Computer slow after upgrade

Sherri, and there could be many causes. Here are a few;

1] Memory. With 256MB of RAM you may struggle to run XP. Increasing the RAM to, say, 512MB will help.

2] Hard disk. You didn't say what size HD you have, but if it is small, (say, 20GB), then XP will struggle.

3] Viruses and spyware. You say you have an anti-virus, but do you use a firewall? Also, what do you do about spyware and adware? Malware, (in general), will slow your computer down.

4] Installed programs loading at startup. Check your startup files, (Start > Run > type in ''msconfig'', (without the quotes), click OK), and in the Startup tab, untick any programs that are not necessary to run at startup. Anything that you can just double click an icon on your desktop to run it, or in the Start menu > All programs, do not need to be loaded at startup.

5] Running processes. If you open the Task Manager, (right click the Taskbar, select Task Manager), and click on the Processes tab, check to see if you have any background processes running that you do not need. Use this web site to check each process;
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

Any you do not need running, goto Start > Run, services.msc, and disable or set to Manual the services you want to change. Be sure about these. Disabling the wrong ones can render your Windows unusable.

6] Windows Updates. Now you have upgraded to Windows XP, make sure you have all the Windows Updates needed.

7] A few tips; Goto this thread, created by Griff Thomas in the Computer Newbies forum;
http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6121-0.html?forumID=45&threadID=22053&messageID=238454

It is a ''very'' long thread, but there is loads of information there about options to keep your computer running clean and smoothly.

Good luck.

Mark

Yup. That's true. To get it back to speed we add RAM, and maybe other things.

In your case, I suggest just using it due to the cost of RDRAM.

Bob

I think your problem is installing XP over ME. All the problems you had carried over from ME to XP. If you put XP on your drive by itself you should get back all the speed you had before. But, If you have lot's of older components (printer, scanner, etc.) then make sure you have a driver for Windows XP. If you don't do this you MAY find yourself having compatiblity problems. I have done many upgrades and
on the older machines they run much better when you reformat rather than upgrade. Leave Me off put your XP cd in your drive (make sure you have it set to boot from cd in your CMOS/BIOS. If it does a compatiablity check just have your Dell install disc ready and put it in the drive when it ask you to. Then continue. Chances are all your devices drivers are already in XP. Yes, you should have 512 MB ram especially if you do any gaming or view lots of graphics. And especially if you burn DVD's. Having more makes your system more efficient and handles multitasking better. Not necessarily faster in the older machines. But you should get back about 50% speed you lost by doing the above.

Back up your important files to CD/DVD-R, format your Hard Drive to NTFS(a little slower, but more secure)and perform a clean install of XP on your system. Not only will your machine be faster and more stable than it is now, you also will use less Hard Drive space this way. Plus you'll lose all of the extra manufacturers stuff originally installed on the machine you really don't need. In case you are wondering, you do not need the full version of XP($100.00 USD extra)to do this. Don't let the sales person at your favorite buying place tell you any different. You can use the upgrade version as long as you have your original M$ Win 95/98/ME/2000 disk handy during install. Try it, you'll like it. Trust me

**Some unmentioned ideas...
First off, I was kinda in your boat 3 years back. I wanted winXP but didn't have the $$ to upgrade most of my PC, so i just upgraded RAM and went ahead with it. It was a Dell Dimension T550 (P3 550MHz, 128MB SDRAM) with RAM upgraded to 640MB SDRAM. I ran winXP just fine. Only thing was i had to lower a visual setting, specifically, the translucent selection rectangles when u click and hold inside a browser window and then drag your cursor around. That may be less of an issue with u as those visual effects are moreso about processor than RAM. Try doing:
start-->settings-->control panel-->Performance and Maintenance (in the new winXP control panel view as opposed to Classic View)-->and tweak the settings there.

Long story short, i had a much slower processor, but much more RAM than u. Altho Rambus is better than SDRAM, i'd like to think that 640MB of SDRAM will provide better performance than just 256MB of RDRAM

**scan for adware/spyware
This is a BIG step. My new PC now is a Dell Dimension 8300 with p4 3GHz proc, and 512MB DDR PC3200. Fresh out of the box, it ran SMOOTHLY. Many many months later, i accumulate TONS of spyware/adware. It got so slow that what took winXP 45 seconds to restart now took 12 minutes! The hardrive also went defective, so i ended having to replace that when clean installing winXP. Everything's fine now.

Try this link for guide to ridding and preventing spyware/adware (using freeware apps)
www.gamefaqs.com
click "boards" or "forums". Find the DOS tech support board and there will be a stickied topic on ridding spyware/adware.
Sorry i can link it directly. The PC I'm currently at filters out Gamefaqs

**upgrade RAM
This would work very well towards speeding things in winXP up.

key things to note about RDRAM:
-RDRAM needs to be installed in pairs. If not, then Dell would've provided a "stopper" or fake, dummy RDRAM module to pair up with single modules
-www.newegg.com is one place that still sells RDRAM. It's $80 and up for 256MB. BY contrast, DDR RAM is only $55 for a $512 stick.
-i don't understand this part about RDRAM but u may need to pair same capacities together (e.g. 256 with 256MB)

Good luck. Let us know how things worked out

I hate to keep "beating the same dead horse", but I've tried getting a few PC's running better after the owners upgraded to XP. I've yet to see it work right.

I always see a major improvement with a format and fresh install. Some of these people paid more for the "upgrade" version than the full one. Then they are shocked when I use that expensive disc to install XP from scratch.

And yes, memory is a big factor, but I just sold a PC running XP Pro with a 450mhz AMD and only 64mb PC100. It actually runs better and faster than I would have thought.

purchased WinCleaner One Click for times like these. You could use Crap Cleaner or something like that (free program).

I would also make sure you are not running Norton Antivirus that will alow your pc down to a crawl.

I would also run chkdsk. Go to start/run/and type cmd and click ok. Then type chkdsk/r and hit enter. Then type Y and click enter. Then when you restart the computer it will check your drive for errors and fix them. Then defrag like a couple of the other members suggested. Then see how it runs.

The biggest increase in performance is to upgrade your HDD to one that runs at 7000rpm and at the same time increase ram to 512-1GB included in that should be an app like norton sytem works (mines 2004 professional)reason for that is you can delete the junk it finds safely without stuffing up your system as it does not appear to dig too deep into the registry like others do,i use it all the time and have never had a problem.i also use norton security professional ,the only time my system ran slow was when i filled up my HDD and had 56 running processes,i increased ram to 512 then to 1GB with little gain,the biggest boost in speed came when i found out my HDD ran at 5400rpm,i bought a Maxtor diamond 200GBhdd 7000RPM,man you won't believe the speed increase i got it's like a ferrari...lol...my sytem is an HP S5020AN
In summary the only mods i did was ram and a 200gb HDD on a 2.0GHz machine The speed increase is amazing,borrow a hdd and ghost your system to it then try it and see if it don't work

The mentions previous to this should also be used and the most important is a clean install of the os
1-Increase from a 40GB Hdd to the largest you can afford with a min speed of 7000rpm
2-clean install of xp
3-install software,the most used should be installed first include a system cleaner you'll see why when you use it

If on the other hand the HDD you have does run at 7000rpm and will be around 40GB -80GB
1-check for spyware ,google for and download spybot and adaware as well as microsofts antispy app then update all and run a scan,they are free
2-update antivirus and scan
3-clean system with either a system cleaner or xp's own cleaner which =(tho not as thorough as a proper system cleaner)you can find xp's cleaner in the control panel section under "performance and maintenance"
4-use search and look for the prefetch folder,create a shortcut on the desktop,clik on the short cut and delete the folders contents(DO NOT DELETE THE FOLDER JUST THE CONTENTS)
5-there is a temp folder that can be cleaned tho i would advise you to let the system handle that
6-Nows a good time for a defrag
7-borrow some ram if poss and borrow two sticks if it's not the same ram you have installed to bring your system upto 512

That's all i've got ,with any luck it's the hdd that's the culprit with a slow speed
goodluck
out.

In my post above i made a comment [Quote "The mentions previous to this " END QUOTE]i was referring to the other posts people had made in this thread,for some reason we are unable to edit our own posts it seems

Yeah I have a lady that has XP Home with an Emachine 400 and its got over 500mhz of ram and 2.93ghz of cpu and what i did was run the bitdefender virus scanner and then i ran disk cleanup, scandisk, defrag, norton 360 and speed optimizer

Everything got cleaned and registry errors fixed and ran windows updates but loading seems sluggish

It's a 20gb drive too

could it be something with the updates?

and if so how do you revert back without doing restore?


SPC was fine and ran some diagnostics for everything and all i saw was a bit of degredation

I've tried just about everything

ideas?

Alan
http://bitdefender.com
http://speedbit.com