system startup

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i have a pentium 4 based laptop (brand: iridium S520), which was bought just
over 3 years ago. it has slowed down considerably during startup and when
opening programs, during the last 3-4 months. i have always used a registered
version of panda titanium antivirus. any suggestions as to what i can do
improve system startup? would any of you recommend upgrading RAM?
 
Hi,

Upgrading the ram may help in the short run, but ultimately the slowdown is
likely being caused by the number of programs loading and running in
resident memory. Trimming the startup group would be a better move. Start
here:

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP [Q310560]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310560

The above should allow you to isolate the programs that don't need to be
running at system startup.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Performance will degrade over time & with use. The simplest
fix to restore performance is a defragmentation of the hard drive.
While it's not a "Silver Bullet" solution - it should help.
Also as you use the PC it becomes more heavily loaded with
programs that may add Startup & Watchdogs. Using MSConfig
you can trim back non-essential items. This will help with boot
time.
Adding more memory won't address the issue(s) you noted,
since you mentioned a perceptible drop over the last quarter. As
always you should run the cocktail of AdAware, SpyBot and
other security tools to ensure your system is free of "Baddies".
XP will utilize all memory available to it. 256 is a good amount
for day-to-day usage and I now recommend that any new PC
purchased have a minimum of 512. You didn't mention your
current physical memory, but I'd address the problem first by
doing maintenance work on it.
 
thanks a lot for your assistance in the matter.

Rick "Nutcase" Rogers said:
Hi,

Upgrading the ram may help in the short run, but ultimately the slowdown is
likely being caused by the number of programs loading and running in
resident memory. Trimming the startup group would be a better move. Start
here:

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP [Q310560]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310560

The above should allow you to isolate the programs that don't need to be
running at system startup.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

Hasan Ahmed said:
i have a pentium 4 based laptop (brand: iridium S520), which was bought
just
over 3 years ago. it has slowed down considerably during startup and when
opening programs, during the last 3-4 months. i have always used a
registered
version of panda titanium antivirus. any suggestions as to what i can do
improve system startup? would any of you recommend upgrading RAM?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
thanks a lot for your assistance in the matter. the current system RAM is
256MB, but, 32MB of that is dedicated to the shared memory architecture with
the graphics card, which itself is 32MB, and i am quite certain that i will
not be able to upgrade the graphics memory, rather just the system RAM if i
am pushed to do it. thanks again!
 
In
Hasan Ahmed said:
i have a pentium 4 based laptop (brand: iridium S520), which
was
bought just over 3 years ago. it has slowed down considerably
during
startup and when opening programs, during the last 3-4 months.
i have
always used a registered version of panda titanium antivirus.
any
suggestions as to what i can do improve system startup?
Click to expand...


There are many things that can cause this, and it's very hard to
answer your question with so little information. However, you
meantion an antivirus program, but say nothing about anti-spyware
software. If you don't run any anti-spyware software, that may
well be at least part of the problem. I would start by running
several of these, and you should run them regularly.

would any of
you recommend upgrading RAM?
Click to expand...


You've said nothing about how much RAM you have or what apps you
run. If your workload of apps hasn't changed, and your system has
gotten slower, lack of RAM can't be the problem. But here's my
standard reply on adding RAM:

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.
 
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