XP running very slow, any help?

[hafaphoto]

I hope this is the right place to post this! My dad just got a computer amonth or so ago (Asus A7N8X-VM, AMD XP2700, onboard video and sound, 1x 512mg Samsung pc3200, running XP pro for o/s).

See sig for my computer. Here is my problem: His computer is VERY slow. It takes forever to start up/shut down, or open programs! He is running a cable modem and a network to my mom's 750gz computer (that she only uses occasionally for ebay).

Any tips on what I can try to do to speed his computer up? He bought this one pre-built. His computer seems more like a 1gz or less when I use it! I think something is set wrong in windows? Or could this be a hardware/motherboard prob?

He is not yet o/c'ed, because I think there is an underlying problem with the basic set up.

Thanks for any and all suggestions or help!

E

[Mr.Rotory]

is it a via chipset, if so you should tell him to go back and get a nforce dual channel chipset, they outpreform the integrated via chipsets by a bunch

[simpleman]

if it was prebuilt then there is proballt a ton of useless software
running in the system tray
(background) all the time. thats where i'd start looking

[Mr.Rotory]

so just run msconfig and disable all.

hehe, funny story:
I work as a tech at Best Buy and guess what, when they sell you the "customization" which supposedly does wonders, like get ride pop ups and makes your computer faster by 35 %, all for a low low price of 24.99. All they do is run msconfig. Poor uninformed customers, never knowing what their buying or what they want, just always wanting two things, very cheap and very fast and high quality.
Ofcourse, since i've been working at the tech bench i've been making people techs run service packs and security patches along with running Spy Sweeper. Dam I find over 7500 traces of spyware on hp's, i'd recommend for you to check that out, that could be an issue.

[Aseaver]

Besides all the startup programs that may be causing the slow down, defrag the hard drive. If you haven't done this in a while then your system will really slow down looking for all the files.

[cobray]

Download Spyboy search and destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/
Probably what they were saying above, a bunch of useless programs running slowing you down.
I have a similar setup for my secondary rig and no way is it slow. You probably got some spyware or virus running in the background

[hafaphoto]

If I run msconfig and disable all, will it still boot? I am new to XP, and with Win 98, if you shut down certain programs, it shut down!

Thanks in advance!!

E

[Robbie]

I'd double check for viruses on those systems as well. I'd had a virus that brought my system to a craw once. once.............
Rob

[hafaphoto]

Thanks a lot for the info! I think (as was stated somewhere in this thread) that he has too many programs running in the background. He runs a virus program and firewall, and his computer seemed slow out of the box!

Thanks!

E

[repo man11]

Blackviper's site is a good source of tweaks and information on how to shut off unnecessary Windows services. http://www.blackviper.com/

Don't get carried away though. It's your dad's, not yours. :)

[Redstone]

Since its your dad's rig start with black viper's "Safe" services settings. It disables a minimum of useless services, but enough to really increase XP's preformance.

[RedDeathDrinker]

Be careful!

Go to Run > Msconfig and select the Startup tab.

Uncheck any unneccessary programs, but leave the virus scanner and firewall:)

I can really recommend BlackVipers site (above). Just make sure you are really sure you understand what each service does before you disable it........

Defragging it may help a little as well.....

[hafaphoto]

Thanks a lot for the info, I am still learning XP. I downloaded the Spybot for my computer! Dad is a little leary with playing around with the startup programs for some reason. Maybe the Viper program will help him!! He already has a spyware program of some kind.

E

[fadirocks]

Hey here is a good site to learn XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
also
http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/

I suggest you should clean install XP, update it, and install needed programs

Here is are things that you need to avoid installing or be cautious with
AIM, Yahoo Messanger, MSN Messanger, Quick Time, Real Player, HP printer utilities, DivX Pro Bundle, kazaa, any web accelartor, some popup blockers, check here for free virus check sites!, gator, online wallpaper & screen saver subscriber, ... tons more

for the messanger you can fix them easily in the prefrences to not load up automatically! Quick time same thing

Real Player I couldn't find where is exactly in preferences so I disabled through Registry and I blocked it by my firewall

HP printer utilities, finding settings is not too hard and you can disable auto loading at startup

The rest on the list just AVOID

I don't like 3rd party popup blockers so the best thing to use instead is just another better browser http://mozilla.org

in http://www.blackviper.com/ says don't use msconfig but use
start -> Control Panel -> admin tools -> services make sure that messanger is disabled and it's a good idea if you list all services so we can tell which one to kill and which one to keep! Under regular idle mode of WinXP OS 27 processes should be the max anything more than 33 process is not good

Cheers :)