Will reinstalling xp make my old sony vaio faster?

gizmo1990

gizmo1990

gizmo1990

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I've got an old sony vaio p3 600mhz and boy has it become slooooow over the past year! We're talking 7+ minutes just to boot up...It's running xp pro and yes it is nearly 10 years old plus only has 256mb of ram but I surely remember it being more responsive than it is now.

If I was to reinstall xp (last time was around 3 years ago) do you guys think it would improve things? It'll only be used for net surfing from now on. I suppose linux might be good but the girlfriend prefers the familiarity of win.

Opinions?
 
It's worth a try as I can't believe a new installation would take that long to boot. I normally count how many times the blue loading bar scrolls across, but would probably lose count after 5 minutes of it.

Worth timing how long it takes to boot before downloading SP3 and subsequent updates. As I imagine the updates would result in a slower boot.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

beermonster, the hard drive is constantly whirring, more than I used to remember, so I had thought it could be that. I discounted it though as I thought it was just the lack of system ram and that xp was just using it as a swap drive.

I'm none too sure I can upgrade my hd but if I could how would I find out a compatible drive? Anyone know?
 
The minimum specs that XP can reasonably run have upped over the years as new features have been added and fixes applied, 256mb used to be fine, these days unless it's a very stripped down OS it just isn't enough and results in massive drive thrashing due to excessive virtual memory useage, re-installing will clear a lot of junk out but it'll never be as fast or responsive as it used to be unless you refuse to update XP and bear in mind that XP without updates can be horribly exploited, pre SP1 and connected to the net you'll get infected within minutes if not seconds.
 
Try running ubuntu, if the missus does not like it just reinstall xp, to download and burn to a disk should only take 30min or so, a full xp install with web updates seems to take me hours.
 
gizmo1990 said:
Thanks for the replies guys.

beermonster, the hard drive is constantly whirring, more than I used to remember, so I had thought it could be that. I discounted it though as I thought it was just the lack of system ram and that xp was just using it as a swap drive.

I'm none too sure I can upgrade my hd but if I could how would I find out a compatible drive? Anyone know?
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Would need the model number/name of laptop to check, but I imagine its IDE 2.5" hard drive. Then you have to decide if worth spending any money or changing usage.

Unfortunately a new IDE hard dive isn't as cheap. I ended up paying £37 for the cheapest I could find; a 160GB Samsung SpinPoint M5 (HM160HC) that was cheaper than smaller capacities.

If it takes DDR1 you're also pay a premium for that, but it may be limited to max capacity of 1GB so say £25 for two 512MB.
 
gizmo1990 said:
What about 2000?
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That might be an option, however software support is starting to be a little bit of an issue. The main one being that you're limited to IE6.

What do you use the machine for?

Do you use it just in the home, or out and about?

As for memory, a P3-600 won't use DDR1 as someone has advised. It'll probably use SDRam which is even harder to get hold of.
 
Indeed, the limit is 256 and even then I had to upgrade it from 128!:eek:

I'm thinking linux is the only way to go. I'll dl ubuntu and give it a whirl. First time using linux, should be fun.. ;)
 
Stoned_SpaZZZ said:
yes. Although i personally wouldn't have XP on there.
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You think Vista/7 will run any better with 256MB RAM?

I'd recommend upgrading the RAM and yes, reinstalling XP via a reformat. Remember tpo back up all your important data first. ;)

Also another idea is to use nlite to make a slimmed down version of Windows XP and install that. I made one for my PIII 700Mhz laptop which has 256mb RAM. It ran pretty well until I installed an antivirus program on it...
 
gizmo1990 said:
Indeed, the limit is 256 and even then I had to upgrade it from 128!:eek:

I'm thinking linux is the only way to go. I'll dl ubuntu and give it a whirl. First time using linux, should be fun.. ;)
Click to expand...

Another thing to try, if you only use the laptop at home and you have a decent PC running XP Pro, Vista Business/Ultimate or W7 Business/Ultimate/Enterprise you could enable remote desktop on the desktop and then connect in from the laptop using remote desktop connection.

It's what I did when I discovered the awful laptop from work was so slow it couldn't manage the grand prix timing screens.
 
a word to the wise
I found it hells own job to get ubuntu working on my old sony, some of the drivers are VERY hard to get working.
it IS worth trying tho.
 
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