Ways to speed up an xp machine?

Gerard

Gerard

Gerard

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My uncles dell has started performing incredibly sluggishly. On boot it takes around a minute after hitting the desktop to become responsive despite the fact theres almost nothing loading on bootup. Ive defragged and disabled all startup items and the sluggishness continues. .

Im terms of files the hard drive only has a few gigs used, mainly my cousins mp3 files about 8 gigs worth. Everything else is word files etc which barely take up any room. Ran spyware and virus scanners and nothing dodgy that could be hogging resources.

Would it be worth running some sort of reg cleaner to see if that helps?

System has 2 gigs of ddr ram and a pentium 4 2.8.
 
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Tell them to get out of the Dark Ages and install a modern OS.

Failing that, a reinstall of XP is usually the easiest and quickest way to make it snappy again. Just remember to backup everything, check the back ups work, check nothing is missing then check again. Then nuke.
 
SiriusB said:
Tell them to get out of the Dark Ages and install a modern OS.
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I doubt the machine would support a more modern os, its integrated audio and video, and its about 4 years old now. Formatting is going to be akward as theres quite a few gigs of audio on it and the machines now so sluggish getting them off is going to take ages. Its only really used for net browsing, itunes and some word docs, suits their needs fine at the mo.
 
Also tried checking system temps? Years ago a friend was complaining about sluggish performance we opened the case and the amount of crap/dust/cathair etc.. inside the case was crazy.

Edit: After cleaning it was fine, this was an p4 system also
 
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Download and use TuneXP, it is small and if you use all the settings correctly will probably give you a real boost.
 
A good sign of too much junk is the number of running processes.

When I used XP and was at my most anal I had it down to something like 25 processes. Anything less than 40 should be fine. Any more than that and I would be taking another look at just what is running.

What did you use to check all the startup programs? CCleaner is great at showing and removing startup entries.
 
G J said:
Also tried checking system temps? Years ago a friend was complaining about sluggish performance we opened the case and the amount of crap/dust/cathair etc.. inside the case was crazy.

Edit: After cleaning it was fine, this was an p4 system also
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking too. If the cooler has stopped working properly, the processor will be throttling, which will make the system pig-slow. If the box has been sitting under a desk with no TLC for years, it's probably full of dust/crumbs/dog hair/cigarette ash which will be choking the cooling system.
 
I'll have to take a look into the case next time im down, on boot theres really nothing loading in terms of programs, i even disabled the antivirus to see if that was hogging things and no real change. I think theres only around 35 or so processes running as well.
 
If you've done all the above, maybe get a modern HD and ghost his current files to it. A modern 500GB platter HD will be so much quicker than the 4 year old original.
 
CPU-Z should show you your current CPU speed. CoreTemp for the CPU temperature. I am guessing both with support an older machine. Both are free so you only waste 5 mins finding out.
 
Ill do that next time im down, its incredibly sluggish as it is now. Also got to sort out an ipod touch being recognised as a camera. :rolleyes:
 
4 years old? My computer is older than that... and runs Vista perfectly (as well as W7), integrated GFX doesnt mean it's rubbish, and definately not integrated audio.

What specs is it? If it has more than 1GB of RAM (preferaby 2) then it should be fine tbh.

Otherwise just reinstall XP, sorts it out for another 6 months.
 
Amp34 said:
4 years old? My computer is older than that... and runs Vista perfectly (as well as W7), integrated GFX doesnt mean it's rubbish, and definately not integrated audio.

What specs is it? If it has more than 1GB of RAM (preferaby 2) then it should be fine tbh.

Otherwise just reinstall XP, sorts it out for another 6 months.
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This is it minus the speakers

http://shop.programsystem4u.com/cubecart/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=3

I installed 2 gigs of ram a while back, and im near sure the HDD is larger than 40 gigs.

Im considering vista, might run the compatability program on it to see if its worthwhile.
 
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Install Vista over XP to make an old computer run faster?

If you're going to reinstall you might just as well reinstall XP. Vista won't make it run faster but a reinstall of any kind will run better than a clogged up OS.
 
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