Windows XP XP and Cache memory

[oddles]

hi!

I've just installed windows XP on my bro's computer however its giving me trouble. Intel P4 with 256RAM

I upgraded from win98 to XP and at first didn't want to install. then i found in a site that if i desable cache memory it will work...and it did (however very very slow).

The problem is this when i enable L2 cache memory...XP crashes, when i desable L2 it works fine but obviously very slow... does this mean it is damaged or is there a solution? (L1 is not giving me problems as far as i know)

PLS help!

Thanks

 

[muckshifter]

... and the computer is a ???

Never upgrade, always clean install ... XP is very particular with memory, L2 is memory. You probably need patches from Intel, and or BIOS if an older P4.

Not much we can help you with unless you can tell us what the PC is.

 

[Wolfgang]

1st before doing anything , you need to update the bios of your pc, and then, like muck told you, never upgrade, always clean install.

 

[oddles]

hi again,

i installed windows XP, this time a clean installation like you siad. Seems to be working very slow...shall i upgrade ram to 512 (i currently have 256).

CPU: Intel P4
Motherboard: Mainboard
256 RAM
40G HDD etc

thanks

 

[Me__2001]

what speed is the CPU? 512MB is the norm for using XP but it can be made to work on 256MB

 

[oddles]

the speed is 1.6 Ghz

 

[Me__2001]

that should be fine, add another 256MB and it will perform alot better, a fresh install is also reccomended

 

[Wolfgang]

I think it should work fine with a 256MB, the recommended for xp is 128MB, XP will become slower in time, after many softwares installation, because it will load the .dll files on booting.But if you're telling me the you just install XP and seems very slow, i'm sure your VGA adapter is 8mb and not more, is it?

 

[Wolfgang]

By the way , i have XP installed on a 1GHz P3 with 256MB of ram, and it's working perfect.

 

[ChristopherP]

Motherboard: Mainboard

Hehe

 

[oddles]

hi again..

i managed to get details about this comp:
geforce2 64MB
HDD 40G UDMA 100 5400rpm
Mainboard ECS P4VXASD2 , S478
CPU P4 1.6Ghz 478
DDR RAM 256MB 266Mhz

I have clean installation of XP but performance is very slow...even my P3 works better... don't know what to do!

the CD of the mainboard is not compatible with XP so i have installed nothing from it.

any suggestions? (sorry but i'm no computer expert)

 

[muckshifter]

That PC was not "designed" for XP and will always be slow ... sorry.

You'll just throw money away trying to "upgrade" it ... a little more memory will help, but not by much.

geforce2 64MB ... old and out of date, slow graphics renering for XP
HDD 40G UDMA 100 5400rpm ... slow rpm=slow drive
Mainboard ECS P4VXASD2 , S478 ... I wonder how you got this to even work with XP
CPU P4 1.6Ghz 478 ... old, slow 100Mhz
DDR RAM 256MB 266Mhz ... double it to 512, but I would not go any further. May help



However, it would make an excelent Linux system.

 

[oddles]

So do u think i'll have a better performance with Win 98se??

shall i go back to it? as it is its to slow to work, and i have programs like AutoCAD and Photoshop to work with.

Is it possile to buy a new motherboard which is compatible with this CPU...or do i have to buy everything from scratch?

thanks

 

[muckshifter]

So do u think i'll have a better performance with Win 98se??

shall i go back to it? as it is its to slow to work, and i have programs like AutoCAD and Photoshop to work with.

Is it possible to buy a new motherboard which is compatible with this CPU...or do i have to buy everything from scratch?

thanks

You will get better 'performance' with 98 ... but not for AutoCAD & Photoshop ... these two packages really would benefit on a newer PC with nore raw power ... an exception would be AutoCAD for DOS (if you could find it)

Upgrading your existing 'kit' would entail buying a new PC ... the fact is, your PC is err, too old.

 

[TECHGUNS]

It might need the chipset drivers.

That isnt installed with the windows OS.

 

[Wolfgang]

Try only to change the Mainboard, i don't know if you can find an intel one that works with the 1.6GHz CPU, i think this will solve the problem. And by the way, you're using RD Ram type of memory, aren't you?