Help, Please... Why is XP So Slow ? ?

[Mark]

Help, Please...

Why is this machine So Slow?

My OLD PC was 350 Mhz, Win98SE, 32 Mb RAM, 20 Gb HD.
My NEW PC is Celeron 1.7 Ghz, Win XP Home, 480 Mb RAM, 40 Gb HD.

The New PC (from a PC Club storefront) is infinately slower !

Both PCs were/are on a 56K modem.
It now takes Windows Explorer 40 seconds to delete a small file.
It takes 1 minute 20 seconds to load the Ebay.com home page.

I installed the free ZoneAlarm Firewall only on the New PC.
I go to WindowsUpdate.Microsoft.com every few weeks and I do whatever
they recommend.
I click Start, Turn Off Computer, and Restart every day.
It's always powered up, and I Defrag the HD every few weeks.

During the three months that I've owned this thing,
now, in Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer,
Application has 76 events; about 20 are Errors,
Security has 1,945 events; about 90 are Failure Audit,
System has 3,127 events; about 110 are Warning, and about 970 are
Error.

What Is Up With This Thing ? ? ?

PLEASE Help ! ! !

Thanks very much for any advice you can offer.

Mark S.

 

[Guest]

Try deleting all your Temp and Temp Internet files, empty
the Recycle Bin and go into Disk Clean to get rid of any
stuff you feel you don't need. This could free up a fair
bit of memory. Firewalls are OK, but perhaps a worm or
trojan has infiltrated - someone told me there is one
about which slows everyhing down, but I don't know its
name. I pesume you have Anti Virus stuff, so run a virus
scan with option to automatically fix the infection, if
any. I had a virus a while ago, even though I was using
Norton, but Norton was unable to repair/delete the
infected file. I did get rid of it eventually, but not
exactly sure just how I managed it! Good luck.

 

[john]

I'm puzzled as to why so many XP users insist on running 3rd party firewalls
when the XP one appears to work fine.

 

[anonymous]

from various sources......
----------------------
If you have 128 MB or less its going run slow ...XP likes
more memory.
--------------------------------
If it is truly a new computer, consider contacting the
manufacturer
for warranty work. Consider reloading.
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/Slowcom.htm
------------------------
Slow response can simply mean the servers are overloaded
or there's a lot of
traffic. Given the recent virus activity which has
triggered a lot of
automated messages being sent to various servers, it is
possible that this
is the issue and not much you can do on your end.

Computer Speed Test for faster internet speed
www.internet-speed-guide.com/computer-speed-test.html

Update device/program drivers (If updated operating
system).

Clean out Temporary Internet Files. (regularly)
Limit size of Temporary Internet Files.

Dump all of the files in your TEMP folder. (regularly)

Run a defrag on your hard drive to get all the files back
in order. (Monthly)

Keep up with your Anti-Virus updates. (regularly)

Back-up/purge your DATA. You can replace programs
but your DATA means hours of work for you to input all
the old information.

http://www.inboost.com/

http://www.azcomputerdoctor.com/increase-computer-
speed.htm

http://www.pcspeedtweaks.com/

http://tweakhomepc.virtualave.net/z_thpc.html

http://www.penntesol.org/


HOW TO: Set Performance Options in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-
us;308417
uncheck "Show Shadows under Menus" in Display-appearance-
effects
and click APPLY.
-------------------------------

 

[anonymous]

3rd party firewall might be included inside other program.
or they don't trust xp firewall because it it built-in.

 

[Guest]

XP firewall doesn't block outgoing, some people like to
see if their computer has a virus that is mass mailing
everyone on their outlook list... Zone alarm will tell
you that you're sending out a lot of emails or trying to
open a port.

I personally don't care to run anything else, cause I know
if I get a virus real quick because I'm kinda anal about
how my computer operates.

 

[Mad Max]

Mark,
Being computer challenged myself I hesitate to give any advice on anything.
That said, getting CRITICAL UPDATES " every few weeks " is not good enough,
if you expect your computer to be protected. True, some have problems with
these, but even so they must be done, especially if you are not very
computer literate. Once a week is not too often to check for critical
updates and even again on the weekend. Critical Updates are at least as
important as having an AV and a firewall. Of course this has nothing to do
with your computer being slow, but I would not advise you on that . Just
trying to keep you from hurting yourself .

 

[Jeffrey Bingham]

Microsoft issued a Critical Update quite a while ago that
was numbered 811493. It did HORRIBLE things to Windows
XP so as to make the PC run like an old 80386.

If you run the add-remove programs app in the Control
Panel and Remove the patch, your computer should start
behaving correctly.

NOTE: When you remove the update, it will warn you that
doing so "may" cause several other programs to stop
functioning correctly (you may want to write down their
names). I have not had this problem when removing the
patch, however this is a rather OLD patch now. Your
mileage may vary.

After WAY TOO LONG a period of time had passed, Microsoft
released an updated/corrected version of 811493 that no
longer has the slow down problem.

NOTE: There was also at least one other patch (don't
remember the number) that was purported to cause a system
slowdown. No PC I have worked with has displayed the
problem, however.

 

[john]

I agree. If you have enough tech knowledge to set up Zone Alarm properly and
interpret what is telling you, you should have enough knowledge not to click
on diallers or similar.
OTOH, I wouldn't be without AdAware or Spybot, which makes ZA outgoing
monitoring redundant anyway.