Sluggish old p4 system.

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imported_harshbarj

Junior Member
Oct 25, 2004
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I have and older, but still perfectly usable, p4 system that is acting very odd. it is just in general very slow. The main problem I have is with battlefield 1942 (or at least the one I really care about). The game is overall very choppy. I upgraded the CPU from a 1.5 to a 2.4ghz cpu and added more ram (1gb from 256mb). The ram did help smooth things out a bit but not as much as I had thought it would. Oddly I have an older 1ghz p3 that runs the game fine with a geforce 3 card. Both run the same fresh install of xp (sp3 with ALL updates, so no malware or viruses). Even outside of game the system overall feels slow, with windows taking too long to show and the start menu being painfully slow (neither is the case with the p3 system).

System in question

Sony VAIO PCV-RX550
p4 2.4ghz 400mhz fsb 512k cache
1gb (512mb x2) pc133 sdram (yes it's old)
60gb 5400rpm ide hdd (nearly empty)
ATI Radeon 9800 pro 128mb (running in 4x mode as this system will not support 8x)
 
mpilchfamily

mpilchfamily

Diamond Member
Jun 11, 2007
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RAM does wear out over time and may be slowing you down a bit. Also if the HDD is older then you'll want to replace that as well. A 5400 RPM drive is a noticable slowdown. The HDD will be the main slow point in windows coming up. Not to mention any background programs that may be running.
 
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VeryCharBroiled

Senior member
Oct 6, 2008
387
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pc 133 memory cant keep the p4 2.4 fed bandwidth wise, but it still should blow the doors off the P3 1.0 with the gf3.

you you have the correct mobo chipset/agp drivers?

is the 2.4 really a 400 fsb version? they came in 533 also. are the memory and fsb speeds set right in the bios or on the mobo jumpers? is the AGP mode set to 4x? it may default to 2x in the bios and/or windows.

what does cpuz say for memory and cpu speeds? might be the bios doesnt like your 2.4 and has it set at some weird speed.

 
RadiclDreamer

RadiclDreamer

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2004
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Originally posted by: mpilchfamily
RAM does wear out over time and may be slowing you down a bit. Also if the HDD is older then you'll want to replace that as well. A 5400 RPM drive is a noticable slowdown. The HDD will be the main slow point in windows coming up. Not to mention any background programs that may be running.
Click to expand...

RAM doesnt wear out like flash devices do.

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-75...2548&messageID=2170212

http://www.cybertechhelp.com/f...howthread.php?t=195189


Things to check for a slow system would be checking the hard drive operating mode (is it dma or PIO mode?) then making sure the system isnt overheating, a P4 will clock itsself back to prevent damage at high temps.
 
corkyg

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
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Would also suggest a good Registry scrub.
 
RadiclDreamer

RadiclDreamer

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2004
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corkyg

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
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Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
I never suggest this, they do far more harm than good.
Click to expand...

My experience over the past 25 years suggests otherwise. Granted, you need to do it judiciously. RegBooster 2.1 does an outstanding job.

Reg

 
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imported_harshbarj

Junior Member
Oct 25, 2004
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As it's a fresh install of windows, a registry sweep would do almost nothing. Even with older systems I have never noticed a difference after a registry sweep.

Anyway, The bios reports the drive supports(is running in?) UDMA mode 5 and PIO mode 4. I also am using a shielded 80-pin cable. Seagate reports the drive is a Ultra ATA/100 drive with 2mb cache, so the drive is fairly good (less the spindle speed). I do have a 7200rpm drive with 8mb cache in the parts bin I may try later.
 
GaryJohnson

GaryJohnson

Senior member
Jun 2, 2006
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The drive would affect the performance of BF1942 during loading or when virtual memory is used. You might try disabling virtual memory temporarily and see if the game still experiences sluggishness.
 
RadiclDreamer

RadiclDreamer

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2004
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Originally posted by: corkyg
Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
I never suggest this, they do far more harm than good.
Click to expand...

My experience over the past 25 years suggests otherwise. Granted, you need to do it judiciously. RegBooster 2.1 does an outstanding job.

Reg
Click to expand...

I'm not trying to get into an argument, but ask any tech worth their salt and they will tell you that all "registry cleaners" are snake oil and just cause problems.
 
corkyg

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
27,370
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Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
[I'm not trying to get into an argument, but ask any tech worth their salt and they will tell you that all "registry cleaners" are snake oil and just cause problems.
Click to expand...

No argument! All generalizations are false, including this one. :)

 
RadiclDreamer

RadiclDreamer

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2004
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Originally posted by: corkyg
Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
[I'm not trying to get into an argument, but ask any tech worth their salt and they will tell you that all "registry cleaners" are snake oil and just cause problems.
Click to expand...

No argument! All generalizations are false, including this one. :)
Click to expand...

From a technical point of view, all the registry is comprised of is a data store of values for applications. They are text and therefore very small. The only time the registry should ever need to be "cleaned" is for example a program installs/uninstalls incorrectly and the entry needs to be removed manually. An application can do the same function but it is making an educated guess based on the parameters the application dev has fed it. If its right you saved yourself a 30 second manual edit. If its wrong.....
 
Intexity

Intexity

Senior member
Jan 10, 2009
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Well I use the Reg Cleaner with CCleaner blind just to watch it blow my computer. Hasn't happened in the 9 months I have been using it. Just food for thought you went through services.msc or msconfig to keep XP lean?
 
RadiclDreamer

RadiclDreamer

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2004
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Originally posted by: Intexity
Well I use the Reg Cleaner with CCleaner blind just to watch it blow my computer. Hasn't happened in the 9 months I have been using it. Just food for thought you went through services.msc or msconfig to keep XP lean?
Click to expand...

Have you noticed improvements? I can assure you not.
 
GaryJohnson

GaryJohnson

Senior member
Jun 2, 2006
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I agree with RadiclDreamer. But as harshbarj said: it's a fresh install of XP. So it should already have a "clean" registry if you believe in such voodoo.

I think any further registry cleaner discussion here is kind of getting off on a tangent from the original post. If we want to discuss them further I think we should create a separate thread.
 
Intexity

Intexity

Senior member
Jan 10, 2009
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Don't assure what you don't know. All I am saying is it works great for me. And I did post on topic as far as cleaning up XP's boot time. Using msconfig I am able to boot in less than a minute with 6 programs on startup. Of course I have a pretty tough computer compared to a P4 but using msconfig to tame XP does work as everyone should know.
 
V

VeryCharBroiled

Senior member
Oct 6, 2008
387
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long shot here but maybe the cpu is overheating and throttling down? did you reuse the old heatsink? maybe its not enough for the faster cpu.

what are idle/load temps?
 
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