slow Dell system

[TRABEM]

My punchbox is slower 'n molasses on a cold winter morn.

System is a Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop, XP Home, 2.3 Ghz with 256 MB of
ram, harddrive is 30 GB with only 10 GB in use. I have 2 users on the
system, both with administrative privileges. We always log off when
switching users, so the problem is not due to another users programs
running.

We have all the Microsoft updates and only use the stock Windows
firewall. We have DSL and our download speed is slower than our
neighbors..we've swapped modems and computers......the 30 percent
slower download speed is due to something in the computer itself and
shows up as a data light that does not stay continuously lit during a
download....it stops for 5 or 6 seconds every minute, then resumes.
Again, we've confirmed that our neighbors system does not act like
this (same ISP).

I have Norton SystemWorks, which is a virus checker. I use adaware,
have purged the startup folder so no applications run at startup now.
I've stripped the software down to the bare minimum, taking out some
software that insists on occupying resources by running in the system
tray (notification area). I've taken out all the Dell specific utility
programs as recommended by independent sources familiar with the Dell
setups.

Sometimes when I boot, it's so slow that it gives me notices that so
and so system program couldn't start and wants me to send a
notification to Bill G. The same thing happens often when I shut down,
or during routine use.

I often use an electronic circuit simulator called Spice, which is
very computationally demanding and it has a crude banchmark in it for
speed. Guys with old win 98 systems and 600 Mhz processors run the
benchmark faster than I do. According to the Dell forum, mine is
dreadfully slow (compared to other Inspiron 1100 series users).

I've defragmented the harddrive to death (almost), a freshly
defragmented drive shows a slight improvement......but it's not the
problem. I've cleaned the internet temporary files, the cache and the
internet history shortcuts.

Norton one button checkup software often finds an activex error in the
registry, and fixes it......OBC and Win Doctor do not find problems.

There is one hint, which might be meaningful (or maybe not). When I
attempt to run Norton Disk Doctor, the software tells me that "the
operating system or another process has exclusive access to this drive
or some of it's files. NDD cannot continue with the repair under these
conditions. A repair can be scheduled to occur the next time you
restart your system".

When I tell it to perform the reset and scan, it does a dos scan,
finds no errors and restarts windows.

If I rei-nitiate Norton Disk Doctor, I get the same error
message......over and over, etc.

Norton website does not suggest any remedial action for this problem.
Dell has nothing but blank stares, kinda like Radio Shack employees do
when they don't have an answer:>:

Honestly, the computer is nearly worthless, my 1 Ghz win 98 desktop
runs circles around this new Dell laptop.

Any ideas??

Thanks,

Art

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Please CROSSPOST in the FUTURE!

My punchbox is slower 'n molasses on a cold winter morn.

System is a Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop, XP Home, 2.3 Ghz with 256 MB of
ram, harddrive is 30 GB with only 10 GB in use. I have 2 users on the
system, both with administrative privileges. We always log off when
switching users, so the problem is not due to another users programs
running.

Celeron?
Ick if so - that will make a lot of things seem slower right there.

We have all the Microsoft updates and only use the stock Windows
firewall. We have DSL and our download speed is slower than our
neighbors..we've swapped modems and computers......the 30 percent
slower download speed is due to something in the computer itself and
shows up as a data light that does not stay continuously lit during a
download....it stops for 5 or 6 seconds every minute, then resumes.
Again, we've confirmed that our neighbors system does not act like
this (same ISP).

Updated the drivers for the NIC? Tried a PCMCIA NIC from someone else -
wireless even?

I have Norton SystemWorks, which is a virus checker. I use adaware,
have purged the startup folder so no applications run at startup now.
I've stripped the software down to the bare minimum, taking out some
software that insists on occupying resources by running in the system
tray (notification area). I've taken out all the Dell specific utility
programs as recommended by independent sources familiar with the Dell
setups.

You do some things.. Not enough - but some. That's good.
Norton SystemWorks may be using up some of your valuable resources though.

Sometimes when I boot, it's so slow that it gives me notices that so
and so system program couldn't start and wants me to send a
notification to Bill G. The same thing happens often when I shut down,
or during routine use.

That's not slowness, that's other problems.
Ran any CHKDSKs?

I've defragmented the harddrive to death (almost), a freshly
defragmented drive shows a slight improvement......but it's not the
problem. I've cleaned the internet temporary files, the cache and the
internet history shortcuts.

That's good. Could be a hardware issue. Bad RAM, bad hard drive, etc.
Have you flashed the BIOS? Upgraded all the hardware drivers? (NOT from
Microsoft - from DELL in this case.)

Norton one button checkup software often finds an activex error in the
registry, and fixes it......OBC and Win Doctor do not find problems.

Ick. One-Button Checkups.

There is one hint, which might be meaningful (or maybe not). When I
attempt to run Norton Disk Doctor, the software tells me that "the
operating system or another process has exclusive access to this drive
or some of it's files. NDD cannot continue with the repair under these
conditions. A repair can be scheduled to occur the next time you
restart your system".

No - you have Windows XP and likely NTFS - it guards the file system.

When I tell it to perform the reset and scan, it does a dos scan,
finds no errors and restarts windows.

Well, that's good and answers the question about the CHKDSK.


I would wipe it. Back it up first and then wipe it and return it to the day
you bough it status. Dell can help you do that.
SP2 it before ever connecting it to any Internet.

Then see how it reacts. If you can bring it back to "as sold" status and it
is still defective - Dell will replace things on it - if under warranty.
Who knows - could have a bad memory module, bad motherboard, bad hard drive,
or just lots of spyware. heh

 

[PA Bear]

Uninstall NSW (which includes Norton AntiVirus) and anything else Norton and
then see how much faster it is!

Of course, immediately install another, less-memory sucking AV app.

 

[Guest]

You have spent years wasting your time when you could have run the Dell
Restore disk and select | Format | New Install and all of your problems
would be gone except one :: No pc can run with 256 MB of RAM so buy more RAM
after Rebate at CompUSA or Bestbuy until you have 1024 MB of RAM.

The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his
absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must
delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to
be a great power among men.

Winston Churchill - London, England
http://www.winstonchurchill.org
=======================================

 

[TRABEM]

Can 256 MB of ram be so inadequate that the computer is nearly
useless???

If so, can I boot from the XP CD and compare the performance???

Thanks,

T

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Can 256 MB of ram be so inadequate that the computer is nearly
useless???

Depends on factors such as processor power, applications running at all
times, hard drive performance, etc.
For anything where you do computations, 512MB would be my minimum
recommendation - and that is almost my minimum recommendation for any
situation where Windows XP is involved.

If so, can I boot from the XP CD and compare the performance???

No.

 

[TRABEM]

Depends on factors such as processor power, applications running at all
times, hard drive performance, etc.
For anything where you do computations, 512MB would be my minimum
recommendation - and that is almost my minimum recommendation for any
situation where Windows XP is involved.

OK, I'll take that under advisement.........I did just get back from
checking ram prices and they are quite low. The benchmark program I
use is actually a Spice simulator, it uses spice models of electronic
components to predict the output of a given electronic circuit for
varying inputs over a user specified time period.

It is both computationally demanding and the data files it generates
can be up to 5 GB in size, so it's good to evaluated hard drive
performance as well.

My modern Dell laptop runs this 'benchmark' at about the same speed as
650 Mhz P3's do.......and I think that's just too damn slow.

I'd feel alot more confident about wiping the hard drive and starting
over IF I had a more positive indication that it was the actual
problem. But, all indications I get are that we don't have a major
problem..other than the overall sluggish performance.

Do you know of any diagnostic software than can help to narrow down
the problem to a specific deficiency or component? The shotgun
approach can be time consuming with no guarantee and can be expensive
if one takes random shots at replacing suspected hardware at random.

Thanks your help-it's appreciated.

T

 

[Guest]

If Bill Gates with Windows, Restore, Updates, Spy Bot, Ad Aware, etc. cannot
speed up your PC nor solve your slow problems then do you feel you are
smarter than them and can diagnose your problems? If not then a reinstall
works every time.

After a few tries you will finally give up and reinstall and be zooming on
your way like Peter Pan or Superman.
=======================================
Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.

 

[TRABEM]

If Bill Gates with Windows, Restore, Updates, Spy Bot, Ad Aware, etc. cannot
speed up your PC nor solve your slow problems then do you feel you are
smarter than them and can diagnose your problems? If not then a reinstall
works every time.

After a few tries you will finally give up and reinstall and be zooming on
your way like Peter Pan or Superman.

Surely, I can reinstall, spend hours re-customizing and updating the
OS and computer...only to end up making the same wrong keystrokes that
led to the original problem to begin with.

It takes a dummy to reinstall. Wiser is to spend some time trying to
get to the root of the problem, so the error does not recur.

I've done my share of needless system reinstalls in the past and do
not wish to do them again and again if they aren't needed.

I wish you the best.

T

 

[Guest]

There is nothing wrong with spending your time on your errors.

Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.
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