Help me find the weakness...

WinXP SP2,
1.8Ghz P4 (512kb cache),
512MB DDR (400Mhz FSB),
Intel 845GV chipset (DDR not SDRAM),
160Gb IDE drive w/ 8mb cache,
integrated Intel graphics replaced by dedicated PCI trident Blade 3D 8MB card.

No malware or viruses. Defragged. Used CCleaner and TweakNow Reg Cleaner, and turned a few services to manual instead of automatic. System seems fine, but still slow.

I could upgrade it to 2.4Ghz, or add more RAM, or use a different video card.

I'm thinking maybe it needs more RAM, but I ran XP on a K6 with 384MB SDRAM 3 or 4 years ago and it seemed faster than this PC does. Maybe it's the low end video card? I dunno. What gives?

PC is only used for internet, chatting and homework, no games or DVD.

I agree in your assessment of more memory. Add that and it should feel much better in everyday use.

3 or 4 years ago there were also a lot less updates and less resource hogging programs. More ram would definitely help. How many processes are running?

I'd say RAM also......

really depends on what you do with it. My laptop runs XP with 512 of ram just fine because i don't use any apps that eat up ram on it. If you're not using more than 512 upping the ram won't help.

Definitely more RAM. My old P4 3.2 pressy ran MUCH better with 1-1.5ghz of RAM.

Axis

definitely add atleast another 512mb of ram. If that is a willamette core, (which i'm guessing it is) you should be able to squeeze another 200~400mhz out of it?

I figured it out, guys. It was the damn "visual effects" check boxes (shadows uunder menues, animate windows and crap like that). They were ALL enabled, and it was just bogging down the GPU, I think. As soon as I unchecked just 1/3rd of them, the desktop and a lot of things just sped up noticably. Now the system is much better.

I checked the Task Mgr and noticed the system after bootup and idle had about 120MB free RAM. Took off Windows Defender and Zonealarm and gained something like 40MB more free RAM. This is on a system with only 512MB.

the overall performance is much snappier now. AND...I didn't have to buy any RAM or GPU. Yay!

Thanks for the responses!

Run linux!

Ken B. said:

I figured it out, guys. It was the damn "visual effects" check boxes (shadows uunder menues, animate windows and crap like that). They were ALL enabled, and it was just bogging down the GPU, I think. As soon as I unchecked just 1/3rd of them, the desktop and a lot of things just sped up noticably. Now the system is much better.

I checked the Task Mgr and noticed the system after bootup and idle had about 120MB free RAM. Took off Windows Defender and Zonealarm and gained something like 40MB more free RAM. This is on a system with only 512MB.

the overall performance is much snappier now. AND...I didn't have to buy any RAM or GPU. Yay!

Thanks for the responses!

Click to expand...

Good deal, you should be able to cut a bit more out . My lappy has a little over 200mb free at the desktop and minor cutting to trim it up.

I always set the GUI settings to "adjust for best performance".

Anyway, more RAM would help.

Also, you could have some nasty Windows Rot. A format and reinstall would probably pep things up.