Installing Windows XP from OEM disk

[Guest]

I have a 3 year old Toshiba laptop that came with XP Pro included in 3
recovery disks. The computer crawls. Reformatting using the recoverys disks
seems to improve performance for a very short time and it is downhill from
there. It is a 1.1 GHZ Celeron II processor and I have upgraded it to 512 MB
memory. I can find nothing wrong with hardware. I am convinced that if I
could do a clean install of XP without all the stuff that came on the
recovery disks it would run much better. Using Everest Home Edition I can see
the windows XP Product ID and Product Key. Is it possible to install only
Windows XP from the recovery disks?

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

That's not usually possible. You could purchase an OEM or retail copy of XP
Home or Pro and clean install that version, then download the specific
drivers you need for the notebook from www.csd.toshiba.com

 

[Ron Martell]

I have a 3 year old Toshiba laptop that came with XP Pro included in 3
recovery disks. The computer crawls. Reformatting using the recoverys disks
seems to improve performance for a very short time and it is downhill from
there. It is a 1.1 GHZ Celeron II processor and I have upgraded it to 512 MB
memory. I can find nothing wrong with hardware. I am convinced that if I
could do a clean install of XP without all the stuff that came on the
recovery disks it would run much better. Using Everest Home Edition I can see
the windows XP Product ID and Product Key. Is it possible to install only
Windows XP from the recovery disks?

Your best bet is to go into Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs and
uninstall those items that your are certain that you do not need.

Many OEM PCs come with demo or short term licensed versions of
software such as Norton Antivirus or Norton Internet Security, and
very often users tend to just renew these licenses and continue using
the software. Norton products tend to have an adverse impact on the
overall performance of a computer, often comparable to what happens
when you drive your car with both feet on the brake.

However the fact that the computer performs okay immediately after a
clean install and then proceeds to deterioriate over time indicates
that something is happening while the computer is being used that
adversely impacts the performance.

Spyware is a prime suspect. See MVP Jim Eshelman's Spyware Quick Fix
procedure at http://www.aumha.org/a/parasite.htm and follow the steps
there to check for and clean up any spyware that may have gotten onto
your machine.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm