RE: XP is TOO SLOW!!!

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From: SlowJet (SlowJet_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 07/19/04 

Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 01:27:05 -0700

Hey Harrier, :)

I looked at the manual.
See link http://support.jp.dell.com/docs/systems/dim4400/specs.htm#1101572

It should fly even with 128MB, but it does take 512 MB chips.

It is loaded with devices so all interrupts are used.

The disk can be 66 or 100.

It has AGP 4X. and a 400 Mhz bus.

There are only two common conditions that could make it so slow at boot up.

1. The bios is taking a long tome to resolve the devices
You could try setting the bios to the other method. I.E. Turn on/off PNP OS.
Use / don’t use ESDS? Use don’t use ACPI?

2. The disk drive. Make sure you have an 80-wire cable and the drive is UDMA66 rated.
If not get a new ATA100 drive kit, which contains 80-wire cable.

Do a clean install of Win XP and format the drive with NTFS using a cluster of 4096, and if you are want go to 8092 as it will not be slower but may be faster.
When an upgrade is done over 98, ME the NTFS cluster default to 512 KB.
Your disk is issuing 8 times more reads than 4096 and 16 times more than 8092.
The MFTS is weak on a conversion; a clean install will make it much better.

SJ

P.S. A zip drive on the slave of the primary? Not sure this will allow the ATA100 or 66 to go beyond the zip speed? Make sure the zip is not running PIO mode.

Do this and I will bet it will start up in 55 seconds or less. :)

"Harrier .45" wrote:

> I am running XP on a Dell Dimension DIM 4400, 1.70 GHz
> with 128 MB RAM. Start up is excruciatingly slow before I
> can access any programs -- upwards of 4 minutes! Switching
> between users (logout/logon) is the same. I've just about
> had it with XP! If I can't find some way to speed up this
> system, I'll be ripping XP out and returning to ME, which,
> by the way, I'm running on a Sony VAIO 900 MHz Duron with
> absolutely no problems.
>
> Can someone tell me how to streamline XP so that it runs
> faster? A 1.7 GHz PC should not be this slow. All
> configurations are original.
>
> Thanks
>

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