New installation of Window's xp Home edition. Computer is running

"Ken Blake" wrote in message
...
In ,
There's always going to be some bottleneck, obviously. But given the
choice of underpowered cpu with lots of ram, or a fast processor with
not enough ram, the one with more ram will win the race.


Yes.


It's almost
criminal that there are new system being sold with only 128Mb of ram
for xp, for example.


Yes.


On the other hand, the ram issue is more easily
remedied.


And yes again.

I don't think we disagree at all. Once again, my point is in the nature of
a clarification; it has to do with someone who might be misled into
thinking that if he has a choice between buying a computer with more RAM
or with a faster processor, the right choice is getting more RAM. That's
*sometimes* correct, but not necessarily. It depends on how much RAM the
base computer has. If it's 512MB, that's more than enough for most
people, and it would be better to get a faster processor than to add RAM
above that (unless he runs memory hungry apps, such as PhotoShop).

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup


I'm not disagreeing, just muttering. :-)

I seldom disagree with anything you say.

If the original poster is still following -- one problem that often
causes XP to run slow on older PCs, besides a lack of memory, is that
your hard disk may not be using DMA. (Direct Memory Access.) It almost
certainly is DMA-capable, but if Windows is not aware of it, it won't
even try to use it. If upgrading to at least 256 megs of ram does not
help, go into control panel/system/device manager and click on the "+"
besides your IDE controllers. Click on primary IDE channel and check
to see if DMA is enabled. (You may have to go through another tab to
get to this setting, sorry I can't remember and I'm using a Win98
machine here at the moment.) If not try to enable DMA and if it seems
possible then reboot and go back in to make sure the setting "took."

If you can't enable DMA then XP probably was installed with the HAL for
"standard PC" rather than "ACPI." If that's the case I suggest finding
a forum for your brand of PC or motherboard, to get instructions on
getting into the BIOS and enabling ACPI there. ACPI -must- be enabled
in BIOS -before- installing Windows XP. If not, the only way to get
DMA working is to set the BIOS correctly, then do a repair install from
your Windows CD. The good folks here can help you with that.

One further warning -- some motherboards of your vintage do not
implement ACPI well enough to be recognized as such by XP even though
they are set up correctly prior to installation. If that is the case
then your computer/motherboard forum will likely know about it. Your
choice in that case is to accept slow performance or revert to an
earlier version of Windows.


--
DaveM59
------------------------------------------------------------------------
DaveM59's Profile: http://www.msusenet.com/member.php?userid=2000
View this thread: http://www.msusenet.com/t-1871020622

Thanks for the suggestions, folks. The only thing more amazing than my
ignorance in this area is the expertise others possess, especially with the
proliferation in this area. Many thanks. - Bill

"DaveM59" wrote:


If the original poster is still following -- one problem that often
causes XP to run slow on older PCs, besides a lack of memory, is that
your hard disk may not be using DMA. (Direct Memory Access.) It almost
certainly is DMA-capable, but if Windows is not aware of it, it won't
even try to use it. If upgrading to at least 256 megs of ram does not
help, go into control panel/system/device manager and click on the "+"
besides your IDE controllers. Click on primary IDE channel and check
to see if DMA is enabled. (You may have to go through another tab to
get to this setting, sorry I can't remember and I'm using a Win98
machine here at the moment.) If not try to enable DMA and if it seems
possible then reboot and go back in to make sure the setting "took."

If you can't enable DMA then XP probably was installed with the HAL for
"standard PC" rather than "ACPI." If that's the case I suggest finding
a forum for your brand of PC or motherboard, to get instructions on
getting into the BIOS and enabling ACPI there. ACPI -must- be enabled
in BIOS -before- installing Windows XP. If not, the only way to get
DMA working is to set the BIOS correctly, then do a repair install from
your Windows CD. The good folks here can help you with that.

One further warning -- some motherboards of your vintage do not
implement ACPI well enough to be recognized as such by XP even though
they are set up correctly prior to installation. If that is the case
then your computer/motherboard forum will likely know about it. Your
choice in that case is to accept slow performance or revert to an
earlier version of Windows.


--
DaveM59
------------------------------------------------------------------------
DaveM59's Profile: http://www.msusenet.com/member.php?userid=2000
View this thread: http://www.msusenet.com/t-1871020622

In ,
D.Currie typed:

"Ken Blake" wrote in message
...
In ,

I don't think we disagree at all. Once again, my point is in
the
nature of a clarification; it has to do with someone who might
be
misled into thinking that if he has a choice between buying a
computer with more RAM or with a faster processor, the right
choice
is getting more RAM. That's *sometimes* correct, but not
necessarily. It depends on how much RAM the base computer has.
If
it's 512MB, that's more than enough for most people, and it
would
be better to get a faster processor than to add RAM above that
(unless he runs memory hungry apps, such as PhotoShop). --
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup


I'm not disagreeing, just muttering. :-)

I seldom disagree with anything you say.


Kind words, and thank you.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

--
I filled this forms already.



Richard Dow


"Walter" wrote:

I use to have Window's ME, I had purchased Window's XP and I had tried to do
an upgrade from Window's ME but computer would not allow me to do so. So I
did a new installation from Window's xp and now my computer is running really
slow at start up, shut down, and even at diferent web sites. Could someone
PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS PROBLEM.

--
I filled this forms already.



Richard Dow


"Walter" wrote:

I use to have Window's ME, I had purchased Window's XP and I had tried to do
an upgrade from Window's ME but computer would not allow me to do so. So I
did a new installation from Window's xp and now my computer is running really
slow at start up, shut down, and even at diferent web sites. Could someone
PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS PROBLEM.

--
I filled this forms already.



Richard Dow


"D.Currie" wrote:

I find that ram is vastly more important than CPU speed. One of my computers
is an 800Mhz Duron with 512Mb of ram, and it's quite peppy running XP pro. I
wouldn't run games on it, but for mundane tasks, it's just fine.


"Richard Urban [MVP]" wrote in message
...
The operating system is "up and running" so whatever version he got - it
installed in a usable form. The computer, upgraded from Windows ME, is
likely just under powered for this robust operating system.

To the O/P. Does your computer meet, and surpass, the minimum system
requirements for CPU and installed RAM? In my opinion, if you don't have
at least 256 meg of RAM and a 2 gig CPU you may not be totally happy with
the machines performance. 512 meg of RAM is even better.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"

"Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote in message
...
Apparently, you purchased the wrong version (OEM, right?)
You now need to perform a "clean install". You should have
purchased a "Retail Upgrade Version" of Windows XP.

Clean Install Windows XP
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Walter" wrote:

| I use to have Window's ME, I had purchased Window's XP and I had tried
to do
| an upgrade from Window's ME but computer would not allow me to do so.
So I
| did a new installation from Window's xp and now my computer is running
really
| slow at start up, shut down, and even at diferent web sites. Could
someone
| PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS PROBLEM.

Use this big white space to ask your Question

Your partial post makes no sense

"Richard Dow" wrote in message
...

--
I filled this forms already.



Richard Dow


"D.Currie" wrote:

I find that ram is vastly more important than CPU speed. One of my
computers
is an 800Mhz Duron with 512Mb of ram, and it's quite peppy running XP
pro. I
wouldn't run games on it, but for mundane tasks, it's just fine.


"Richard Urban [MVP]" wrote in
message
...
The operating system is "up and running" so whatever version he got -
it
installed in a usable form. The computer, upgraded from Windows ME, is
likely just under powered for this robust operating system.

To the O/P. Does your computer meet, and surpass, the minimum system
requirements for CPU and installed RAM? In my opinion, if you don't
have
at least 256 meg of RAM and a 2 gig CPU you may not be totally happy
with
the machines performance. 512 meg of RAM is even better.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"

"Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote in message
...
Apparently, you purchased the wrong version (OEM, right?)
You now need to perform a "clean install". You should have
purchased a "Retail Upgrade Version" of Windows XP.

Clean Install Windows XP
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Walter" wrote:

| I use to have Window's ME, I had purchased Window's XP and I had
tried
to do
| an upgrade from Window's ME but computer would not allow me to do
so.
So I
| did a new installation from Window's xp and now my computer is
running
really
| slow at start up, shut down, and even at diferent web sites. Could
someone
| PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS PROBLEM.