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General discussion

Windows XP computer still runs slow even after a clean install?!

May 20, 2011 6:52AM PDT
Question:

Windows XP computer still runs slow even after a clean install?!


Is it possible even with a clean install of XP Pro that my computer
still runs slow with only the OS installed? Prior to the clean
install my computer was slow as molasses. I tried all the suggested
software solutions: Registry Cleaners; security scanners, and delete
all temp files and log files and Internet cache. Nothing helped. So I
deleted all partitions on the hard drive, did a clean install of XP Pro
System (Intel Motherboard, Pentium D 3.4 Ghz processor with 2GB of
RAM) and to my surprise my system is still dragging, how could that
be? Shouldn't it perform like it was new when I first bought the
system? I found no solutions that addressed hardware as a culprit. Is
it time for a new motherboard or what? Please help me out with this
mystery. Thank you.

--Submitted by: Bob W.

Here are some member answers to get you started, but
please read all the advice and suggestions that our
members have contributed to this question.

A Few Key Items for your Fresh Install of XP --Submitted by: High Desert Charlie
http://forums.cnet.com/7726-6142_102-5135374.html

A Wide Variety of Possible Causes --Submitted by: tonyny77
http://forums.cnet.com/7726-6142_102-5136102.html

Many May Have It Right --Submitted by: Hforman
http://forums.cnet.com/7726-6142_102-5135399.html

XP Computer runs slow --Submitted by: compvis
http://forums.cnet.com/7726-6142_102-5135261.html

No - will never run when first bought --Submitted by: DilbertE
http://forums.cnet.com/7726-6142_102-5135257.html

Could be either hardware or software problem... --Submitted by: darrenforster99
http://forums.cnet.com/7726-6142_102-5135419.html

Probably a Hardware Problem --Submitted by: Flatworm
http://forums.cnet.com/7726-6142_102-5135513.html

Thanks to all who contributed!


If you have any additional advice or recommendation for Bob, click the reply link below to submit it. Please be as detailed as possible when providing an answer. Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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SSD and SATA over XP... before service packs
May 31, 2011 10:35AM PDT

SSD disks and SATA interfaces were effectively not recognized in Windows XP when it first came to the market. But this is not true with later published service packs.
In other words, it's still best (and recommended in fact) to reinstall XP from a DVD image already containing these services packs.
Let's not forget the huge time it takes to apply service packs in XP.

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Reports report that download is a dead end.
May 31, 2011 10:40AM PDT

The CD keys that work with it appear limited.

Seems many feel burned after all that work.
Bob

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Windows SLOW!!!!!
Jan 24, 2012 1:31PM PST

Hey Guys,

Ok so I'm having a problem with windows xp running incredibly slow right
after install, eg. (Mouse moves very slowly and jerky across the
screen)


I have mac osx on another drive and it works flawlessly, but once i
install windows on a seperate drive WINDOWS runs slow, even if the
windows drive is the only one connected.


I have a intel core i7 2600k 3.5ghz, 16gb or ram, and EVGA Geforce GTX 460 SC as my video card.


Any info would greatly help.


cheers

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WOW!!
Jan 25, 2012 8:30AM PST

From your specs, I gather you have a very capable computer! I can't imaging what could be going wrong with this dual boot situation, unless you are using an old IDE hardrive. Like one of the really old 20 Gb 5400rpm dinosaurs! Happy

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Strange
Jan 26, 2012 6:14AM PST

Did you use Bootcamp on this Mac after you installed Windows? If so, there should be no problem.

Mark

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confused here
Jan 26, 2012 11:35AM PST

you wrote;
Hey Guys,
Ok so I'm having a problem with windows xp running incredibly slow right after install, eg. (Mouse moves very slowly and jerky across the screen)
I have mac osx on another drive and it works flawlessly, but once i install windows on a seperate drive WINDOWS runs slow, even if the windows drive is the only one connected.I have a intel core i7 2600k 3.5ghz, 16gb or ram, and EVGA Geforce GTX 460 SC as my video card.


What does having OSX running on another drive have to do with xp? You aren't mentioning if this is a Mac and that you have Boot Camp as an option? Or do you mean this other drive is an external and you created boot partition for OSX plugged it into your mac and did a fresh install and it worked as it should. Then you wiped it out and attached to your pc and did an install to that?

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Two suggestions:
May 20, 2011 11:06AM PDT

Bob,

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Vista
May 20, 2011 11:34AM PDT

Ever dealt with gremlins?
Grin

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So many things to look for
May 20, 2011 11:46AM PDT

You did not say what you call slow. From a fresh load (still bare)with what you are running, I would say it may take around 1 minute to be completly booted and ready. Once you install antivirus, firewall, and other programs, you may be around 1.5 to 2.5 minutes. As others have mentioned, running a hard drive test, also a memory test to be sure its not failing under load. Somewhere around the time frame of your computer, they had a bad batch of capacitors, this caused a lot of hard to find problems, if you have a store bought computer(like dell, hp, etc) Do a google with something like, dell sx280 bad capacitors, (of course, put in your model). I ran into this issue several times from different mfg. If you know what to look for, you may see the top of some of the capacitors buldging up, if this is the case, new motherboard time! Also check your ribbion cables to the hard drives, they should be 80 conductor, not the older 40. Another item to check, if you have the my computer icon on the desktop, right click, select properties, click hardware tab, click device manager, scroll to IDE click on the plus to expand, then right click on primary, select properties, click Advanced Settings and see what the current Transfer mode is, it should be be a DMA mode, not PIO Only. If it says PIO Only, this can make everything slow as tar. To change this, go to the Driver tab, click uninstall and reboot. After it boots up, it may ask you to reboot again, if so, do it. After it is up, go back and check the mode again, it should be something like Ultra DMA Mode 5. if its still in PIO only, you may have something like your optical drive causing a problem. Unplug the ribbion cable and power to cd/dvd drive, reboot and check mode again. Hope this helps.

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Driver Reference by stevem291 - 5/20/11 6:46 PM
May 27, 2011 4:19PM PDT

Please explain which Driver and its reference so I can delete it as suggested. I assume it will be restored at the reboot?

Ref: <i>"To change this, go to the Driver tab, click uninstall and reboot. After
it boots up, it may ask you to reboot again, if so, do it. After it is
up, go back and check the mode again, it should be something like Ultra
DMA Mode 5. if its still in PIO only",

My OS is Windows XPSP3
Thanks for your post, I have been investigating that subject!
Have a nice day!
Bruce
</i>

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It gets old
May 20, 2011 11:48AM PDT

People don't realize that the actual components get tired over time. Your hard drive, ram and cpu no longer run like new. That's why it's always a good idea to never buy a computer with the intent of keeping it for more than a few years. Buy cheap, for what you need today. Buy again in a few years for even cheaper.

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Open Up Task Manager
May 20, 2011 11:48AM PDT

I would start by opening up task manager. First confirm that your system is recognizing your memory. If not turn off the PC and check that the memory is secure in the motherboard. Also look at the processes page and see if something is using up a lot of memory. I have an old PC with 1 GB that works, though it's a little slow only with surfing the internet and that's because IE8 just uses up a ton of memory. I'm trying out different browsers to see if they are more memory efficient. My PC takes a while to become usable after booting up due to windows update and my antivirus software running at startup. I can see this going on in task manager, which is why I suggest you start there. If it's your AV software, then try another. There are plenty of free ones to choose from, even cloud based, like Panda.
Your PC may be slow because it's swapping memory between your RAM and your hard drive. Check your memory and your processes. Defragment your hard drive.
I doubt it's the hard drive. It probably would have failed (crashed) during the reinstall or windows wouldn't boot up or work properly because the files were all corrupted.

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I don't think that he complains about IE speed
May 26, 2011 10:53PM PDT

I don't think that he complains about the IE speed only, but more generally as the system speed in general (excessive boot time, displaying the desktop, opening a File Explorer just to list the content of a directory, refreshing desktop icons...)
Anyway a boot time of about one minute is still not excessive on XP, which takes longert than Windows 7 to display the login, because Windows 7 starts most of its internal services and many drivers silently in the background, as well as it does not preload most of the Windows Explorer in a smarter way, on demand only, with minimum preinitialization and buffering.
But if the user has ever experienced a Windows 7 PC at work or at a friend's, really the comparison may be tough.
Yes he must realize that his PC will never compete.

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Lots of unlikely suggestions
May 27, 2011 1:57PM PDT

He says he has a minimal install. I have a "high power" modern Win7 machine and several older XP's and the performance difference isn't that great. (My Win 7 machine also has XP, so I can see the difference where the only different hardware is the boot drive. The data is all on the same drive.)

Most software is still written primarily for XP, since more than half the systems out there are still running that. Except for some high-end commercial software (e.g., large-image graphics/video editing), performance of word processors, etc., is pretty much identical under Win 7 and XP. (Again, exact same programs running on same hardware. Everything from Office 97 to Office 2007, Acrobat Standard 9, Paint Shop Pro X3, WordPerfect X4, Firefox, Chrome.)

Norton definitely can massively slow down a machine.

Contrary to what is generally advocated, unless you open tons of windows, going from 512Mb to 2GB in XP does not provide substantial improvement. (It may measure better, but it doesn't appear to be substantially better.) Going from 256Mb to 512 (the amount MS recommends as the minimum) causes a huge improvement and 2 to 3GB is noticeable but, again, not "huge".

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Possible other cause : a damaged processor
May 26, 2011 11:05PM PDT

It may also happen that the processor has been damaged, and the BIOS finds that its internal L1 or L2 caches are no longer workable. Then it disables these faiing caches, the PC can boot, and work for some time, in highly degraded performance, which will still be enough to perform some backup.

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XP running slow
May 20, 2011 12:22PM PDT

I run XP Pro also but found another problem that caused me to crawl to the point a snail would have been considered a speed demon. After checking everything that I knew of I spoke to a rep at my ISP who casually asked if I had checked my modem. I replied that it was getting on line but my dwnld speed was in the very low kb range. They suggested I check it anyway. Fortunately I had another one and made the switch. Booted up and voila I was back in business. This may be a long shot but I was exasperated and ready to try anything and it worked. For what its worth I am a devoted user of Advanced System Care as well as CCleaner that seem to keep an old reliable desk top as well as a couple of lap tops running smooth.

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Video drivers
May 20, 2011 1:04PM PDT

The default plain-vanilla video drivers can bring even a fast machine to its knees. Verify that you have the correct driver installed for your chipset/video card. 2D video acceleration can make a night-and-day difference.

The same could possibly apply to other components, like the sound chips/card, network, USB, etc. You didn't say if you had installed the drivers for your particular motherboard components.

A tip to save time: Use another machine to research and download all the drivers and then burn them onto a CD. It's convenient for the first attempt. But where you really save time is if you end up having to start over and try again. Dunno why, but about four of my last six installs have needed more than one attempt.

And, as others have suggested, download a couple of diagnostic and benchmarking programs to exercise various components.

Drake Christensen

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Windows XP Computer still runs slow
May 20, 2011 1:21PM PDT

The biggest culprit I have found that bogs down windows XP is Windows search and the indexing service. If you have windows search 4.0 installed try uninstalling it and then turn of the indexing service for the entire drive,To turn off the indexing service, go to start -- Computer --Then right click on the drive you want to turn indexing service off for, -- select properties (Left click) then unckeck the box that says index this drive. Then restart your system. Instant search will not work but you should see a big performance jump. In the past when I have disabled windows search thru the option in the program, it would still hog system resources like it was still trying to index the drive.

If it sounds like your drive is spinning alot when you are not doing anything, it it most likely the indeing service or an AV running in the background .

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Sluggish Program System
May 20, 2011 2:06PM PDT

It would seem that somehow after you had installed your windows XP program (Clean Install) you still have a problem with said computer running slow. There could be 3 posibilities here assuming that you had formated your hard drive.
You are right, after installing your XP and installing all your updates, fix's and SP (current SP3) you should run the clean disk and then defragment your hardrive. reboot and run the CHKDSK/R and then check for optimization, Did it get better??
If not, it is just like a couple of our fellow CNet users adviced:
(1) check your hard drive for optimization or dead areas, this problem was my issue 8 years ago, you would be surpriced.
(2) memory leaking or not reding correctly after the hard drive has loaded the info, check through your BIOS, they have programs for this that are free out there..
(3) your CPU might be showings sign's of bleeding.
I would go with the harddrive test and definitely run a full format before trying to install the new OS
If what you say is accurate that you have 3.4mhz with 2gigs of memory your system should fly.
If you do not have a memory leak then I would suggest going through a therough check of the harddrive if not replace it with a new 160 or higher harddrive with over 7200rpm (suggest) 10,000 rpm, you will notice a big difference. Again if your hard drive has a new formated operating system, it should run great unless there are other problems. I don't know what a harddrive is worth now but 8 years ago I paid $39 for a 120Gig Western Digital Hard Drive with 7200rpm, that made all the difference in the world.
Before I close this, please also check that your hardrive is running in Ultra DMA mode 5 or 6 and not PIO mode, also check your BIOS that your Drive is set to Burst Mode (If available). I hope that this will help you. Also check your harddrive cable, unplug and then plugin (Note) make sure that the power has been disconnected completely.

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A Few Key Items for your Fresh Install of XP
May 20, 2011 2:09PM PDT

Hi Bob,

Okay --- Let's get started with this problem. First of all, your hardware should be running like an Ape on Fire with a 3.2GHz CPU and 2GB of RAM. That tells me that something isn't right. As other posters have pointed out, you should run a memory test (I recommend Memtest86 for XP) to be sure your memory is in good shape. If all looks okay with the RAM the next thing I'd look at is the hard drive. Let me just say this about that. If your computer is old enough that the original OS was Windows XP, then the possibility of your hard drive failing is VERY HIGH! Given the fact that a new replacement hard drive is only about $60.00, I'd recommend you replace it regardless. The half life of most hard drives is 3-5 years. After that the parts are worn and they will never run as well as they did when they were new. You'll most likely also get the added value of a higher capacity drive than the one you have now. You'll also have the confidence that your new install of XP won't fail in a month because of hard drive problems.

Moving on --- You should be using an installation disc with Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3 already on it. If you're not, you're going to run into problems. Doing a Fresh install with basic Windows XP and no service packs is HIGHLY NOT RECOMMENDED. Most of the Install CD's that are readily available will have Service Pack 2 slip-streamed on the installation. Once installed, you'll still have a lot of updates to load, which brings me to the next point.

The next point --- Make sure you have all of your device drivers installed. When XP starts up, if all of the drivers aren't present, the system is going to spend a ton of resources looking for them. So the first order of business after installing the OS is getting the device drivers installed. If you have a disc with the device drivers on it, that's great -- use it first thing. Once the device drivers are loaded you can get online, get activated, and start getting all of your updates. THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! The updates not only provide you an extra level of security, they also include updated drivers for your hardware. On that note, if your video driver is already working okay I'd avoid the video drivers available through Windows Update as they are often incomplete. If you want to update your video driver, go to the Acer site and get the download directly from them. That goes for any other drivers you may need to update as well. Your disc may not have the most current drivers.

Once you've finished loading your Fresh OS onto your new Hard Drive, installed all of the most current drivers and updates, checked your device drivers to make sure you haven't missed any, and there are no more Windows Updates available, you should be running like a speed demon.

Finally, go into Start - Run - MSCONFIG - Enter

Look in your startup programs tab and turn off EVERYTHING that isn't anti-virus or anti-spyware. EVERYTHING. When you restart your computer is should be making Usain Bolt (the worlds fastest man) take a second look!!! As you load your favorite programs you should continue to check your start-up programs to eliminate the stuff that you don't absolutely need when starting your system.

Good Luck to you Bob. I hope this helps.

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Primary suspect
May 27, 2011 9:11AM PDT

After your clean install and following the suggestion herein, you should seriously look at adding more memory. Add up to the max for your machine. My next door neighbor cannot stop talking about the improvements it made to her machine. Good Luck.

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Windows XP Max Memory is 3.5GB
May 28, 2011 12:16AM PDT

If the maximum memory in that PC is more than 3.5GB there's no point in spending extra money since the OS is 32-bit and can't address it anyway.

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Would this work for hp mini?
May 27, 2011 9:28AM PDT

High Desert Charlie:
I noticed after last microsoft updates my mini isn't
starting up very fast. I would like to run backup but XP Home Ed
forum is telling users it can't be done. I even tried making a boot disk
but that didn't work. This was factory preinstalled and didn't come
with any disks. Is there anyway I can do this?

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It Depends on the Size of your Hard Drive
May 27, 2011 1:11PM PDT

Hi Hpmini,
You should have no problems loading XP to your mini if your hard drive is big enough. You will need to load it either from a USB or an external DVD. I recommend the external DVD Solution. Some of those minis only came with about 16GB of HDD space, so you may want to consider the Windows 7 Starter.

HP has a good site that walks you through the reload on a mini. You can find it here:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01613138&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

Good Luck

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installing from a DVD or an USB drive ?
May 31, 2011 11:15AM PDT

Windows does not necessarily need to be installed from a DVD. You can perfectly create the source of installation, containing everything from the DVD, in an USB drive. If your BIOS can boot from an USB drive, it will also be much faster and more reliable.
It's been very long now that I have used any DVD burnt myself. It's much cheaper and faster and more reliable to use external storage on USB drives, where you can store many more things, inscluding your data and document backups, or the source of updated drivers and software that you'll manage easily there instead of trying to find them in a colection of old DVD that are no longer readable or that may have been damaged.
I have several of these USB drives, one is constantly used (and has never failed since more than 5 years, unlike my old DVD burnt myself, that took so much time to prepare, with many of them unusable immediately). DVDs are definitely not reliable (notably those that you burn yourself because of the instability of the dye, or not always readable on a different DVD drive ; prepressed DVDs don't use the same chemical mechanism and will last much longer, but are still at risk of being lost in a collection of boxes : experience shows that when you'll ever need it, you will pass lot of time trying to find the correct DVD, because you always hesitate to clean your old collection or you burnt them without properly labelling them for long-term conservation).
Also just compare the price of a common 1TB USB external drive (about 80 euros) with the price of the rougthly 400 burnable DVDs you'll need to create and manage a similar volume without even managing the storage to delete old backups (most often, you'll use 2-3 GB on each DVD, on the 4.7GB initially available, and you'll have a significnat fraction of these DVDs that failed during the burn process).
Speed, cost, reliability, ease of use, and reduced storage volume militates for external drives : I even use them immedaitely to store my purchased film DVDs (that I immedaitely convert to DivX), and all my music (immediately converted to MP3).

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MSCONFIG
May 27, 2011 10:55AM PDT

Dear Charlie,

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XP or Windows Vista/7?
May 27, 2011 1:22PM PDT

The MSCONFIG command is a fundamental command in the Windows Operating System. First make sure the spelling is right. If it still won't work, you probably have a virus. That's a whole new thread.

Try using Start - Search - All Files and Folders - and type msconfig in the search box.

You will probably find several msconfig files. Try double clicking on the one that has the file extension .exe - or msconfig.exe

Hope that helps.

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Thanks
May 31, 2011 1:15PM PDT

Dear Charlie,
Thanks for your suggestion. Happy
Yes, I could get to the System Configuration Utility box, via searching in All Files & Folders.
I also checked the help section of System Configuration Utility and it began by saying:

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This alert is not a virus
May 31, 2011 4:30PM PDT

This alert means that you are not running Windows with an administrator account. Instead, logoff and logon using the "Adminsitrator" user, and the password you supplied when installing Windows the first time.

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You may also have
May 27, 2011 6:50PM PDT

old hardware. You do not mention the hardware you are running this, so some of the above items may be *yawn*, Yeah you may have problems with RAM, but if you boot up I would say all is ok. As for the hard drive you may be running an old hard drive which will hinder performance. Do a Device hw check and see what type HD you have, you may need a simple cable upgrade so that it runs faster, wasn't mentioned before

As for doing upgrades, just run the basic install, then your device drivers. Reboot and what i do after that is clean up hard drive> afterwards go to MS and update any and get all the new updates it insists on upgrading. Let them install and afterwards, again clean and optimize!
At this point it is not a bad idea to do a Restore point. I do this after each "monumental" update/upgrade while in ADMINISTRATOR MODE. Do not install any software untill all this is comepleted. Afterwards you can create an ADMIN account where you can do software installs. Starting with antivirus and firewall protection you may have/want

this is ridiculous. It is 2011 and people still need a guide on install of xp, which will be valid for anything since then. I wont go into it anymore tonight