DELL 2400 P4 2.8 SLOOOOW

Swylen

Member
Feb 6, 2004
65
0
0
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
 

MrChad

Lifer
Aug 22, 2001
13,507
3
81
Well, there are a couple of culprits.

1. 128 MB of RAM is woefully inadequate for XP. The extra 128 MB should help speed things up quite a bit.
2. What other applications do you have running? You mentioned an anti-virus and firewall. I recommend that you leave those enabled. Anything else that might be running in the background? Check Task Manager or use msconfig (Start / Run / msconfig) to see what's running at startup.
3. Try disabling some of XP's visual effects. That should help speed things up, especially with only 128 MB of RAM.
4. Download Adaware and scan the system for spyware.
5. Make sure that you have the latest video card drivers installed.
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
30,699
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^ 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 :p