New Cpu Still Slow - Help

C

cheyneboy

n00b
Joined
Feb 20, 2003
Messages
25
A friend was comjplaining that his PC was way to slow, which it was. He was running an XP 1700 (not positive on that one) but it did seem alot slower than it should have. Anyway, not knowing much about comjputers he wanted the quick fix. He purchased an XP 2600+, (266 FSB), and ask me to install it for him. After installing it the bios didn't recognize it so I flashed the bios to the latest and all seemed OK. Here is the problem. It is still unbearably slow with no difference at all. Here is a breakdown of his system in hopes that someone ccould suggest things for me to try as I feel bad for the guy after buying the new CPU that didn't help. He is not out to get the highest possible FPS just something that will run things so you can at least play them.
Thanks

OS: WinXP with SP1.
An older Geforce MX
256 mb sdram
Here is specs on motherboard which is PC Chips 810L Series with SIS 730s chipset.
Socket-462 Processor Support
• Supports AMD Athlon XP/Duron processors
• Supports 200/266 MHz Front-Side Bus

Processors are automatically configured using firmware and a synchronous Host/DRAM Clock Scheme.

Memory Support
• Two DIMM slots for 168-pin SDRAM memory modules
• Support for 100/133 MHz memory bus
• Maximum installed memory is 2 x 512MB = 1GB
 
i'm pretty sure u could use another stick of 256mb to get windows running completely smooth. also, did u set the fsb to 133 each time?
 
What other software does he have running? There may be some spyware or other software slowing the system down. Download Spybot (www.spybot.info), update it and scan for spyware. Also, upgrading the memory might help. 256 is a bit low.
 
The biggest problem in the slow down is not the CPU but the Ram. Running Windows XP requires at least 512MB. If your friend is still running PC133, which he is, he will need 1024MB of PC133 SDRAM for it to be running smooth.

I have worked with ALOT of PC133 based system with XP on it. The only way to fix the slow down, stuttering, and hang ups, is to upgrade the Ram.

My 1.6 was running on an 845 chipset Motherboard with only PC133 support. Was equipped with 256MB of Ram and Windows XP Pro. It was SUPER slow. It helped a whole lot when I threw in 2x512MB PC133 SDRAM. I could actually browse the internet and burn a CD at the same time.

Now, I got a new motherboard that supports DDR. With the same CPU, I could feel and see a huge difference between the performance of PC133 and DDR333.

Alex
 
OO yeah, another thing that he should consider is to sell that XP 1700+ CPU with the Motherboard and the 256MB of Ram.

Get himself a nice motherboard that can be had at Newegg for 80 bucks which supports DDR. Use the remaining money for a 512MB stick of DDR (Whichever one he can afford, DDR333 should be fine and cost effective also). In the end, he will prolly spend a lot less while improving the performance greatly.

Alex
 
The GF mx card is your problem... that thing is a pos. I used to have an MX and it is a HUGE bottleneck, it isn't the ram, or shouldn't be. And make sure you have all the spyware and virii and trojans and shit taken care of in windows before you buy shit like that, if need be do a fresh install of windows.

~Adam
 
Not the Ram?? Of course it is, he is running Windows XP. We all know that XP is such a memory Hog. Maybe you have tried it with a 256MB of DDR, but I was running about the same setup as he was and it was the Ram.

Even tho the video card sucks, once you replace it, you are still going to be bottlenecked by the Ram. I think the Ram is most important because XP idle is already taking up 128MB of Ram. More Ram will give him more all around performance.

Basically, get more Ram and a new video card.
 
Lets forget the RAM WIn XP can run on 256 not so efficiently but guys this is [H] I mean lets try stuff that doesnt involve money first.

CHKDSK it, defrag it, Ad-aware 6 it, scanreg it, check system settings to make sure they are set to performance.
 
Originally posted by ChappyChaps11
I mean lets try stuff that doesnt involve money first.

CHKDSK it, defrag it, Ad-aware 6 it, scanreg it, check system settings to make sure they are set to performance.
Click to expand...

Agreed, but I was just giving an idea of purchasing more Ram because he has a CPU laying around. The price of that 1700+ is basically equivalent to a 512MB PC133.

He can also try to tweak XP internally. Turn off all of the fancy useless features so it does not hog that much of memory. If he likes the gui, then he could just check the last box in the Performance Option.

Setting the Virtual memory could also help.
 
Thats what I do

Hey also EXTRA SERVICES!! Turn these silly things off!

Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services

Each has a description, u can safley turn off most of them, start with indexing, the computer will be fast enough to find things without this, turn off:

Alerter
Automatic Updates
Error Reporting Service
IMAPI CD-Bruning COM Service (If desired, most ppl have software they got with their burners)
Indexing Service
Internet COnnection Firewall (ONLY IF U HAVE YOUR OWN FIREWALL!)
Themes (Sometimes desired if u like them dont turn it off)


Go through the list and decide on anything else those are usually safe to turn off

I have them all off right now except the IMAPI Cd-Burning
 
From MS:
Minimum harware requirements for XP Pro:
Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM (128 MB is recommended)
At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk


I have a Slot A 900MHz with 256megsPC100 that runs WinXP Pro without any problems. How much free space is on the hard drive ? You really need to convince him that it is time to upgrade the motherboard and ram. Keep in mind that a new power supply may be needed too.
 
Originally posted by NascarFool
From MS:
Minimum harware requirements for XP Pro:
Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM (128 MB is recommended)
At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk


I have a Slot A 900MHz with 256megsPC100 that runs WinXP Pro without any problems. How much free space is on the hard drive ? You really need to convince him that it is time to upgrade the motherboard and ram. Keep in mind that a new power supply may be needed too.
Click to expand...

yeah, my secondary rig which is only pIII 500 with only 128mb PC100 and worked just fine. not the fastest, but still can live with it.

tried format+reinstall? that should help
 
Originally posted by cheyneboy
A friend was comjplaining that his PC was way to slow, which it was. He was running an XP 1700 (not positive on that one) but it did seem alot slower than it should have. Anyway, not knowing much about comjputers he wanted the quick fix. He purchased an XP 2600+, (266 FSB), and ask me to install it for him. After installing it the bios didn't recognize it so I flashed the bios to the latest and all seemed OK. Here is the problem. It is still unbearably slow with no difference at all. Here is a breakdown of his system in hopes that someone ccould suggest things for me to try as I feel bad for the guy after buying the new CPU that didn't help. He is not out to get the highest possible FPS just something that will run things so you can at least play them.
Thanks

OS: WinXP with SP1.
An older Geforce MX
256 mb sdram
Here is specs on motherboard which is PC Chips 810L Series with SIS 730s chipset.
Socket-462 Processor Support
• Supports AMD Athlon XP/Duron processors
• Supports 200/266 MHz Front-Side Bus

Processors are automatically configured using firmware and a synchronous Host/DRAM Clock Scheme.

Memory Support
• Two DIMM slots for 168-pin SDRAM memory modules
• Support for 100/133 MHz memory bus
• Maximum installed memory is 2 x 512MB = 1GB
Click to expand...

Not trying to sound harsh here, but, his system is slow cause it sucks ass.

an Sis chipset, a Geforce MX, and 256mb ram on Windows XP...

I bet his hdd is sub par, as well.

What is he trying to do that he notices slowness.. play battlefield 1942.. or is it slow when he tries to play solitaire?
 
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