slow laptop

[Timax45]

I have a laptop 6.4mb HD, 450 mhz processor and 64mb Ram. I have installed
win xp home sp2 on to it and it is joined to my home network via a belkin
54g wireless card. It is only used so that my daughter can use MSN Messenger
and to do homework. The only progs that she has on it from a fresh install
are the OS, Panda Titanium AV, Diskeeper, Microsoft Antispyware and all of
the required XP updates. The system has been thoroughly defragged.
However the system runs so slowly that it is painful to watch, if I click on
the start bar, the start menu takes ages to appear and when it closes it
just scrolls down very slowly, the touchpad mouse frequently locks up.
Programs are slow to open and it is at the stage that I want to throw it in
the bin. Is there any hope for this machine? should I install win 98?
instead of xp. Could anybody tell me the best way to get the best
performance out of this machine?

TIA

 

[DosFreak]

It is not recommended to run Windows XP with 64mb of Ram. You see, you
do not have enough memory for XP so it's using your Hard Drive for
memory which is alot slower than real memory. Either upgrade your
computer to at the extreme least of 128 mb, if you can upgrade to 192
or 256.

Also although you can run XP on a 450mhz processor....it WILL be slow.
I had to do alot of optimizing on my parent's 400mhz computer to get it
anywhere near a useable level. Probably the most substantial tweak for
you would be to disable the Themes service and to set your visual
effects for best performance.

 

[Timax45]

Thx Dos,
I installed 98 and it works fine