making a P3 733Mhz boot faster (on the Cheap!)

  • Thread starter Thread starter andrew.penny
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A

andrew.penny

hello

i have been given a old P3 733MHz, detials are:::

P3 733Mhz
128Mb RAM
13GB

i have put on XP but it takes ages to boot.

i read somewhere that you can disable services to speed up booting. it
was something to do with disabling the network services. since the
computer is not to be used on a network, which services can i disable?

also is there any thing else i can do to make it boot faster.

now heres the catch!! it has to be on the very cheap!

i dont want to spend loads on a old PC!

thanks for your help

andrew
 
128-Megabytes of memory isn't enough for XP. 733 Mhz CPU
should be fine. Unless you want to spend 5-7 hours "Tuning and
Tweaking", I would just go and buy a 128-Meg stick of SDRAM
(If you can find it). Some office supply stores still have it on the
shelf (Office Max, Staples). Otherwise, turn off GUI "Eye Candy"
by using Classic Theme, Lower Video Color depth to 16-bit or
medium. You can disable Services down to around a core count
of around 25, but that still will use around 160 Megabytes, so
before you ever open the 1st app your PC will be doing a fair
amount of Paging.
 
His stated criteria was "Cheap", which tempered my recommendation
to getting only an additional 128 Megabytes.
 
256 is ample for most things I run hundreds of pc's and laptops with 256 of
varying processor power from P11 400mhz upwards
 
steve.a said:
256 is ample for most things I run hundreds of pc's and laptops with 256
of
varying processor power from P11 400mhz upwards
Click to expand...

The word isn't "ample" but "slow". If you like waiting for your programs to
open, yes, it is enough. If you like snappy reactions and plan to do any
photo work, it isn't and you know it.
 
hello

i have been given a old P3 733MHz, detials are:::

P3 733Mhz
128Mb RAM
13GB

i have put on XP but it takes ages to boot.

i read somewhere that you can disable services to speed up booting. it
was something to do with disabling the network services. since the
computer is not to be used on a network, which services can i disable?

also is there any thing else i can do to make it boot faster.

now heres the catch!! it has to be on the very cheap!

i dont want to spend loads on a old PC!

thanks for your help

andrew
Click to expand...

Increase the Ram. 128MB is not enough. Depending on what programs you
plan to run, go to either 256MB or 512MB. Note that adding another ram
stick to what you have can be tricky. XP is finicky. The Ram needs to
be perfectly matched. Even getting the same brand / size, since they
are such different ages, might not work. Best is to get a single stick
of the larger capacity RAM.

Remove any unneeded startup programs. Go to Start | Run. Type in
msconfig. Click ok. On the startup tab look at all the programs
starting and decide which ones you want to keep. If you're not sure of
what a particular entry is, check these resources:

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm
http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html

For services see this:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/20041128094512/http://www.blackviper.com/

For programs you don't want to run at startup the first step should be
to check in the options for the program to see if there is a setting to
tell it not to run at startup. The next step is to remove any entries
you don't want from the two startup folders:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

For anything else uncheck their entries in the startup tab of msconfig:
Start | Run | Msconfig | Ok

Another option is to remove the reference to them from one of these keys
in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

Make sure you have a backup of the registry using a program like ERUNT
before making any changes to the registry.

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/erunt.txt

Make sure the system is clean of viruses and other parasites. Make sure
the antivirus program is a recent one with up to date definitions.

THE PARASITE FIGHT
Finding, Removing & Protecting Yourself From Scumware
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm

Richard Harper’s Guide to Cleaning Pests
http://rgharper.mvps.org/cleanit.htm
 
Rock said:
Remove any unneeded startup programs. Go to Start | Run. Type in
msconfig. Click ok. On the startup tab look at all the programs
starting and decide which ones you want to keep.
[.......]
For programs you don't want to run at startup the first step should be
to check in the options for the program to see if there is a setting to
tell it not to run at startup. The next step is to remove any entries
you don't want from the two startup folders:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Start Menu
\Programs\Startup
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu
\Programs\Startup

For anything else uncheck their entries in the startup tab of msconfig:
Start | Run | Msconfig | Ok

Another option is to remove the reference to them from one of these
keys in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows
\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows
\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
Click to expand...


I find that the Startup folders contain shortcuts to programs
that appear when I click on the Start button at the bottom left
of the screen. I was under the impression that these programs
start when one clicks on their icons. Are you saying that all
these programs start at boot time? Does their removal from
the Startup folders remove references to them in the registry
upon the next bootup?

*TimDaniels*
 
Timothy said:
Rock said:
Remove any unneeded startup programs. Go to Start | Run. Type in
msconfig. Click ok. On the startup tab look at all the programs
starting and decide which ones you want to keep.
[.......]
For programs you don't want to run at startup the first step should be
to check in the options for the program to see if there is a setting
to tell it not to run at startup. The next step is to remove any
entries you don't want from the two startup folders:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Start Menu
\Programs\Startup
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu
\Programs\Startup

For anything else uncheck their entries in the startup tab of msconfig:
Start | Run | Msconfig | Ok

Another option is to remove the reference to them from one of these
keys in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows
\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows
\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
Click to expand...



I find that the Startup folders contain shortcuts to programs
that appear when I click on the Start button at the bottom left
of the screen. I was under the impression that these programs
start when one clicks on their icons. Are you saying that all
these programs start at boot time? Does their removal from
the Startup folders remove references to them in the registry
upon the next bootup?

*TimDaniels*
Click to expand...

What shows on the Start menu are all the entries in the Start Menu
folder including the entries in the Startup folder. Shortcuts in the
two startup folders start when windows starts. That's why they are
called that. No - removing them from the startup folders does not
remove their entries from the registry. The programs are still installed.
 
In
Alias said:
256 isn't enough, cheap or otherwise.
Click to expand...


I don't agree with that at all. This is not a one-size-fits-all
situation and 256MB is fine for many people.
How much memory you need depends on what apps you run, but almost
everyone needs at least 256MB for decent performance. For some
people, for example those who edit large photographic images,
more than 256MB--even much more--can be required for good
performance.

If you are currently using the page file significantly, more
memory will decrease or eliminate that usage, and improve your
performance. If you are not using the page file significantly,
more memory will do nothing for you.

Go to http://billsway.com/notes_public/winxp_tweaks/ and
download WinXP-2K_Pagefile.zip and monitor your pagefile usage.
That should give you a good idea of whether more memory can help,
and if so, how much more.


--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup


 
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