Why is my XP Pro running soo ssllooww??

[JkiD2k2]

Well, my XP Pro always runs so slow when I click on stuff it takes so long for it to load up or change to a diffrent program or whatever. Is this due to me only have 64MB of ram? I have a 466 celeron, 30GB 7200rpm hdd and some other things... (i know my computer is pretty out of date now) but i'm wandering if I just upgraded the ram would I get lots better performace? What would you suggest to buy? I have a ASUS p3b-f motherboard also... Thanks!

 

[Entity]

Is this due to me only have 64MB of ram?

I'm pretty sure you hit the nail on the head there. I haven't tried XP on less than 128mb, but I've heard it's almost unbearable.

Rob

 

[BD231]

I find XP dose not run well even on 256mb's of ram, 512 brings it up to par in terms of snappyness.

 

[harbinger52]

512mb is the way to go.

 

[TheWart]

definitely not enough RAM, and XP would like a processor upgrade too. not saying that YOU need one (i.e. you can try another OS on this particular rig), but XP requires a bit more hardware than win2k.

 

[Fausto]

Yup...512. XP likes lots of memory to be truly happy.

 

[DT4K]

Agreed.
Press Ctrl-Alt-Del and look at the perfomance tab in task manager. I have 256MB on my Athlon XP1700 system with Windows XP Pro. My system uses between 70 and 90 MB of RAM just for background processes when I don't have any applications running. So most likely, everything you do on your system is using the swap file on the hard drive as it's memory instead of your RAM.

512MB would be my preference, but WinXP runs OK with 256 as long as you don't have a bunch of apps running at the same time. If you don't want to add memory, switch back to windows 98.

I don't know how much a faster CPU would help.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Shanti
Agreed.
Press Ctrl-Alt-Del and look at the perfomance tab in task manager. I have 256MB on my Athlon XP1700 system with Windows XP Pro. My system uses between 70 and 90 MB of RAM just for background processes when I don't have any applications running. So most likely, everything you do on your system is using the swap file on the hard drive as it's memory instead of your RAM.

512MB would be my preference, but WinXP runs OK with 256 as long as you don't have a bunch of apps running at the same time. If you don't want to add memory, switch back to windows 98.

I don't know how much a faster CPU would help.

All these people saying that you have to have 512MB of RAM to get good performance out of XP either run lots of large apps at the same time, or don't know that it does help to lower your ram usage if you don't keep a gazillion things in the system tray.

I'm happy with 256MB of RAM right now for basic tasks on my WinXP box, and if I had the money for an upgrade it would be either CPU or video card (since right now I have an 800mhz duron and a radeon ve).

 

[gsaldivar]

I agree with harbinger52:

512MB is the way to go...

 

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: jliechty
All these people saying that you have to have 512MB of RAM to get good performance out of XP either run lots of large apps at the same time, or don't know that it does help to lower your ram usage if you don't keep a gazillion things in the system tray.

I'm happy with 256MB of RAM right now for basic tasks on my WinXP box, and if I had the money for an upgrade it would be either CPU or video card (since right now I have an 800mhz duron and a radeon ve).

I agree with you. But even after cleaning out the unneeded stuff in my sys tray, I still have around 60-70 MB memory usage with nothing open. That still leaves me with 200 available. With only 64MB, you will be using your hard drive as main memory most of the time. And if you have 128, you really only have 64 to use.

I agree that 256 is fine unless you run lots of apps at once. I was going to add another 256 this week, since prices have gone down, but I decided it wasn't that important so I bought Jedi Knight 2 instead. Definitely more fun than another 256MB. But I will go to 512 pretty soon.

 

[Shagga]

Alos if you have disabled Virtual Memory or should I say swap files and only have 64MB of RAM it's really gunna kill ya system.

 

[LongCoolMother]

i agree 256MB for windows xp is absolutely fine. some people must have some monsterous applications running at the same time