Need help with slow computer
in [Computer]
|
Prev: Want to remove autoplay options for multiple instances of same mp3 player
Next: A few new msconfig startup files
From: Jack on 22 Feb 2010 17:12 I have an old Compaq Presario 5000 that is running on XP. It has an Intel Celeron Processor that is 1.1 GHZ and I have increased the memory to its max which is 512 Mb of SDRAM. I have defragged and run Ad-Aware. I run C Cleaner often. When I run Task Scheduler, I often find that the memory is loaded. I frequently find 2-3 versions of iexplore.exe. Skype takes some space but I have to leave it in memory so I can receive calls from my daughter overseas. Are there any suggestions of how I can get it to run faster and more efficient? Thanks for any help
From: Neil Green on 22 Feb 2010 19:26 Jack wrote: > I have an old Compaq Presario 5000 that is running on XP. It has an > Intel Celeron Processor that is 1.1 GHZ and I have increased the > memory to its max which is 512 Mb of SDRAM. I have defragged and run > Ad-Aware. I run C Cleaner often. When I run Task Scheduler, I often > find that the memory is loaded. I frequently find 2-3 versions of > iexplore.exe. Skype takes some space but I have to leave it in memory > so I can receive calls from my daughter overseas. > > Are there any suggestions of how I can get it to run faster and more > efficient? Thanks for any help Are you running IE8?
From: Jeff Strickland on 22 Feb 2010 19:48 "Jack" <jplasater(a)NOSPAMjuno.com> wrote in message news:4b82ff45.94844300(a)news.so.centurytel.net... >I have an old Compaq Presario 5000 that is running on XP. It has an > Intel Celeron Processor that is 1.1 GHZ and I have increased the > memory to its max which is 512 Mb of SDRAM. I have defragged and run > Ad-Aware. I run C Cleaner often. When I run Task Scheduler, I often > find that the memory is loaded. I frequently find 2-3 versions of > iexplore.exe. Skype takes some space but I have to leave it in memory > so I can receive calls from my daughter overseas. > > Are there any suggestions of how I can get it to run faster and more > efficient? Thanks for any help I seriously doubt that 512 is the limit on that machine. I could be wrong, but I think you can go to at least 2G, and probably 4G of (I think) PC133. Your processor is slow, and I assume you have loaded Service Pack 3. You need RAM. Really what you need is a new motherboard and processor, and you can get a good board, CPU, and 4G of way faster RAM for about $200.
From: Paul on 22 Feb 2010 20:19 Jack wrote: > I have an old Compaq Presario 5000 that is running on XP. It has an > Intel Celeron Processor that is 1.1 GHZ and I have increased the > memory to its max which is 512 Mb of SDRAM. I have defragged and run > Ad-Aware. I run C Cleaner often. When I run Task Scheduler, I often > find that the memory is loaded. I frequently find 2-3 versions of > iexplore.exe. Skype takes some space but I have to leave it in memory > so I can receive calls from my daughter overseas. > > Are there any suggestions of how I can get it to run faster and more > efficient? Thanks for any help Open Task Manager. Under the Performance tab, look at "Commit Charge". Right now, mine is "Total=281688 K", and "Peak=346396 K". If I owned only 512MB of RAM, that would fit and run at full speed. I've only been booted for a few minutes, which is why my Peak is so low. If the Commit Charge was larger than the physical memory, then chances are some of your processes would be paged out to disk. And that kind of thing, slows down the operation of the machine. If the L1 or L2 cache is disabled on a processor, that can make it dog slow. If the IDE interface is running in PIO mode, instead of DMA mode, then any activity that uses the disk, will also be very slow. Programs will be slow to load. If the machine needs to page, that will be extremely slow too. On older computers, sometimes the fastest way to run a disk, is to use a separate PCI IDE card. Some older computers run DMA mode, but do it at a max of 66MB/sec. With a PCI card with IDE connectors on it, you can probably get 100-110MB/sec if the disk is fast enough. I got a 500GB disk the other day, that will do 125MB/sec (I benchmarked it), and that means you can now find disks which will run the PCI card solution to 100%. Other than those kinds of things, you'd use Task Manager, to see if any process is using a large percentage of the CPU. My AV scanner, used to scan every file that my other programs were attempting to access. And that can affect your perception of speed. On modern computers, the traditional hard drive interferes with everything, and is definitely the slowest element of the system. You can get some improvement, by using an SSD, but for the price of a good one of those, you could easily buy a used computer which is faster than the one you've got. ******* To benchmark your disk subsystem, use the free version 2.55 of HDTune from hdtune.com . It has a read-only benchmark, and an older disk like my collection of IDE disks, will have a benchmark graph starting at 60MB/sec and ending at 40MB/sec. If you have a very modern disk (such as the one I bought a couple weeks ago), then it is possible to get more from the disk. But if the disk is a few years old, those are the normal sorts of numbers you'd get. To benchmark the processor, you can use SuperPI. These are benchmarks run collecting 1 million digits of the math constant PI. I selected some results which are as close as possible to the stock operating speed of the 1.1GHz processor. http://www.hwbot.org/rankings/benchmark/superpi/rankings?start=20&hardware=pentium_3_celeron_1.1a_ghz_tualatin 2min 49sec 650ms Greece NIKOSE Pentium 3 Celeron 1.1A Ghz Tualatin @1136MHz 3min 4sec 270ms Poland mak888 Pentium 3 Celeron 1.1A Ghz Tualatin @1166MHz You can get the benchmark program here. You unzip it and run the EXE. A menu allows you to select "1 million digits", and then the benchmark will start. You can then compare your execution time, to the two results listed above. One reason for differences between machines, is the setup of the RAM. If a user had CAS2 RAM, that would make a minor speed difference, compared to using CAS3. Chances are, your system runs the RAM at 100MHz, which is one reason the memory subsystem doesn't have a lot of bandwidth to spare. http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/366/Super_PI_Mod_v1.5.html If your results were radically different, and much slower, you might suspect the L1 or L2 cache is disabled. HTH, Paul
From: Neil Green on 22 Feb 2010 20:25
Jeff Strickland wrote: > "Jack" <jplasater(a)NOSPAMjuno.com> wrote in message > news:4b82ff45.94844300(a)news.so.centurytel.net... >> I have an old Compaq Presario 5000 that is running on XP. It has an >> Intel Celeron Processor that is 1.1 GHZ and I have increased the >> memory to its max which is 512 Mb of SDRAM. I have defragged and >> run Ad-Aware. I run C Cleaner often. When I run Task Scheduler, I >> often find that the memory is loaded. I frequently find 2-3 >> versions of iexplore.exe. Skype takes some space but I have to >> leave it in memory so I can receive calls from my daughter overseas. >> >> Are there any suggestions of how I can get it to run faster and more >> efficient? Thanks for any help > > I seriously doubt that 512 is the limit on that machine. The Compaq Presario 5000 series: Max Supported RAM, 512 MB. Installed Cache Memory, 128 KB >I could be > wrong, but I think you can go to at least 2G, and probably 4G of (I > think) PC133. Your processor is slow, and I assume you have loaded > Service Pack 3. You need RAM. Really what you need is a new > motherboard and processor, and you can get a good board, CPU, and 4G > of way faster RAM for about $200. |