XP slow

jasmin10

Me again - sorry to be a pain.

I have just had my system upgraded from Windows Me to XP Home. It seems even slower that it did on the old system.

Any ideas? I have checked the available disk space which is fine - I don't understand it I thought if anything it would be slightly quicker as I had the whole thing overhauled.

Thanks again
Sam

woo

Did you have the disk formatted or was it an upgrade from ME to XP?
How old is your PC? How much RAM does it have?

albertross_2

XP needs more http://www.crucial.com/ at least 256, preferably 512 or more..

also, make sure the firewall is enabled in control panel/security center .

jasmin10

To answer your questions - I did ask for the PC to be completely revamped as I was getting lots of errors and he assured me that everything was completely wiped. the PC was bought I think in 2000 and in the properties box says that it has 256 ram. The virus thing and firewall is Norton which I assume that upon installing it everything that needed to be activated was automatically.

Hope this helps

Sam

jasmin10

Just checked the secuirty setting as suggested and found the firewall thing. I didn't realise that XP had it's own firewall. This is currently marked off - do I need to switch it on even though I have Norton. Will this make it go faster, surely it will slow it down as it would have to think about something else.

woo

As albertross said you ideally need at least 512MB of RAM, also Norton can be quite resource intensive, more so than the free ones recommend on this board.

harmzz

u deffo need more ram... i would recommend getting 2*512
prob set u back jus over the £50 mark

jasmin10

Hmmm, I think I will make do with it then if it means spedning more cash on it as I already spent a bucket getting it upgraded. I was kinda hoping that there was some resource stuff I could tweak on it.

Never mind

harmzz

u do kno u could of got something newer and faster for around £350....

hope u didnt spend too much in upgrades

bat999

Don't be disheartened jasmin10

This is from M$ website:-

The minimum hardware requirements for Windows XP Home Edition are:
• Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
• At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM (128 MB is recommended)
• At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk
• CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
• Keyboard and a Microsoft Mouse or some other compatible pointing device
• Video adapter and monitor with Super VGA (800 x 600)or higher resolution
• Sound card
• Speakers or headphones

Perhaps other forum users will have suggestions how to tweak XP.

Anne_Marie_2

jasmin10 wrote:

Just checked the secuirty setting as suggested and found the firewall thing. I didn't realise that XP had it's own firewall. This is currently marked off - do I need to switch it on even though I have Norton. Will this make it go faster, surely it will slow it down as it would have to think about something else.

Leave XP firewall off, you don't need 2 running, and they can cause conflicts anyway. Beside xp firewall is useless imho. And yes, you are right, turning it on, would use up even more memory (RAM).

It probably would be worth adding a wee bit more memory, another 256, which depending on what kind of memory you use, shouldn't cost too much - and you can fit it yourself. Honest, it's really easy. Have a look at www.crucial.com and it will figure out what kind of memory you need, and give you suggestions. It will make a big difference to the speed of your computer. You will get loads of help on here how to do it, but am sure that you can print out instructions from crucial too.

Norton does use up a lot of system resources, so you might think of changing to other free firewall and anti virus. (Loads on sticky list). At least you can give them a try and see if you like them...you may want to buy upgraded versions, or stick with Norton....personal choice.

A wee recommendation......
If you get any error signs. Note them down. Post them on here, before you pay for anyone to fix your computer again.