Sluggish laptop

[Herb]

I have a Windows XP laptop with a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 processor and 512 MB
of RAM (see
http://www.mobile-support.net/product_view.php?product_qa_id=13&size=min).

Compared with my Windows 2000 PC with similar spec the laptop 'feels'
considerably more sluggish - in fact when it has been running for a
while sometimes things get so bad that it almost grinds to a halt when I
have several applications running simultaneously.

I realise that Windows XP requires more resources than Windows 2000, and
I seem to remember being told once that laptops in general require more
resources than PCs, but I wonder if there is anything I can do to
improve the situation.

Thank you.

 

[Herb]

The PC shouldnt be that slow since u have 512 RAM. Have you installed
any programs lately which might be starting at boot? Try keeping only
the essential stuff to load during startup. Examine ur HDD for trash,
run disk cleanup and chkdsk, Ananlyze for fragmentation and defrag. Are
u sure its free from nasties?

Hi,

just to clarify - it's my Windows XP laptop that is sluggish (my Windows
2000 PC is fine).

I have quite a lot of applications load it at startup, and I realise
this slows down the boot process, but I don't mind that.

The problem is that general performance appears to decrease
exponentially during the course of a working day - I can bring it back
to normal by rebooting, but it is a bit of a nuisance.

I regularly analyze and defragment my hard disk using PerfectDisk 7. i
also regularly check for "nasties", and I'm pretty sure that there
aren't any.

Perhaps the only things in your list I haven't done in a while is a
proper disk cleanup and chkdsk.

Is there anything else I can/should try?

 

[doodle]

I have a Windows XP laptop with a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 processor and 512
MB
of RAM (see
http://tinyurl.com/da3ur).

Compared with my Windows 2000 PC with similar spec the laptop 'feels'
considerably more sluggish - in fact when it has been running for a
while sometimes things get so bad that it almost grinds to a halt when
I
have several applications running simultaneously.

I realise that Windows XP requires more resources than Windows 2000,
and
I seem to remember being told once that laptops in general require
more
resources than PCs, but I wonder if there is anything I can do to
improve the situation.

Thank you.

The PC shouldnt be that slow since u have 512 RAM. Have you installed
any programs lately which might be starting at boot? Try keeping only
the essential stuff to load during startup. Examine ur HDD for trash,
run disk cleanup and chkdsk, Ananlyze for fragmentation and defrag. Are
u sure its free from nasties?