windows XP performance (laptop) getting worse over time

[techman41973]

I have owned my laptop for about 2 years (1.4MHZ pentium M)
I use diskeeper to keep my hard drive defragged, I use Ace utilities to
keep my registry clean, use 3 different spyware removers and norton
antivirus to keep my system clean, I also run msconfig regularly to
limit programs that run on startup. Although I have quite a few
applications running in the background, I just added RAM for a total of
1G, yet windows performance is slow. Loading applications and
performing other tasks on my friends IBM thinkpad is much quicker.
Although he has a 1.7 pentium M, this should not make a significant
difference. I do notice that my hard drive seems to be working overtime
as I almost constantly hear it clicking away. My drive is about 75%
full, could this be part of the problem? I vaugely remember hearing
that hard drive performance seriously degrades as they reach capacity.
If this isn't the problem, I am out of ideas. People recommend I do a
clean install of Windows, but takes a serious amount of time.
Any other recommendations?

 

[Guillermo]

I have owned my laptop for about 2 years (1.4MHZ pentium M)
I use diskeeper to keep my hard drive defragged, I use Ace utilities to
keep my registry clean, use 3 different spyware removers and norton
antivirus to keep my system clean, I also run msconfig regularly to
limit programs that run on startup. Although I have quite a few
applications running in the background, I just added RAM for a total of
1G, yet windows performance is slow. Loading applications and
performing other tasks on my friends IBM thinkpad is much quicker.
Although he has a 1.7 pentium M, this should not make a significant
difference. I do notice that my hard drive seems to be working overtime
as I almost constantly hear it clicking away. My drive is about 75%
full, could this be part of the problem? I vaugely remember hearing
that hard drive performance seriously degrades as they reach capacity.
If this isn't the problem, I am out of ideas. People recommend I do a
clean install of Windows, but takes a serious amount of time.
Any other recommendations?

Windows operating systems tend to degrade over time. If you have not
re-formatted your computer in two years, maybe it is time to do it. I'll
second the suggestion about the clean install of windows.
What I do is having two partitions, system and data. Last time I reformated
I prettty much setup all what I needed and then made in image using
powerquest driveimage. Its then very easy to restore into the system
partition when you do the next cleanup....

guillermo

 

[Andrew]

In comp.sys.laptops (e-mail address removed) wrote:
: I have owned my laptop for about 2 years (1.4MHZ pentium M)
: I use diskeeper to keep my hard drive defragged, I use Ace utilities to
: keep my registry clean, use 3 different spyware removers and norton
: antivirus to keep my system clean, I also run msconfig regularly to
: limit programs that run on startup

Have you tried disabling your virus scanner to see if it helps the
problem? I've heard of anti-virus software slowing down systems
significantly. I keep my Windows firewall on but do not use any
anti-virus software; I have installed a lot of software on my Windows
XP laptop, it has 512MB of RAM, and two years later it still runs very
well, not slow at all. I don't have a special hard drive (40GB,
4200RPM) - I have nearly filled it up several times and haven't
defragged in a while. I have never re-installed Windows.

I assume you've done all the Windows updates?

Andrew
--
----> Portland, Oregon, USA <----
*******************************************************************
----> http://www.bizave.com <---- Photo Albums and Portland Info
----> To Email me remove "MYSHOES" from email address
*******************************************************************

 

[John Doue]

In comp.sys.laptops (e-mail address removed) wrote:
: I have owned my laptop for about 2 years (1.4MHZ pentium M)
: I use diskeeper to keep my hard drive defragged, I use Ace utilities to
: keep my registry clean, use 3 different spyware removers and norton
: antivirus to keep my system clean, I also run msconfig regularly to
: limit programs that run on startup

Have you tried disabling your virus scanner to see if it helps the
problem? I've heard of anti-virus software slowing down systems
significantly. I keep my Windows firewall on but do not use any
anti-virus software; I have installed a lot of software on my Windows
XP laptop, it has 512MB of RAM, and two years later it still runs very
well, not slow at all. I don't have a special hard drive (40GB,
4200RPM) - I have nearly filled it up several times and haven't
defragged in a while. I have never re-installed Windows.

I assume you've done all the Windows updates?

Andrew
--
----> Portland, Oregon, USA <----
*******************************************************************
----> http://www.bizave.com <---- Photo Albums and Portland Info
----> To Email me remove "MYSHOES" from email address
*******************************************************************

Loading all Windows updates is probably not the best way to keep a
system at the top of its performance. The first thing one should do is
to dedicate a machine (or a user's configuration) for trying out new
programs. Uninstalling them does not bring back the system to its
original condition. Restoring the registry after each unistall of a
program you do not intend to keep is another avenue which I personally
favor because, although dll's files might remain on the system, they
will not load end up loading up at startup. Windows'performance does not
degrade over time, it degrades because of the addition of drivers and
dll's that load with Windows. Sure, it requires some discipline, but
using caution and restraint while experimenting with new programs is the
best way to maintain acceptable performance.

Reformatting and reloading Windows is a very painful process for users
who do not satisfy themselves with a basic configuration. It would take
me days to restore my configuration with all its fonctionnalities, not
to mention the frustration of having to discover anew all the tricks
which allowed me to regain some flexibility over the childish windows
default approach.

Regards