Help me optimize my crappy dell

[sonex]

Hey everyone,
first of all i just want to apologize if I am posting in the wrong section , but I just dont know where to turn since the problem isn't really specific.

ok so here's the deal... I got given this crappy dell a week ago which basically runs an intel p4 2.8ghz, (256+128mb of ram) and onboard video..

So i though ok, I will format this harddrive (40gb probably a 5200rpm) and the computer will run fine in windows xp. Unfortunately , the computer runs windows xp so bad, it takes 10 seconds to open up internet explorer even though there is nothing installed.

Sooo today i bought some new ram for it (ddr400 256mb) to swap with my 128mb. I put this in , and its running sort of ok, but still rather slow. I dont know if computers used to run windows so bad in the past, or if i just got used to dual core cpus.... the ram btw is twinmos and samsung ddr400

So right now, i have 512mb of ddr400 ram (which for some reason i think isnt running at full speed "check screenshot) and I am getting a geforce 4 mx 440 to help out with running windows on a graphics card not a onborad card

Do you guys have any recommendations to help me improve the computer so it at least doesnt have so much delay when opening internet explorer.. This is only a internet explorer computer for my parents (i want to swap this one with the one in the living room without them noticing ) but its rather slow at the momen... o yea and i also turned on hyperthreading in the bios

Any input would be appreciated


PS i live in NZ where old ram ddr1 is quite expensive, hence i got 256mb ...and my budget is really low

 

[sonex]

 

[RollingThunder]

Sonex,

It's a little late now but 1Gb or RAM would make quite a difference. I had the same Dell unit given to me with single stick 256MB of RAM and upgraded it to single stick of 1GB because it's not a dual channel computer and it solved the problems you incurred.

 

[JamesXP]

512MB should be fine for XP.


Disable unwanted services by:

Start > Run > services.msc



If you click each service it will tell you what it does, e.g print spooler, if you never need to print you can disable it by right clicking, stopping it, then making its startup type disable repeat for any other processes.


If this box is running norton, which it might, i'd remove it ASAP.

 

[Old Thrashbarg]

So right now, i have 512mb of ddr400 ram (which for some reason i think isnt running at full speed "check screenshot)

Like JamesXP said, 512MB should be sufficient for XP. It probably won't run at full speed, I doubt that system has DDR400 support, DDR333 is more likely.

A new hard drive would probably do well... those old WD 40GB drives were incredibly slow, despite being 7200RPM. I've got a Dell kicking around here that had one of those, and putting a new[er] 160GB drive in it gave it a noticeable boost. If you can get a PCI SATA card (assuming it doesn't have a SATA port onboard) and a modern HD, it should make an even bigger difference.

 

[sonex]

thanks for the input, so ill give this a shot,

one new sata hd (it does have support on the mobo, and one new stick of 1gb ram, provided i sell these old 256mb sticks).



Thanks a bunch , ill get back to you in a week on how it goes, any other advice would be nice, and ill turn off those unwanted services. and i have mcafee 08 running

 

[JamesXP]

I'm pretty sure macafee hogs alot of your system, as does norton.

I'd try something else, e.g NOD32

 

[nd4spdbh2]

get rid of antivirus completly... its poitnless IMO... havnt had an antivirus installed full time for years now and never had a prob... only time i did install was when i went to reformat to see if i had any viruses... and never had n e.

 

[Old Thrashbarg]

get rid of antivirus completly... its poitnless IMO... havnt had an antivirus installed full time for years now and never had a prob... only time i did install was when i went to reformat to see if i had any viruses... and never had n e.

While I personally agree (I don't run AV either), I don't generally recommend it to other people. It's one of those things... unless you're sure through your own experiences that you can do without it, you probably shouldn't do without it.

But you can certainly do a lot better than McAffee. Never tried NOD32, but I know Avira works decently and is lightweight.

 

[sonex]

While I personally agree (I don't run AV either), I don't generally recommend it to other people. It's one of those things... unless you're sure through your own experiences that you can do without it, you probably shouldn't do without it.

But you can certainly do a lot better than McAffee. Never tried NOD32, but I know Avira works decently and is lightweight.

hmm i might consider deleting the anti virus then, i havent actually had a virus since those dialers on pron sites and 56kmodems lol

 

[RollingThunder]

hmm i might consider deleting the anti virus then, i havent actually had a virus since those dialers on pron sites and 56kmodems lol

Sonex,

I know there is some disagreement about having an AV program or not if your careful. I wouldn't be without it and I use Antivir, very low overhead and memory use and it has a top reputation.

In the last few months, I have come across three infected .pdf files on legitimate sites. If you open and read .pdf files then I think it's only a matter of time before one will get you.

 

[sonex]

yea you are right i guess, ill takke your word for it and try it out. Thank you

 

[madhatter256]

Well 512mb is fine, but really, once you load standard applications, such as AntiVirus, .NET services via Windows updates, etc. Having 1GB of RAM really does help, especially if he has onboard VGA.

Another thing you can do is, if you do not have important data on the HDD, then do a low level format, you might have some junk clusters. I had this happen to me where access time on the HDD is slow, but after I did a low level format through Kill Disk, the HDD seemed to access files faster than before.

Or you can upgrade to a 80gig HDD or more, larger drives to help improve performance as that 40gig is probably old and has 2mb Cache.

 

[sonex]

ok , i got a geforce4 mx440 8agp and it seems to have improved windows xp a little... but not enough

so I think what madhatter said, I will now go for a new harddrive as this one is probably a 2mb cache..

the thing is , i've just been looking and all i can find for sale are 2mb cache hard drives since i need IDE.. it turns out i dont have sata support on this mobo !!

What do you guys think?? it seems hard to find a harddrive that is ide , at least 80gb and more than 2mb cache.. hmm


btw i got 1gb ram on the way as well

 

[Old Thrashbarg]

What do you guys think?? it seems hard to find a harddrive that is ide , at least 80gb and more than 2mb cache.. hmm

Well, first of all, cache size doesn't actually matter... but drives that only have 2mb cache are probably going to be slow for other reasons, because they're older.

Have you looked into a cheap PCI SATA card? You can find 'em for $10-15 here, I dunno how it is in NZ. That would probably be your best option, since it would allow you to use a much more modern drive.

 

[madhatter256]

So you're located in New Zealand? That hinders where you can get a good selection as I was going to recommend Newegg.com but they do not ship to NZ.

you CAN find HDDs that are IDE and have more than 8mb Cache. You can find 80gigs with 8mb cache, and 160gig IDEs w/ 8mb cache and up.

 

[sonex]

yea you were right, I actually ended up finding this harddrive for lets say relatively cheap:

WD-1600
WD Caviar SE
Enhanced IDE Hard Drive
8MB Cache
Date 08 Aug 2005

I guess that should do the trick,
other than that, yea I am in NZ and it sucks that we cant buy off newegg. I mean there are ways to do it with those shipping PO BOX companies but its really too much of a hassle to get them to ship to nz..



anyways, I'll see how this harddrive does, hopefully its better than this old one which seems to be constantly working non stop for no reason....

**one more thing, is it better to get 2x 512mb sticks or 1x 1gb stick?

 

[Old Thrashbarg]

**one more thing, is it better to get 2x 512mb sticks or 1x 1gb stick?

On that machine, 2X512 would be better, to enable dual channel memory. It doesn't make a huge performance difference, but every little bit helps.

 

[sonex]

OK PROBLEM!!!

I got the new harddrive put in, fully formated, new windows etc + I got 2x 512 mb Samsung ddr400 ram...

Everything was running fine for about 20 minutes (very fast, dual channel ddr400 speeds), and suddenly my computer restarted and it kept restarting in windows every time it went in.


I took one of the memory sticks out and it worked again without problems, but now when i put the stick in, i get no post and long beeps from the motherboard.... HOW DA HELL DID THE STICK GET BUSTED AFTER WORKING FOR 20 MINUTES???? one stick works the other one doesnt anymore.. what do i do??

 

[RollingThunder]

OK PROBLEM!!!

I got the new harddrive put in, fully formated, new windows etc + I got 2x 512 mb Samsung ddr400 ram...

Everything was running fine for about 20 minutes (very fast, dual channel ddr400 speeds), and suddenly my computer restarted and it kept restarting in windows every time it went in.


I took one of the memory sticks out and it worked again without problems, but now when i put the stick in, i get no post and long beeps from the motherboard.... HOW DA HELL DID THE STICK GET BUSTED AFTER WORKING FOR 20 MINUTES???? one stick works the other one doesnt anymore.. what do i do??

Sonex,

Go into your BIOS and manually set your RAM timings and voltage to whatever the sticks are labeled to or at least check to see if your BIOS set them to that.

Get Memtest V2.11 and make a boot disk or CD and run the memory test one stick at a time. Then run it with both sticks and see if they pass.

Memtest86+ | The Open-Source Memory Testing Tool

Memtest86+ is an advanced, free, open-source, stand-alone memory tester for 32- and 64-bit computers (UEFI & BIOS supported)

www.memtest.org

You want the version near the bottom that says this for a floppy or CD:

** Memtest86+ V2.11 (22/12/2008) **

•Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.gz)
•Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)


•Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable Binary (.gz)
•Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable Binary (.zip)


•Download - Pre-Compiled EXE file for USB Key (Pure DOS)


•Download - Pre-Compiled package for Floppy (DOS - Win)

Run each stick for at least 4-5 full passes, then run them as a pair for at least the same. If one gives errors, then that is most likely your problem. Just make sure you set the timings and voltage at default. It's safer to test them this way rather that going directly into Windows because warm boots can cause operating system corruption. If one stick fails, return it unless they are a "Kit Pair." If not, you can still run the system on one stick while the other is replaced if you bought them new.

Take your time, relax.