XP repair install Q. thumbs.db poor performance.

[RJK]

...jump to *** to avoid following hardware background monologue !!!

Recently had a Skt. A XP2600+ based system box with failed IDE ports on its'
PC Chips M848A motherboard (SiS 746FX chipset).
Swapped it for a new/unopened SHUTTLE AK38N - VIA KT333CF / VIA VT8235
chipset, (made in 2004),
....repair installed XP Home ed.+SP1 ...installed SP3 from CD and did the 68
or so updates from MS, ...subsequent to SP3.
....and added a PCI 3x SATAII / IDE card, I ext. +2 int. + 1x IDE port(not
used), and 500gb Seagate hd,
....and a PCI 4x USB 2.0 card.
....and a new 350w 80+ spec. psu.

So XP boot drive is 80gb C:\ on motherboard IDE0 port, (where is always
was),
Extra storage 500gb SataII Seagate hard disk D:\ is connected to a
internal PCI card SataII port.
....there is a card reader fitted connected to mobo USB pin header, drives
F:\ G:\ H:\ and I:\
....DVD ROM and DVDRW drives, jumpered master and slave on motherboard IDE1
port, drive letters set to X:\ and Y:\ (before adding in SataII hd)
....memory 2x 512mb ddr333(166mhz), slot 1 and 2 respectively and 256mg
ddr333 in slot 3.

XP's "C:\Documents and Settings\###\My Documents\My Pictures" (where
### is the name of the owner) contained approx. fifty sub-directories
containing 580 mb's of *.jpgs,
each sub-directory containing a varying number of *.jpgs e.g. some
containing 10 or 20, and some other containing 50 or 60 or more.
....and the "C:\Documents and Settings\###\My Documents\My Music" folder
contained approx. 22gb's of music in various formats.

I "moved" the Documents and Settings folder (i.e.right-clicked deskktop "My
Documents" to get pop-out menu, then | Properties | Move and moved it onto
drive D:\ and into a directory I made called "My Documents" (forgot to make
D:\My Documents the first time and ended up with hundreds of files plonked
in the root-directory of drive D:\ ... and had to Ghost restore C:\ and
start again !!!).

So hardware and XP platform is mostly lovely, ....all set up in correct
drive order etc.

**** ..so that's the hardware, here's the inconvenience :-

Viewing thumbnails in one of the "My Pictures" directories that contains
just 10 or 20 *.jpg's is quite swift but, viewing thumbnails in one of the
"My Pictures" directories that contains 50 or 60 *.jpg's (each *.jpg is
approx. 600mb's to 950mb's in size btw), the first 10 or 20, or maybe a few
more, are thumbnailed very swiftly, and then everything seems to get held up
by heavy hard-disk activity, for ages !

At one point, I deleted the thumbs.db cache files in 5 or 6 of the
directories in "My Pictures" and switched folder view to "Details," but, I
suspect that the owner will be wanting to use thumbnail view, and will soon
be complaining about the time it takes to produce thumbnail view, in folders
containing large number of *.jpg's.

Beyond fitting a much newer board with dual-core cpu etc. and more RAM ...
....any suggestions as to how to improve thumbs.db performance ?

any tips muchly appreciated,

regards, Richard

 

[pjp]

For the life of me can't remember where you change it but do believe there's
a quality slider in some dialogue somewhere, e.g. lower size/detail might
speed it up some?

 

[RJK]

For the life of me can't remember where you change it but do believe
there's a quality slider in some dialogue somewhere, e.g. lower
size/detail might speed it up some?

many thanks, will add that one to the "possible" list, ...solved this one
several times in the past, ...getting absent minded and old now !
...pagefile.sys is plenty big enough, ...or did I set it to fixed max.size
1.5 x 1280mb RAM = 1920mb ...don't remember seeing that 1920 figure, have a
feeling that I set set max. 1536mb's b****r !!
....will have to send him an email and get him to check it ! <blush>.

regards, Richard

 

[Twayne]

In

..jump to *** to avoid following hardware background
monologue !!!
Recently had a Skt. A XP2600+ based system box with failed
IDE ports on its' PC Chips M848A motherboard (SiS 746FX
chipset). Swapped it for a new/unopened SHUTTLE AK38N - VIA KT333CF /
VIA VT8235 chipset, (made in 2004),
...repair installed XP Home ed.+SP1 ...installed SP3 from
CD and did the 68 or so updates from MS, ...subsequent to
SP3. ...and added a PCI 3x SATAII / IDE card, I ext. +2
int. + 1x IDE port(not used), and 500gb Seagate hd,
...and a PCI 4x USB 2.0 card.
...and a new 350w 80+ spec. psu.

So XP boot drive is 80gb C:\ on motherboard IDE0 port,
(where is always was),
Extra storage 500gb SataII Seagate hard disk D:\ is
connected to a internal PCI card SataII port.
...there is a card reader fitted connected to mobo USB pin
header, drives F:\ G:\ H:\ and I:\
...DVD ROM and DVDRW drives, jumpered master and slave on
motherboard IDE1 port, drive letters set to X:\ and Y:\
(before adding in SataII hd) ...memory 2x 512mb
ddr333(166mhz), slot 1 and 2 respectively and 256mg ddr333
in slot 3.
XP's "C:\Documents and Settings\###\My Documents\My
Pictures" (where ### is the name of the owner) contained
approx. fifty sub-directories containing 580 mb's of *.jpgs, each
sub-directory containing a varying number of *.jpgs e.g. some containing
10 or 20, and some other containing 50
or 60 or more. ...and the "C:\Documents and Settings\###\My
Documents\My Music" folder contained approx. 22gb's of
music in various formats.
I "moved" the Documents and Settings folder
(i.e.right-clicked deskktop "My Documents" to get pop-out
menu, then | Properties | Move and moved it onto drive
D:\ and into a directory I made called "My Documents" (forgot to make
D:\My Documents the first time and ended up
with hundreds of files plonked in the root-directory of
drive D:\ ... and had to Ghost restore C:\ and start again
!!!).
So hardware and XP platform is mostly lovely, ....all set
up in correct drive order etc.

**** ..so that's the hardware, here's the inconvenience :-

Viewing thumbnails in one of the "My Pictures" directories
that contains just 10 or 20 *.jpg's is quite swift but,
viewing thumbnails in one of the "My Pictures" directories
that contains 50 or 60 *.jpg's (each *.jpg is approx.
600mb's to 950mb's in size btw), the first 10 or 20, or
maybe a few more, are thumbnailed very swiftly, and then
everything seems to get held up by heavy hard-disk
activity, for ages !
At one point, I deleted the thumbs.db cache files in 5
or 6 of the directories in "My Pictures" and switched
folder view to "Details," but, I suspect that the owner
will be wanting to use thumbnail view, and will soon be
complaining about the time it takes to produce thumbnail
view, in folders containing large number of *.jpg's.
Beyond fitting a much newer board with dual-core cpu etc.
and more RAM ... ...any suggestions as to how to improve thumbs.db
performance ?
any tips muchly appreciated,

regards, Richard

It sounds like the thumbs.db is set to not be kept. Change that to keep the
file for reuse and things will run faster after the first time loading them
and creatng the thumbs. file.