Processor running slow in WINXP

[Big_Bolo]

My processor has been running slow since I have been using windowsXP. My hardrive %57 of free space. I have checked the drive for errors. Ran defragment, and still its running slow. It also makes a funny noise when its trying to access something. Is there anything that would help me solve this problem. Any help would be appreciated. Thnx.

[morganlefay]

how much memory in the box....adding memory can greatly improve the performance in xp...seeing the os runs in memory.

how do you know its the cpu...what is it PII,III,4??

Have you run task manager to see what process is slowing you down??

Have you scanned for malware??

MLF

[nihil]

Morgana~ is right, I would not like to run XP with less than 512Mb of RAM.

Also, the chkdsk utility is not that brilliant. Have you done a surface scan, and tried the diagnostic tools from the HDD manufacturer?

Cheers

[whatthe]

Try cleaning your temp files and prefetch folder as well as the above suggestions.

[Big_Bolo]

I checked my memory and its only 256. I think that might be the problem. I followed all the other suggestions. Everything was fine. So I'm gonna go ahead and get some memory. THNX for ur help.

[nihil]

Hi Big Bolo,

Thanks for responding, it is always good to get feedback.

I had a machine in just now..............750Mhz AMD with 256Mb and XP Home (illegal )

I just reformatted and reloaded the (legal) Win 98SE copy, firewall, AV, anti-malware etc and the job was done.

You really should notice the improvement with more memory



Good luck

[SirDice]

256MB is enough for WinXP. It just depends on what you're doing with it. If you just use it to read email, browse the web and typing an occasional letter, 256MB is enough. If you do video-editting then 512MB isn't going to cut it.

It's easy to check if you need more memory just look at your pagefile, you can see it's usage with taskmanager. If your pagefile is hardly used (there's always some usage, even with 4GB) then you don't need more memory and you will not notice any difference if stick more in it.

[morganlefay]

Well..I have to disagree on the 256mb of memory.

Would also depend on the cpu...if you have a slower\older cpu...you can improve the performance by stuffing the machine with memory...to offset the limitations of the cpu

Now if you have a brand new P4...you MAY get away with less...

As a basic user with email and browsing the net, you will probably have other things running, like a firewall, AV, anti spyware, etc...which will use additional resources.

I have been able to greatly improve performance on peoples XP home machine by adding memory...granted these are usually a couple of years old.

Sir Dice is right...all depends on what software your run with the machine will dictate what your hardware requirements are


MLF

[nihil]

My processor has been running slow since I have been using windowsXP

Well, I took that to imply that the OP had been using a previous version of windows, and that his hardware was not the latest, as it ran the older system faster.

This is what I was referring to in my example, Win XP had been put on an older, slower machine with 256Mb, and it ran significantly slower than it did with Win98SE

My XP box has 1024Mb and sits IDLE with 320Mb in use. I have just checked a Win2K box with identical memory and it is using 190Mb (also idle) They both have similar background stuff open.

I still stick with my pragmatic view that 512Mb should be your minimum target. My motto is: "if it will use the resource, give it the resource"

OH! and we all forgot to ask if he has integrated on-board graphics

[Big_Bolo]

I'm not sure if I have integrated on-board graphics.How would I find out. I'm only running basic softwares on the computer nothing major. There is barely anything installed on it. Besides running slow, I keep getting a message that it cannot recover my local profile even after I have fixed the problem. Its really starting to piss me off. Any suggestions that I can use to tweak this bad boy would help.THNX

Bolo.