suggested routine may include: 1. In Outlook Express empty your Deleted Items folder. 2. In Outlook Express run File, Folder, Compact All whilst OFFLINE. 3. Run Disk Cleanup. Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup with Temporary Internet Files, Offline Web Pages (optional), and Recycle Bin selected for deletion. If you have more than one drive / partition you may need to do this operation for each drive / partition. 4. Remove Cookies. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, Delete Cookies. 5. Run Disk Defragmenter. Check whether you could reduce the number of days the History of sites visited is retained. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, History. Spyware causes many problems. If not installed download Adaware and / or update Reference file from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ and use it to remove parasites. If Spyware persists as a problem try a Hosts file. http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html Slow performance resulting from insufficient memory, causing over reliance on virtual memory, may be especially noticed by those upgrading to Windows XP from an earlier version of Windows. Windows XP will run with 64 MB of RAM memory. However, a minimum of 256 MB is recommended and many users will recommend 512 MB. You may check on pagefile (virtual memory) usage with Page File Monitor for XP: http://www.dougknox.com/ Check how much free space you have on the hard drive / partition where your pagefile is located. You need a minimum of 15% but 20% or more is better. Check your setting for the Indexing Service. Start, Administrative Tools, Services, Indexing Service. The default setting is Manual. Check that it is not running. More information he http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/serv...dexing_Service You can have too many programmes running in the background. Close programmes/windows after use. Check whether all the programmes loading when Windows is started are really necessary. http://aumha.org/a/loads.htm Check whether you can identify slow performance with a particular programme. Look in Google to see whether others have encountered the same problem and found a solution. http://groups.google.com/ Are there any error messages in Event Viewer? You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information regarding Event ID: and Source Description is important. HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp ~~~~~~ Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FCA Stourport, Worcs, England Enquire, plan and execute. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Bruce" wrote in message ... I have XP Pro installed on a Toshiba Satellite laptop, 1.8GHz Pentium IV, 256 Mb RAM. It was a clean install with a new machine. I am running Office, Acrobat, scanner software, and a few other odds and ends such as a time clock program. All of the many updates and patches are installed. I have full administrative rights to the machine. XP does some things very well, but in other areas it seems to have taken a large step backward from previous OS versions. My chief complaint is that in some operations it is very slow. It always has been, since the machine was new. In particular, deleting a file (network or local) takes up to ten seconds. Also, shut down takes several minutes, and about one time out of five stops at the final blue screen. The other problem with speed occurs especially after the computer has been inactive and gone on standby. When it wakes up again, it writes to the hard drive constantly for at least five minutes. During that time whatever it is doing to attempt to revive itself consumes system resources so extensively that it is virtually impossible to so much as navigate in Windows Explorer or access a menu in Word. Such operations are very slow, and attempting them can lead to freezes. I am using the laptop on AC power most of the time, so power conservation is not much of an issue. I have been into msconfig to disable what I recognize as unnecessary, such as Acrobat Assistant and HP Share-to- Web, which came with the scanner. I would like to disable everything I don't need, which leads me to the question of what is necessary at Startup. Same for Services. I have disabled the worthless Error Reporting Service, but would like to disable anything I can that consumes system resources. What else can I do to speed up this clunker? All of the gains in XP are lost because of a few time-consuming, resource-hogging "features". If I could disable some of the extra garbage that is going on behind the scenes and devote the extra processor time to the work I am trying to do, this could actually be a pretty good OS. Now if they would only do something about Find. |
#3
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Performance issues
Poor system performance can be the result of a single problem or a combination of factors. Listed below are issues, which you may wish to examine if you are experiencing poor performance after the boot process has completed. Some items may help with slow starting of Windows XP but the list has not been prepared for tackling that problem. Work through the list until you achieve an acceptable result. Regular and effective housekeeping is essential. What you do and how often you do it will depend on how you use your computer. A suggested routine may include: 1. In Outlook Express empty your Deleted Items folder. 2. In Outlook Express run File, Folder, Compact All whilst OFFLINE. 3. Run Disk Cleanup. Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup with Temporary Internet Files, Offline Web Pages (optional), and Recycle Bin selected for deletion. If you have more than one drive / partition you may need to do this operation for each drive / partition. 4. Remove Cookies. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, Delete Cookies. 5. Run Disk Defragmenter. Check whether you could reduce the number of days the History of sites visited is retained. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, History. Spyware causes many problems. If not installed download Adaware and / or update Reference file from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ and use it to remove parasites. If Spyware persists as a problem try a Hosts file. http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html Slow performance resulting from insufficient memory, causing over reliance on virtual memory, may be especially noticed by those upgrading to Windows XP from an earlier version of Windows. Windows XP will run with 64 MB of RAM memory. However, a minimum of 256 MB is recommended and many users will recommend 512 MB. You may check on pagefile (virtual memory) usage with Page File Monitor for XP: http://www.dougknox.com/ Check how much free space you have on the hard drive / partition where your pagefile is located. You need a minimum of 15% but 20% or more is better. Check your setting for the Indexing Service. Start, Administrative Tools, Services, Indexing Service. The default setting is Manual. Check that it is not running. More information he http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/serv...dexing_Service You can have too many programmes running in the background. Close programmes/windows after use. Check whether all the programmes loading when Windows is started are really necessary. http://aumha.org/a/loads.htm Check whether you can identify slow performance with a particular programme. Look in Google to see whether others have encountered the same problem and found a solution. http://groups.google.com/ Are there any error messages in Event Viewer? You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information regarding Event ID: and Source Description is important. HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp ~~~~~~ Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FCA Stourport, Worcs, England Enquire, plan and execute. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Bruce" wrote in message ... I have XP Pro installed on a Toshiba Satellite laptop, 1.8GHz Pentium IV, 256 Mb RAM. It was a clean install with a new machine. I am running Office, Acrobat, scanner software, and a few other odds and ends such as a time clock program. All of the many updates and patches are installed. I have full administrative rights to the machine. XP does some things very well, but in other areas it seems to have taken a large step backward from previous OS versions. My chief complaint is that in some operations it is very slow. It always has been, since the machine was new. In particular, deleting a file (network or local) takes up to ten seconds. Also, shut down takes several minutes, and about one time out of five stops at the final blue screen. The other problem with speed occurs especially after the computer has been inactive and gone on standby. When it wakes up again, it writes to the hard drive constantly for at least five minutes. During that time whatever it is doing to attempt to revive itself consumes system resources so extensively that it is virtually impossible to so much as navigate in Windows Explorer or access a menu in Word. Such operations are very slow, and attempting them can lead to freezes. I am using the laptop on AC power most of the time, so power conservation is not much of an issue. I have been into msconfig to disable what I recognize as unnecessary, such as Acrobat Assistant and HP Share-to- Web, which came with the scanner. I would like to disable everything I don't need, which leads me to the question of what is necessary at Startup. Same for Services. I have disabled the worthless Error Reporting Service, but would like to disable anything I can that consumes system resources. What else can I do to speed up this clunker? All of the gains in XP are lost because of a few time-consuming, resource-hogging "features". If I could disable some of the extra garbage that is going on behind the scenes and devote the extra processor time to the work I am trying to do, this could actually be a pretty good OS. Now if they would only do something about Find. |
#4
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Performance issues
Poor system performance can be the result of a single problem or a combination of factors. Listed below are issues, which you may wish to examine if you are experiencing poor performance after the boot process has completed. Some items may help with slow starting of Windows XP but the list has not been prepared for tackling that problem. Work through the list until you achieve an acceptable result. Regular and effective housekeeping is essential. What you do and how often you do it will depend on how you use your computer. A suggested routine may include: 1. In Outlook Express empty your Deleted Items folder. 2. In Outlook Express run File, Folder, Compact All whilst OFFLINE. 3. Run Disk Cleanup. Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup with Temporary Internet Files, Offline Web Pages (optional), and Recycle Bin selected for deletion. If you have more than one drive / partition you may need to do this operation for each drive / partition. 4. Remove Cookies. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, Delete Cookies. 5. Run Disk Defragmenter. Check whether you could reduce the number of days the History of sites visited is retained. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, History. Spyware causes many problems. If not installed download Adaware and / or update Reference file from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ and use it to remove parasites. If Spyware persists as a problem try a Hosts file. http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html Slow performance resulting from insufficient memory, causing over reliance on virtual memory, may be especially noticed by those upgrading to Windows XP from an earlier version of Windows. Windows XP will run with 64 MB of RAM memory. However, a minimum of 256 MB is recommended and many users will recommend 512 MB. You may check on pagefile (virtual memory) usage with Page File Monitor for XP: http://www.dougknox.com/ Check how much free space you have on the hard drive / partition where your pagefile is located. You need a minimum of 15% but 20% or more is better. Check your setting for the Indexing Service. Start, Administrative Tools, Services, Indexing Service. The default setting is Manual. Check that it is not running. More information he http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/serv...dexing_Service You can have too many programmes running in the background. Close programmes/windows after use. Check whether all the programmes loading when Windows is started are really necessary. http://aumha.org/a/loads.htm Check whether you can identify slow performance with a particular programme. Look in Google to see whether others have encountered the same problem and found a solution. http://groups.google.com/ Are there any error messages in Event Viewer? You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information regarding Event ID: and Source Description is important. HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp ~~~~~~ Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FCA Stourport, Worcs, England Enquire, plan and execute. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Bruce" wrote in message ... I have XP Pro installed on a Toshiba Satellite laptop, 1.8GHz Pentium IV, 256 Mb RAM. It was a clean install with a new machine. I am running Office, Acrobat, scanner software, and a few other odds and ends such as a time clock program. All of the many updates and patches are installed. I have full administrative rights to the machine. XP does some things very well, but in other areas it seems to have taken a large step backward from previous OS versions. My chief complaint is that in some operations it is very slow. It always has been, since the machine was new. In particular, deleting a file (network or local) takes up to ten seconds. Also, shut down takes several minutes, and about one time out of five stops at the final blue screen. The other problem with speed occurs especially after the computer has been inactive and gone on standby. When it wakes up again, it writes to the hard drive constantly for at least five minutes. During that time whatever it is doing to attempt to revive itself consumes system resources so extensively that it is virtually impossible to so much as navigate in Windows Explorer or access a menu in Word. Such operations are very slow, and attempting them can lead to freezes. I am using the laptop on AC power most of the time, so power conservation is not much of an issue. I have been into msconfig to disable what I recognize as unnecessary, such as Acrobat Assistant and HP Share-to- Web, which came with the scanner. I would like to disable everything I don't need, which leads me to the question of what is necessary at Startup. Same for Services. I have disabled the worthless Error Reporting Service, but would like to disable anything I can that consumes system resources. What else can I do to speed up this clunker? All of the gains in XP are lost because of a few time-consuming, resource-hogging "features". If I could disable some of the extra garbage that is going on behind the scenes and devote the extra processor time to the work I am trying to do, this could actually be a pretty good OS. Now if they would only do something about Find. |
#5
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Performance issues
Poor system performance can be the result of a single problem or a combination of factors. Listed below are issues, which you may wish to examine if you are experiencing poor performance after the boot process has completed. Some items may help with slow starting of Windows XP but the list has not been prepared for tackling that problem. Work through the list until you achieve an acceptable result. Regular and effective housekeeping is essential. What you do and how often you do it will depend on how you use your computer. A suggested routine may include: 1. In Outlook Express empty your Deleted Items folder. 2. In Outlook Express run File, Folder, Compact All whilst OFFLINE. 3. Run Disk Cleanup. Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup with Temporary Internet Files, Offline Web Pages (optional), and Recycle Bin selected for deletion. If you have more than one drive / partition you may need to do this operation for each drive / partition. 4. Remove Cookies. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, Delete Cookies. 5. Run Disk Defragmenter. Check whether you could reduce the number of days the History of sites visited is retained. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, History. Spyware causes many problems. If not installed download Adaware and / or update Reference file from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ and use it to remove parasites. If Spyware persists as a problem try a Hosts file. http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html Slow performance resulting from insufficient memory, causing over reliance on virtual memory, may be especially noticed by those upgrading to Windows XP from an earlier version of Windows. Windows XP will run with 64 MB of RAM memory. However, a minimum of 256 MB is recommended and many users will recommend 512 MB. You may check on pagefile (virtual memory) usage with Page File Monitor for XP: http://www.dougknox.com/ Check how much free space you have on the hard drive / partition where your pagefile is located. You need a minimum of 15% but 20% or more is better. Check your setting for the Indexing Service. Start, Administrative Tools, Services, Indexing Service. The default setting is Manual. Check that it is not running. More information he http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/serv...dexing_Service You can have too many programmes running in the background. Close programmes/windows after use. Check whether all the programmes loading when Windows is started are really necessary. http://aumha.org/a/loads.htm Check whether you can identify slow performance with a particular programme. Look in Google to see whether others have encountered the same problem and found a solution. http://groups.google.com/ Are there any error messages in Event Viewer? You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information regarding Event ID: and Source Description is important. HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp ~~~~~~ Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FCA Stourport, Worcs, England Enquire, plan and execute. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Bruce" wrote in message ... I have XP Pro installed on a Toshiba Satellite laptop, 1.8GHz Pentium IV, 256 Mb RAM. It was a clean install with a new machine. I am running Office, Acrobat, scanner software, and a few other odds and ends such as a time clock program. All of the many updates and patches are installed. I have full administrative rights to the machine. XP does some things very well, but in other areas it seems to have taken a large step backward from previous OS versions. My chief complaint is that in some operations it is very slow. It always has been, since the machine was new. In particular, deleting a file (network or local) takes up to ten seconds. Also, shut down takes several minutes, and about one time out of five stops at the final blue screen. The other problem with speed occurs especially after the computer has been inactive and gone on standby. When it wakes up again, it writes to the hard drive constantly for at least five minutes. During that time whatever it is doing to attempt to revive itself consumes system resources so extensively that it is virtually impossible to so much as navigate in Windows Explorer or access a menu in Word. Such operations are very slow, and attempting them can lead to freezes. I am using the laptop on AC power most of the time, so power conservation is not much of an issue. I have been into msconfig to disable what I recognize as unnecessary, such as Acrobat Assistant and HP Share-to- Web, which came with the scanner. I would like to disable everything I don't need, which leads me to the question of what is necessary at Startup. Same for Services. I have disabled the worthless Error Reporting Service, but would like to disable anything I can that consumes system resources. What else can I do to speed up this clunker? All of the gains in XP are lost because of a few time-consuming, resource-hogging "features". If I could disable some of the extra garbage that is going on behind the scenes and devote the extra processor time to the work I am trying to do, this could actually be a pretty good OS. Now if they would only do something about Find. |
#6
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Performance issues
Thanks for the suggestions. I have performed maintenance
regularly. I have 256 Mb of RAM, and plenty of disk space. Indexing service is off. I will check for adware, but the problem is not so much degradation of performance over time as clunky performance from the beginning. Certain actions such as deleting files and shutting down take a long time. I have adjusted the power saver settings in the hope of reducing the problem of stepping away from the computer for ten minutes and having it write constantly to the disk for the first five minutes or more after attempting to resume work. The ten seconds it takes to delete a file is reduced after deleting the first file, so I guess I can put up with that annoyance. I have McAffee anti-virus, which can be quite a system hog at times, so part of the problem is probably related to that program. I will continue searching as you suggest. I think a lot of the problem is that there are too many features that are designed to anticipate my next move. As I discover more of these I can continue to turn them off. Thanks again for taking the time to reply. -----Original Message----- Poor system performance can be the result of a single problem or a combination of factors. Listed below are issues, which you may wish to examine if you are experiencing poor performance after the boot process has completed. Some items may help with slow starting of Windows XP but the list has not been prepared for tackling that problem. Work through the list until you achieve an acceptable result. Regular and effective housekeeping is essential. What you do and how often you do it will depend on how you use your computer. A suggested routine may include: 1. In Outlook Express empty your Deleted Items folder. 2. In Outlook Express run File, Folder, Compact All whilst OFFLINE. 3. Run Disk Cleanup. Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup with Temporary Internet Files, Offline Web Pages (optional), and Recycle Bin selected for deletion. If you have more than one drive / partition you may need to do this operation for each drive / partition. 4. Remove Cookies. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, Delete Cookies. 5. Run Disk Defragmenter. Check whether you could reduce the number of days the History of sites visited is retained. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, History. Spyware causes many problems. If not installed download Adaware and / or update Reference file from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ and use it to remove parasites. If Spyware persists as a problem try a Hosts file. http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html Slow performance resulting from insufficient memory, causing over reliance on virtual memory, may be especially noticed by those upgrading to Windows XP from an earlier version of Windows. Windows XP will run with 64 MB of RAM memory. However, a minimum of 256 MB is recommended and many users will recommend 512 MB. You may check on pagefile (virtual memory) usage with Page File Monitor for XP: http://www.dougknox.com/ Check how much free space you have on the hard drive / partition where your pagefile is located. You need a minimum of 15% but 20% or more is better. Check your setting for the Indexing Service. Start, Administrative Tools, Services, Indexing Service. The default setting is Manual. Check that it is not running. More information he http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/serv...tm#Indexing_Se rvice You can have too many programmes running in the background. Close programmes/windows after use. Check whether all the programmes loading when Windows is started are really necessary. http://aumha.org/a/loads.htm Check whether you can identify slow performance with a particular programme. Look in Google to see whether others have encountered the same problem and found a solution. http://groups.google.com/ Are there any error messages in Event Viewer? You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information regarding Event ID: and Source Description is important. HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en- us;308427&Product=winxp ~~~~~~ Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FCA Stourport, Worcs, England Enquire, plan and execute. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Bruce" wrote in message ... I have XP Pro installed on a Toshiba Satellite laptop, 1.8GHz Pentium IV, 256 Mb RAM. It was a clean install with a new machine. I am running Office, Acrobat, scanner software, and a few other odds and ends such as a time clock program. All of the many updates and patches are installed. I have full administrative rights to the machine. XP does some things very well, but in other areas it seems to have taken a large step backward from previous OS versions. My chief complaint is that in some operations it is very slow. It always has been, since the machine was new. In particular, deleting a file (network or local) takes up to ten seconds. Also, shut down takes several minutes, and about one time out of five stops at the final blue screen. The other problem with speed occurs especially after the computer has been inactive and gone on standby. When it wakes up again, it writes to the hard drive constantly for at least five minutes. During that time whatever it is doing to attempt to revive itself consumes system resources so extensively that it is virtually impossible to so much as navigate in Windows Explorer or access a menu in Word. Such operations are very slow, and attempting them can lead to freezes. I am using the laptop on AC power most of the time, so power conservation is not much of an issue. I have been into msconfig to disable what I recognize as unnecessary, such as Acrobat Assistant and HP Share-to- Web, which came with the scanner. I would like to disable everything I don't need, which leads me to the question of what is necessary at Startup. Same for Services. I have disabled the worthless Error Reporting Service, but would like to disable anything I can that consumes system resources. What else can I do to speed up this clunker? All of the gains in XP are lost because of a few time-consuming, resource-hogging "features". If I could disable some of the extra garbage that is going on behind the scenes and devote the extra processor time to the work I am trying to do, this could actually be a pretty good OS. Now if they would only do something about Find. . |
#7
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Performance issues
Poor system performance can be the result of a single problem or a combination of factors. Listed below are issues, which you may wish to examine if you are experiencing poor performance after the boot process has completed. Some items may help with slow starting of Windows XP but the list has not been prepared for tackling that problem. Work through the list until you achieve an acceptable result. Regular and effective housekeeping is essential. What you do and how often you do it will depend on how you use your computer. A suggested routine may include: 1. In Outlook Express empty your Deleted Items folder. 2. In Outlook Express run File, Folder, Compact All whilst OFFLINE. 3. Run Disk Cleanup. Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup with Temporary Internet Files, Offline Web Pages (optional), and Recycle Bin selected for deletion. If you have more than one drive / partition you may need to do this operation for each drive / partition. 4. Remove Cookies. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, Delete Cookies. 5. Run Disk Defragmenter. Check whether you could reduce the number of days the History of sites visited is retained. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, History. Spyware causes many problems. If not installed download Adaware and / or update Reference file from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ and use it to remove parasites. If Spyware persists as a problem try a Hosts file. http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html Slow performance resulting from insufficient memory, causing over reliance on virtual memory, may be especially noticed by those upgrading to Windows XP from an earlier version of Windows. Windows XP will run with 64 MB of RAM memory. However, a minimum of 256 MB is recommended and many users will recommend 512 MB. You may check on pagefile (virtual memory) usage with Page File Monitor for XP: http://www.dougknox.com/ Check how much free space you have on the hard drive / partition where your pagefile is located. You need a minimum of 15% but 20% or more is better. Check your setting for the Indexing Service. Start, Administrative Tools, Services, Indexing Service. The default setting is Manual. Check that it is not running. More information he http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/serv...dexing_Service You can have too many programmes running in the background. Close programmes/windows after use. Check whether all the programmes loading when Windows is started are really necessary. http://aumha.org/a/loads.htm Check whether you can identify slow performance with a particular programme. Look in Google to see whether others have encountered the same problem and found a solution. http://groups.google.com/ Are there any error messages in Event Viewer? You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information regarding Event ID: and Source Description is important. HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp ~~~~~~ Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FCA Stourport, Worcs, England Enquire, plan and execute. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Bruce" wrote in message ... I have XP Pro installed on a Toshiba Satellite laptop, 1.8GHz Pentium IV, 256 Mb RAM. It was a clean install with a new machine. I am running Office, Acrobat, scanner software, and a few other odds and ends such as a time clock program. All of the many updates and patches are installed. I have full administrative rights to the machine. XP does some things very well, but in other areas it seems to have taken a large step backward from previous OS versions. My chief complaint is that in some operations it is very slow. It always has been, since the machine was new. In particular, deleting a file (network or local) takes up to ten seconds. Also, shut down takes several minutes, and about one time out of five stops at the final blue screen. The other problem with speed occurs especially after the computer has been inactive and gone on standby. When it wakes up again, it writes to the hard drive constantly for at least five minutes. During that time whatever it is doing to attempt to revive itself consumes system resources so extensively that it is virtually impossible to so much as navigate in Windows Explorer or access a menu in Word. Such operations are very slow, and attempting them can lead to freezes. I am using the laptop on AC power most of the time, so power conservation is not much of an issue. I have been into msconfig to disable what I recognize as unnecessary, such as Acrobat Assistant and HP Share-to- Web, which came with the scanner. I would like to disable everything I don't need, which leads me to the question of what is necessary at Startup. Same for Services. I have disabled the worthless Error Reporting Service, but would like to disable anything I can that consumes system resources. What else can I do to speed up this clunker? All of the gains in XP are lost because of a few time-consuming, resource-hogging "features". If I could disable some of the extra garbage that is going on behind the scenes and devote the extra processor time to the work I am trying to do, this could actually be a pretty good OS. Now if they would only do something about Find. |
#8
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Performance issues
Thanks for the suggestions. I have performed maintenance
regularly. I have 256 Mb of RAM, and plenty of disk space. Indexing service is off. I will check for adware, but the problem is not so much degradation of performance over time as clunky performance from the beginning. Certain actions such as deleting files and shutting down take a long time. I have adjusted the power saver settings in the hope of reducing the problem of stepping away from the computer for ten minutes and having it write constantly to the disk for the first five minutes or more after attempting to resume work. The ten seconds it takes to delete a file is reduced after deleting the first file, so I guess I can put up with that annoyance. I have McAffee anti-virus, which can be quite a system hog at times, so part of the problem is probably related to that program. I will continue searching as you suggest. I think a lot of the problem is that there are too many features that are designed to anticipate my next move. As I discover more of these I can continue to turn them off. Thanks again for taking the time to reply. -----Original Message----- Poor system performance can be the result of a single problem or a combination of factors. Listed below are issues, which you may wish to examine if you are experiencing poor performance after the boot process has completed. Some items may help with slow starting of Windows XP but the list has not been prepared for tackling that problem. Work through the list until you achieve an acceptable result. Regular and effective housekeeping is essential. What you do and how often you do it will depend on how you use your computer. A suggested routine may include: 1. In Outlook Express empty your Deleted Items folder. 2. In Outlook Express run File, Folder, Compact All whilst OFFLINE. 3. Run Disk Cleanup. Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup with Temporary Internet Files, Offline Web Pages (optional), and Recycle Bin selected for deletion. If you have more than one drive / partition you may need to do this operation for each drive / partition. 4. Remove Cookies. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, Delete Cookies. 5. Run Disk Defragmenter. Check whether you could reduce the number of days the History of sites visited is retained. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, History. Spyware causes many problems. If not installed download Adaware and / or update Reference file from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ and use it to remove parasites. If Spyware persists as a problem try a Hosts file. http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html Slow performance resulting from insufficient memory, causing over reliance on virtual memory, may be especially noticed by those upgrading to Windows XP from an earlier version of Windows. Windows XP will run with 64 MB of RAM memory. However, a minimum of 256 MB is recommended and many users will recommend 512 MB. You may check on pagefile (virtual memory) usage with Page File Monitor for XP: http://www.dougknox.com/ Check how much free space you have on the hard drive / partition where your pagefile is located. You need a minimum of 15% but 20% or more is better. Check your setting for the Indexing Service. Start, Administrative Tools, Services, Indexing Service. The default setting is Manual. Check that it is not running. More information he http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/serv...tm#Indexing_Se rvice You can have too many programmes running in the background. Close programmes/windows after use. Check whether all the programmes loading when Windows is started are really necessary. http://aumha.org/a/loads.htm Check whether you can identify slow performance with a particular programme. Look in Google to see whether others have encountered the same problem and found a solution. http://groups.google.com/ Are there any error messages in Event Viewer? You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information regarding Event ID: and Source Description is important. HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en- us;308427&Product=winxp ~~~~~~ Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FCA Stourport, Worcs, England Enquire, plan and execute. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Bruce" wrote in message ... I have XP Pro installed on a Toshiba Satellite laptop, 1.8GHz Pentium IV, 256 Mb RAM. It was a clean install with a new machine. I am running Office, Acrobat, scanner software, and a few other odds and ends such as a time clock program. All of the many updates and patches are installed. I have full administrative rights to the machine. XP does some things very well, but in other areas it seems to have taken a large step backward from previous OS versions. My chief complaint is that in some operations it is very slow. It always has been, since the machine was new. In particular, deleting a file (network or local) takes up to ten seconds. Also, shut down takes several minutes, and about one time out of five stops at the final blue screen. The other problem with speed occurs especially after the computer has been inactive and gone on standby. When it wakes up again, it writes to the hard drive constantly for at least five minutes. During that time whatever it is doing to attempt to revive itself consumes system resources so extensively that it is virtually impossible to so much as navigate in Windows Explorer or access a menu in Word. Such operations are very slow, and attempting them can lead to freezes. I am using the laptop on AC power most of the time, so power conservation is not much of an issue. I have been into msconfig to disable what I recognize as unnecessary, such as Acrobat Assistant and HP Share-to- Web, which came with the scanner. I would like to disable everything I don't need, which leads me to the question of what is necessary at Startup. Same for Services. I have disabled the worthless Error Reporting Service, but would like to disable anything I can that consumes system resources. What else can I do to speed up this clunker? All of the gains in XP are lost because of a few time-consuming, resource-hogging "features". If I could disable some of the extra garbage that is going on behind the scenes and devote the extra processor time to the work I am trying to do, this could actually be a pretty good OS. Now if they would only do something about Find. . |
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Performance issues
Thanks for the suggestions. I have performed maintenance
regularly. I have 256 Mb of RAM, and plenty of disk space. Indexing service is off. I will check for adware, but the problem is not so much degradation of performance over time as clunky performance from the beginning. Certain actions such as deleting files and shutting down take a long time. I have adjusted the power saver settings in the hope of reducing the problem of stepping away from the computer for ten minutes and having it write constantly to the disk for the first five minutes or more after attempting to resume work. The ten seconds it takes to delete a file is reduced after deleting the first file, so I guess I can put up with that annoyance. I have McAffee anti-virus, which can be quite a system hog at times, so part of the problem is probably related to that program. I will continue searching as you suggest. I think a lot of the problem is that there are too many features that are designed to anticipate my next move. As I discover more of these I can continue to turn them off. Thanks again for taking the time to reply. -----Original Message----- Poor system performance can be the result of a single problem or a combination of factors. Listed below are issues, which you may wish to examine if you are experiencing poor performance after the boot process has completed. Some items may help with slow starting of Windows XP but the list has not been prepared for tackling that problem. Work through the list until you achieve an acceptable result. Regular and effective housekeeping is essential. What you do and how often you do it will depend on how you use your computer. A suggested routine may include: 1. In Outlook Express empty your Deleted Items folder. 2. In Outlook Express run File, Folder, Compact All whilst OFFLINE. 3. Run Disk Cleanup. Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup with Temporary Internet Files, Offline Web Pages (optional), and Recycle Bin selected for deletion. If you have more than one drive / partition you may need to do this operation for each drive / partition. 4. Remove Cookies. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, Delete Cookies. 5. Run Disk Defragmenter. Check whether you could reduce the number of days the History of sites visited is retained. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, History. Spyware causes many problems. If not installed download Adaware and / or update Reference file from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ and use it to remove parasites. If Spyware persists as a problem try a Hosts file. http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html Slow performance resulting from insufficient memory, causing over reliance on virtual memory, may be especially noticed by those upgrading to Windows XP from an earlier version of Windows. Windows XP will run with 64 MB of RAM memory. However, a minimum of 256 MB is recommended and many users will recommend 512 MB. You may check on pagefile (virtual memory) usage with Page File Monitor for XP: http://www.dougknox.com/ Check how much free space you have on the hard drive / partition where your pagefile is located. You need a minimum of 15% but 20% or more is better. Check your setting for the Indexing Service. Start, Administrative Tools, Services, Indexing Service. The default setting is Manual. Check that it is not running. More information he http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/serv...tm#Indexing_Se rvice You can have too many programmes running in the background. Close programmes/windows after use. Check whether all the programmes loading when Windows is started are really necessary. http://aumha.org/a/loads.htm Check whether you can identify slow performance with a particular programme. Look in Google to see whether others have encountered the same problem and found a solution. http://groups.google.com/ Are there any error messages in Event Viewer? You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information regarding Event ID: and Source Description is important. HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en- us;308427&Product=winxp ~~~~~~ Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FCA Stourport, Worcs, England Enquire, plan and execute. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Bruce" wrote in message ... I have XP Pro installed on a Toshiba Satellite laptop, 1.8GHz Pentium IV, 256 Mb RAM. It was a clean install with a new machine. I am running Office, Acrobat, scanner software, and a few other odds and ends such as a time clock program. All of the many updates and patches are installed. I have full administrative rights to the machine. XP does some things very well, but in other areas it seems to have taken a large step backward from previous OS versions. My chief complaint is that in some operations it is very slow. It always has been, since the machine was new. In particular, deleting a file (network or local) takes up to ten seconds. Also, shut down takes several minutes, and about one time out of five stops at the final blue screen. The other problem with speed occurs especially after the computer has been inactive and gone on standby. When it wakes up again, it writes to the hard drive constantly for at least five minutes. During that time whatever it is doing to attempt to revive itself consumes system resources so extensively that it is virtually impossible to so much as navigate in Windows Explorer or access a menu in Word. Such operations are very slow, and attempting them can lead to freezes. I am using the laptop on AC power most of the time, so power conservation is not much of an issue. I have been into msconfig to disable what I recognize as unnecessary, such as Acrobat Assistant and HP Share-to- Web, which came with the scanner. I would like to disable everything I don't need, which leads me to the question of what is necessary at Startup. Same for Services. I have disabled the worthless Error Reporting Service, but would like to disable anything I can that consumes system resources. What else can I do to speed up this clunker? All of the gains in XP are lost because of a few time-consuming, resource-hogging "features". If I could disable some of the extra garbage that is going on behind the scenes and devote the extra processor time to the work I am trying to do, this could actually be a pretty good OS. Now if they would only do something about Find. . |
#10
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Performance issues
Thanks for the suggestions. I have performed maintenance
regularly. I have 256 Mb of RAM, and plenty of disk space. Indexing service is off. I will check for adware, but the problem is not so much degradation of performance over time as clunky performance from the beginning. Certain actions such as deleting files and shutting down take a long time. I have adjusted the power saver settings in the hope of reducing the problem of stepping away from the computer for ten minutes and having it write constantly to the disk for the first five minutes or more after attempting to resume work. The ten seconds it takes to delete a file is reduced after deleting the first file, so I guess I can put up with that annoyance. I have McAffee anti-virus, which can be quite a system hog at times, so part of the problem is probably related to that program. I will continue searching as you suggest. I think a lot of the problem is that there are too many features that are designed to anticipate my next move. As I discover more of these I can continue to turn them off. Thanks again for taking the time to reply. -----Original Message----- Poor system performance can be the result of a single problem or a combination of factors. Listed below are issues, which you may wish to examine if you are experiencing poor performance after the boot process has completed. Some items may help with slow starting of Windows XP but the list has not been prepared for tackling that problem. Work through the list until you achieve an acceptable result. Regular and effective housekeeping is essential. What you do and how often you do it will depend on how you use your computer. A suggested routine may include: 1. In Outlook Express empty your Deleted Items folder. 2. In Outlook Express run File, Folder, Compact All whilst OFFLINE. 3. Run Disk Cleanup. Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup with Temporary Internet Files, Offline Web Pages (optional), and Recycle Bin selected for deletion. If you have more than one drive / partition you may need to do this operation for each drive / partition. 4. Remove Cookies. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, Delete Cookies. 5. Run Disk Defragmenter. Check whether you could reduce the number of days the History of sites visited is retained. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, History. Spyware causes many problems. If not installed download Adaware and / or update Reference file from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ and use it to remove parasites. If Spyware persists as a problem try a Hosts file. http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html Slow performance resulting from insufficient memory, causing over reliance on virtual memory, may be especially noticed by those upgrading to Windows XP from an earlier version of Windows. Windows XP will run with 64 MB of RAM memory. However, a minimum of 256 MB is recommended and many users will recommend 512 MB. You may check on pagefile (virtual memory) usage with Page File Monitor for XP: http://www.dougknox.com/ Check how much free space you have on the hard drive / partition where your pagefile is located. You need a minimum of 15% but 20% or more is better. Check your setting for the Indexing Service. Start, Administrative Tools, Services, Indexing Service. The default setting is Manual. Check that it is not running. More information he http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/serv...tm#Indexing_Se rvice You can have too many programmes running in the background. Close programmes/windows after use. Check whether all the programmes loading when Windows is started are really necessary. http://aumha.org/a/loads.htm Check whether you can identify slow performance with a particular programme. Look in Google to see whether others have encountered the same problem and found a solution. http://groups.google.com/ Are there any error messages in Event Viewer? You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information regarding Event ID: and Source Description is important. HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en- us;308427&Product=winxp ~~~~~~ Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FCA Stourport, Worcs, England Enquire, plan and execute. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Bruce" wrote in message ... I have XP Pro installed on a Toshiba Satellite laptop, 1.8GHz Pentium IV, 256 Mb RAM. It was a clean install with a new machine. I am running Office, Acrobat, scanner software, and a few other odds and ends such as a time clock program. All of the many updates and patches are installed. I have full administrative rights to the machine. XP does some things very well, but in other areas it seems to have taken a large step backward from previous OS versions. My chief complaint is that in some operations it is very slow. It always has been, since the machine was new. In particular, deleting a file (network or local) takes up to ten seconds. Also, shut down takes several minutes, and about one time out of five stops at the final blue screen. The other problem with speed occurs especially after the computer has been inactive and gone on standby. When it wakes up again, it writes to the hard drive constantly for at least five minutes. During that time whatever it is doing to attempt to revive itself consumes system resources so extensively that it is virtually impossible to so much as navigate in Windows Explorer or access a menu in Word. Such operations are very slow, and attempting them can lead to freezes. I am using the laptop on AC power most of the time, so power conservation is not much of an issue. I have been into msconfig to disable what I recognize as unnecessary, such as Acrobat Assistant and HP Share-to- Web, which came with the scanner. I would like to disable everything I don't need, which leads me to the question of what is necessary at Startup. Same for Services. I have disabled the worthless Error Reporting Service, but would like to disable anything I can that consumes system resources. What else can I do to speed up this clunker? All of the gains in XP are lost because of a few time-consuming, resource-hogging "features". If I could disable some of the extra garbage that is going on behind the scenes and devote the extra processor time to the work I am trying to do, this could actually be a pretty good OS. Now if they would only do something about Find. . |
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Performance issues
Bruce
What size and type of files are you deleting? Are you using Windows Explorer to delete or some other application? What is the size of your hard disk and how much free space are you seeing? Is your hard disk partitioned? How is it formatted? How large are your system restore files? Which programmes are you using when you most notice clunky performance? Removal of spyware can materially improve performance. Some would say 256 mb RAM memory is a minimum. Do you know the extent to which your paging file is being used? Doug Knox has made available a script to monitor pagefile usage. http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm You may need to work hard to reduce the number of programmes loading. You need the firewall and anti-virus scanner. I do hope you are not using any continuous cleaner of the sort that Norton and I think McAfee are offering. They will drain system performance. Also if you use Outlook Express deselect the option to "Compact messages in the background" -Tools, Options, Maintenance. -- ~~~~~~ Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FCA Stourport, Worcs, England Enquire, plan and execute. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please tell the newsgroup how any suggested solution worked for you. http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Bruce" wrote in message ... Thanks for the suggestions. I have performed maintenance regularly. I have 256 Mb of RAM, and plenty of disk space. Indexing service is off. I will check for adware, but the problem is not so much degradation of performance over time as clunky performance from the beginning. Certain actions such as deleting files and shutting down take a long time. I have adjusted the power saver settings in the hope of reducing the problem of stepping away from the computer for ten minutes and having it write constantly to the disk for the first five minutes or more after attempting to resume work. The ten seconds it takes to delete a file is reduced after deleting the first file, so I guess I can put up with that annoyance. I have McAffee anti-virus, which can be quite a system hog at times, so part of the problem is probably related to that program. I will continue searching as you suggest. I think a lot of the problem is that there are too many features that are designed to anticipate my next move. As I discover more of these I can continue to turn them off. Thanks again for taking the time to reply. -----Original Message----- Poor system performance can be the result of a single problem or a combination of factors. Listed below are issues, which you may wish to examine if you are experiencing poor performance after the boot process has completed. Some items may help with slow starting of Windows XP but the list has not been prepared for tackling that problem. Work through the list until you achieve an acceptable result. Regular and effective housekeeping is essential. What you do and how often you do it will depend on how you use your computer. A suggested routine may include: 1. In Outlook Express empty your Deleted Items folder. 2. In Outlook Express run File, Folder, Compact All whilst OFFLINE. 3. Run Disk Cleanup. Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup with Temporary Internet Files, Offline Web Pages (optional), and Recycle Bin selected for deletion. If you have more than one drive / partition you may need to do this operation for each drive / partition. 4. Remove Cookies. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, Delete Cookies. 5. Run Disk Defragmenter. Check whether you could reduce the number of days the History of sites visited is retained. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, History. Spyware causes many problems. If not installed download Adaware and / or update Reference file from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ and use it to remove parasites. If Spyware persists as a problem try a Hosts file. http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html Slow performance resulting from insufficient memory, causing over reliance on virtual memory, may be especially noticed by those upgrading to Windows XP from an earlier version of Windows. Windows XP will run with 64 MB of RAM memory. However, a minimum of 256 MB is recommended and many users will recommend 512 MB. You may check on pagefile (virtual memory) usage with Page File Monitor for XP: http://www.dougknox.com/ Check how much free space you have on the hard drive / partition where your pagefile is located. You need a minimum of 15% but 20% or more is better. Check your setting for the Indexing Service. Start, Administrative Tools, Services, Indexing Service. The default setting is Manual. Check that it is not running. More information he http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/serv...tm#Indexing_Se rvice You can have too many programmes running in the background. Close programmes/windows after use. Check whether all the programmes loading when Windows is started are really necessary. http://aumha.org/a/loads.htm Check whether you can identify slow performance with a particular programme. Look in Google to see whether others have encountered the same problem and found a solution. http://groups.google.com/ Are there any error messages in Event Viewer? You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information regarding Event ID: and Source Description is important. HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en- us;308427&Product=winxp ~~~~~~ Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FCA Stourport, Worcs, England Enquire, plan and execute. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Bruce" wrote in message ... I have XP Pro installed on a Toshiba Satellite laptop, 1.8GHz Pentium IV, 256 Mb RAM. It was a clean install with a new machine. I am running Office, Acrobat, scanner software, and a few other odds and ends such as a time clock program. All of the many updates and patches are installed. I have full administrative rights to the machine. XP does some things very well, but in other areas it seems to have taken a large step backward from previous OS versions. My chief complaint is that in some operations it is very slow. It always has been, since the machine was new. In particular, deleting a file (network or local) takes up to ten seconds. Also, shut down takes several minutes, and about one time out of five stops at the final blue screen. The other problem with speed occurs especially after the computer has been inactive and gone on standby. When it wakes up again, it writes to the hard drive constantly for at least five minutes. During that time whatever it is doing to attempt to revive itself consumes system resources so extensively that it is virtually impossible to so much as navigate in Windows Explorer or access a menu in Word. Such operations are very slow, and attempting them can lead to freezes. I am using the laptop on AC power most of the time, so power conservation is not much of an issue. I have been into msconfig to disable what I recognize as unnecessary, such as Acrobat Assistant and HP Share-to- Web, which came with the scanner. I would like to disable everything I don't need, which leads me to the question of what is necessary at Startup. Same for Services. I have disabled the worthless Error Reporting Service, but would like to disable anything I can that consumes system resources. What else can I do to speed up this clunker? All of the gains in XP are lost because of a few time-consuming, resource-hogging "features". If I could disable some of the extra garbage that is going on behind the scenes and devote the extra processor time to the work I am trying to do, this could actually be a pretty good OS. Now if they would only do something about Find. . |
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