^ errr, yeah, what he said
Originally posted by: Swylen
I bought this for Mom for $320 because I'm too busy to build her one. After updating to SP2 and updating virus software this computer is just as slow as the celeron 800 it replaced. It currently has only 128m of ram but another 128 is on the way. When I click on the close window button the image of the window slowly scrolls off the screen. I shut down the firewall and turned off the system virus protection. This seemed to help some. So what is slowing this system down, SP2, 128m ram, Other Dell Apps. Thanks
I think you have the right idea here, it sounds like RAM starvation. The onboard video uses a chunk of system memory, so right now WindowsXP is not even getting 128MB, it might be getting 128 - 32 = 96MB of usable RAM. The extra 128MB of RAM should help, but I would've suggested another 256, not another 128, because the onboard video is still going to need some of it, and even 224MB of (usable) RAM is still not optimal for WinXP.
Other things you can do:
- Uninstall the Dell software that you don't need
- See if you can restrict the onboard video to 8MB of system memory in the BIOS (this is still plenty for 2D stuff)
- Disable all fancy GUI animations and effects such as slide, fade, etc.
- Defrag the hard drive
- While you're at it, enable software Data Execution Prevention for all programs: right-click My Computer, choose Properties, then click Advanced on the System Properties panel. Now click the Settings button in the Performance box, and you'll see the DEP tab on the next panel, where you can enable DEP for all software. Couldn't hurt

Hope that helps.
edit: also, for goodness sakes do NOT disable the antivirus and firewall :shocked: You think the computer's slow
now, wait 'til it's picked up a pile of worms and Trojans
