SP2 Slows Dell GX PCs to a crawl

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.

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/...-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.

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/...-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.

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/...-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.