sluggish operating system on new pc, please help

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Guest

im on a fairly new pc, its on windows xp home edition, when i tell it to do
something, it takes several seconds for it to respond, i didnt have to wait
like that when i was on 98se, could someone here tell me how to fix that? and
if i may ask for a little more help, a have a freind tha i play a star wars
game with online, when i started using this xp machine, the game would stop
and start, it ruins the gaem play, could someone advise me how to fix that so
the game will run smoothly? my friend uses 98se
 
adam said:
im on a fairly new pc, its on windows xp home edition, when i tell it to do
something, it takes several seconds for it to respond, i didnt have to wait
like that when i was on 98se, could someone here tell me how to fix that? and
if i may ask for a little more help, a have a freind tha i play a star wars
game with online, when i started using this xp machine, the game would stop
and start, it ruins the gaem play, could someone advise me how to fix that so
the game will run smoothly? my friend uses 98se
Click to expand...

How much RAM do you have, physical installed RAM and free RAM, what
processor speed, what virus scanner?
 
adam said:
im on a fairly new pc, its on windows xp home edition, when i tell it
to do something, it takes several seconds for it to respond, i didnt
have to wait like that when i was on 98se, could someone here tell me
how to fix that?
Click to expand...



Windows XP is a much bigger operating system, with much greater capability,
than Windows 98. As a result, it is much more demanding when it comes to
hardware resources. For example, an amount of RAM that would be fine for
Windows 98 may be completely inadequate for Windows XP.

Tell us what your hardware configuration is, and we can make some
suggestions. Without that information, anything anybody tells you is nothing
but a complete guess.
 
adam said:
i have 256 ram and my cpu is 2.40 Gh, with about an 80 gig hard drive
Click to expand...

You don't really have enough RAM for XP to be perky. Increase to 512MB
at least. If you want to run programs like Adobe Photoshop, 1GB RAM
would be even better.

Aside from that, I don't know what you have starting up with Windows. If
you bought an OEM machine (HP, Dell, Toshiba, etc.) and didn't optimize
it, the OEM preinstalled all kinds of cr*p on it, most of which can be
removed. Since I can't see your computer, I can't tell you off-hand
what needs to be uninstalled or prevented from starting with Windows.

Depending on your level of computer skill, it might be more efficient
for you to take the machine to a local professional (not your version
of BigStoreUSA) and have them set it up right for you.

If you want to try this yourself, then see what is starting with Windows
by running the System Configuration Utility. Look on the Startup tab
and make a note of the items that are there. Then research what they
are by looking at the links below or putting the name of the item into
Google. Do not disable processes (services) from the System
Configuration Utility.

Start>Run>msconfig [enter]

This brings up the System Configuration Utility. Look on the Startup tab
and find the probable culprit. Uncheck the box next to its name, Apply
and OK out. You don't need to restart immediately, but the next time
you do you'll get a dialog saying you've used the Utility. Just tick
the box that says in effect, "don't bother me about this again".

http://aumha.org/a/loads.htm - What loads at Startup?
http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm
http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/
http://www.windowsstartup.com/wso/search.php
http://www.processlibrary.com/results/

Malke
 
adam said:
i have 256 ram and my cpu is 2.40 Gh, with about an 80 gig hard drive
Click to expand...


256MB is the lowest number at which people start to see decent performance
with Windows XP, and depending on what apps you run, that might be your
problem. It's enough for some people, but not others. You get good
performance if the amount of RAM you have keeps you from using the page
file, and that depends on what apps you run. Most people running a typical
range of business applications find that somewhere around 256-384MB works
well, others need 512MB. Almost anyone will see poor performance with less
than 256MB. Some people, particularly those doing things like editing large
photographic images, can see a performance boost by adding even more than
512MB--sometimes much more.

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.
 
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