-----Original Message-----
Windows XP Home Edition runs slowly on my Pentium IV 1.3
GHz 128 Meg RAM system. So slowly that I have gone back
to using Windows ME for the time being.
Question: How much RAM needs to be added to get this
system running quickly. What else can be done to get the
system running quickly.
Thanks.
Could be several things. Has your system been used for
awhile with no "clean up" i.e. have you run defrag, and
other disk cleanup utilities that XP has, like chkdsk,
scandisk, etc.? How many programs, music files, etc. do
you have that might be loading? Is it tens of
gigabytes? A lot of music and video downloads have
spyware, ad ware, etc. attached that can really bog your
system down. Running some spy checker and adware checker
software (there are free trial ones on the Internet) can
really help. Also, you can check your system via the
utilities and mark those programs you don't want to load
each time you boot - for example, you can disable
Messenger, and just call it up when you want it. Same
for numerous other programs that you may not use often.
Or if you have MS Access or Powerpoint, you can disable
them, or uninstall and put them back on later. There are
lots of other programs that take up gobs of space, and
force your computer to take half an hour to boot!! And
don't forget that Windows XP takes more ram than earlier
versions. MS might say that 64MB is enough to run XP,
but the MINIMUM is 128. 256MB is better, and 512 much
better yet, so look around for a sale on RAM sticks and
add at least another 128, or more if it's cheap enough
and your motherboard and buss etc. can take more (say 512
even). So in summary, do a thorough harddrive clean up
first. If that helps, you then might want to add at
least 128 of RAM to give it a boost. If that doesn't
help much, remember also that if you have been using your
system a long time, without "software maintenance", it
might be time to dump your important files to CDs or
DVDs, reformat your hard drive and reinstall your entire
operating system, then reload your files, because a lot
of junk builds up over time - bits of files, etc.
Windows of any version can be notorious for creating
bottlenecks from all the scraps of stuff that seem to
accumulate. Also check out a few publications for the
lay person at the newstand, like PC Novice from the Smart
Computing Reference Series(Sandhills Publishing)
www.smartcomputing.com . They have a number of good
reference magazines that cover the basics for duffers
like me! There are other publishers also of course with
beginner to semi-pro oriented magazines. I spent about
$40.00 (Canadian yet!!)on a couple of reference mags and
saved at least several hundred $ because they showed me
how to do some things and I avoided having to hire a tech
at $50.00 per hour. Of course, what I was able to
accomplish was simpler, and I may very well need a tech
in the future if something really bad happens, but try
the simpler and cheaper route first. Good luck.
