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Windows XP

H

Hfdo

n00b
Joined
Feb 9, 2012
Messages
22
Hi All,

I have an old Toshiba Satellite laptop which has only (maximum) 512Mb of RAM, 1GHz processor. It had Windows 2000 and was working ok.

There was problem and I had to format the HDD and installed XP and SP1, 2 and 3.
The laptop is, now, painfully slow. Example, if I double click the web browser it takes about 2mins to open. Its the same for skype. Even to open Control Panel or Windows explorer it takes ages.

I use this laptop only for skype, web browsing and to use MS-office (Word, Excel and Power Point).

Can anyone say what causing this problem? and any solution or suggestion for this?

Thanks in advance!
Best
HFdo
 
Hfdo said:
Hi All,

I have an old Toshiba Satellite laptop which has only (maximum) 512Mb of RAM, 1GHz processor. It had Windows 2000 and was working ok.

There was problem and I had to format the HDD and installed XP and SP1, 2 and 3.
The laptop is, now, painfully slow. Example, if I double click the web browser it takes about 2mins to open. Its the same for skype. Even to open Control Panel or Windows explorer it takes ages.

I use this laptop only for skype, web browsing and to use MS-office (Word, Excel and Power Point).

Can anyone say what causing this problem? and any solution or suggestion for this?

Thanks in advance!
Best
HFdo
Click to expand...

Looks like you already did find the cause of your issue.
 
Wow how many different forum sections did you post this in?

Are you special or something? :rolleyes:
 
When XP first came out 512Mb of RAM was plenty, but as they added service packs to the OS and browsers got more complex, it really needs at least 1-2Gb of RAM nowadays. I have an old Dell D400 with XP and I had pretty much the same experience as you with 512Mb of RAM, I increased it to 1GB and now it's has decent performance.
 
ManofGod said:
Sounds like the harddrive is going bad.
Click to expand...

It is because of the RAM and processor speed.

512MB on XP was barely useable when XP first came out. 1GB should really be the minimum.. and that is if you only want to run 1 or 2 things at the same time AND have a dedicated video card.

2GB or higher is much better for XP and the minimum I will run an XP machine with.
 
cyclone3d said:
It is because of the RAM and processor speed.

512MB on XP was barely useable when XP first came out. 1GB should really be the minimum.. and that is if you only want to run 1 or 2 things at the same time AND have a dedicated video card.

2GB or higher is much better for XP and the minimum I will run an XP machine with.
Click to expand...

lol wut? Did you forget when XP came out? 512MB RAM was a lot for a server back in 2001. Heck 2GB RAM is more than the recommended amount of HDD space for XP!
 
402blownstroker said:
Yes and processor speed. XP requires much more resources that 2000.
Click to expand...
We have a machine at the office here that really isn't any better-equipped than his machine. 512MB/1.4 GHz Celeron. It's actually reasonably quick and responsive at most tasks, and it's perfectly usable. The only thing I've disabled on it is Luna.
 
Those specs should run it fine, unless somehow the later service packs greatly increased the minimum hardware requirements.
 
I've recently installed XP on 1GHZ machines with 512MB of ram and the experience is tolerable. Web pages definitely did not take 2 minutes to load. If your on XP, I would use Opera or Chrome browser. Make sure you don't have stuff starting up with the machine (in the task tray). I would also highly suggest you use nLite and integrate the SP's into the installation disc. Manually installing SP's leaves behind a lot of junk on the computer and to me it just doesn't run as well as if the SP is integrated. 1 GHz cpu is really pushing it though for performance. Like I said, it's tolerable, but the experience is not going to be great.

cyclone3d said:
It is because of the RAM and processor speed.

512MB on XP was barely useable when XP first came out. 1GB should really be the minimum.. and that is if you only want to run 1 or 2 things at the same time AND have a dedicated video card.

2GB or higher is much better for XP and the minimum I will run an XP machine with.
Click to expand...
I don't think you've actually used XP. When XP first came out, it idled at like 60MB of ram. A SP 3 bare installation idles around 100-150 MB, so 512MB is plenty. Also, I have several hundred machines that run XP with 1GB of ram and none of the come close to using 1GB during administrative type task, so how is 2 GB by any means necessary for what this guy is doing? You are confusing the needs of a gamer/enthusiast with a guy who just wants to browse the web.
 
Last edited:
bigdogchris said:
I've recently installed XP on 1GHZ machines with 512MB of ram and the experience is tolerable. Web pages definitely did not take 2 minutes to load. If your on XP, I would use Opera or Chrome browser. Make sure you don't have stuff starting up with the machine (in the task tray). I would also highly suggest you use nLite and integrate the SP's into the installation disc. Manually installing SP's leaves behind a lot of junk on the computer and to me it just doesn't run as well as if the SP is integrated. 1 GHz cpu is really pushing it though for performance. Like I said, it's tolerable, but the experience is not going to be great.

I don't think you've actually used XP. When XP first came out, it idled at like 60MB of ram. A SP 3 bare installation idles around 100-150 MB, so 512MB is plenty. Also, I have several hundred machines that run XP with 1GB of ram and none of the come close to using 1GB during administrative type task, so how is 2 GB by any means necessary for what this guy is doing? You are confusing the needs of a gamer/enthusiast with a guy who just wants to browse the web.
Click to expand...

I started using XP when it first came out. 512MB was pushing it once drivers and other software was installed. Sure, if it doesn't have any service packs on it, it is ok-ish with 512MB for just browsing.

SP1 only slightly slowed it down if at all. SP2 slowed it down a little bit, and SP3 totally killed performance on older machines.

So sure, if you want to run it with 512MB ram.. go right ahead. It is just super painfully slow.

1GB is way better, and should be ok if you just want to browse web pages for the most part.

2GB+ helps even more. Oh, look, I can actually run multiple things without it crawling to a halt because it isn't continually paging stuff to and from the hard drive constantly.

Plus on an older system, the more stuff it can keep in RAM is going to help a lot since the HDD in an older system is going to be pretty crazy slow as well.

Maybe I just like my systems to run well and can't stand to wait for longer than necessary just because a system doesn't have enough RAM to run like it should.

The OP states that he is also using MS Office, which is going to make the 512MB of RAM even more of a problem.

If it was me, and didn't have money to spend on a new laptop, I would go on Ebay and pick up a nice C2D based laptop for under $200.
 
Hfdo said:
There was problem and I had to format the HDD and installed XP and SP1, 2 and 3.
The laptop is, now, painfully slow. Example, if I double click the web browser it takes about 2mins to open. Its the same for skype. Even to open Control Panel or Windows explorer it takes ages.
Click to expand...

Check to make sure the proper chipset (specifically, the mass storage controller) is loaded and working properly.

Also, check the properties of the device in device manager to make sure that it's running in a DMA mode and not PIO. PIO mode will make everything unbearably slow! I believe this setting is actually on the storage controller; it should list both ports and tell you what mode they are running in.

XP with SP3 should run ok with these specs, but you will really notice a big boost if you can get that machine up to 1GB. However, even with 1GB, I don't think your speed issue will go away. My money is on a problem with the disk subsystem, and you are most likely missing a driver, or the drive is failing and windows bumped the drive down to PIO mode.
 
Demon10000 said:
Check to make sure the proper chipset (specifically, the mass storage controller) is loaded and working properly.

Also, check the properties of the device in device manager to make sure that it's running in a DMA mode and not PIO. PIO mode will make everything unbearably slow! I believe this setting is actually on the storage controller; it should list both ports and tell you what mode they are running in.

XP with SP3 should run ok with these specs, but you will really notice a big boost if you can get that machine up to 1GB. However, even with 1GB, I don't think your speed issue will go away. My money is on a problem with the disk subsystem, and you are most likely missing a driver, or the drive is failing and windows bumped the drive down to PIO mode.
Click to expand...

This is what I was thinking. If that doesn't work and you're only using it for skype then install a light Linux flavor like XFCE or something.
 
cyclone3d said:
So sure, if you want to run it with 512MB ram.. go right ahead. It is just super painfully slow.
Click to expand...
Maybe you load your systems full of bloatware and start up programs, but with 512MB the OS still boots fast and web browsing/office is not much slower than with 1GB, and is definitely not "super painfully slow". I have 512MB XP machines at work, which I see daily, so it's not like I'm just pulling this out of my ass. Oh, I also just started up Word 2010, and it it's consuming a massive 13 MB of memory, so I can totally see your point as to how 1GB is barely enough. :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
You didn't post the model number, so I don't know what hard drive you have, but it's probably a 4200rpm. Putting a 7200rpm in will probably show some appreciable results.

You should be able to find some XP tweak guides archived on the net for some performance boosts.....just don't expect huge results.
 
Monkey34 said:
You didn't post the model number, so I don't know what hard drive you have, but it's probably a 4200rpm. Putting a 7200rpm in will probably show some appreciable results.

You should be able to find some XP tweak guides archived on the net for some performance boosts.....just don't expect huge results.
Click to expand...

Please find below the model number of the Toshiba laptop.
Laptop make: Toshiba Satellite (S1800-504)
The Model No: PS181E-06EUU-SW
 
Monkey34 said:
The original hard drive is a 4200rpm. Slow as molasses.
Click to expand...

Slow, but still usable.

I'm still waiting to hear if the hard drive is in PIO mode and that all the drivers have been installed. A WinXP machine from that period definitely needed drivers to be efficient.
 
Demon10000 said:
Check to make sure the proper chipset (specifically, the mass storage controller) is loaded and working properly.

Also, check the properties of the device in device manager to make sure that it's running in a DMA mode and not PIO. PIO mode will make everything unbearably slow! I believe this setting is actually on the storage controller; it should list both ports and tell you what mode they are running in.

XP with SP3 should run ok with these specs, but you will really notice a big boost if you can get that machine up to 1GB. However, even with 1GB, I don't think your speed issue will go away. My money is on a problem with the disk subsystem, and you are most likely missing a driver, or the drive is failing and windows bumped the drive down to PIO mode.
Click to expand...
Hi Thanks for the info.
I appreciate if you could let me know how to check whether the proper chipset (specifically, the mass storage controller) is loaded and working properly?

And how to check whether the DMA mode is running and not PIO.

Cheers
HFdo
 
Open the properties of your storage controller in device manager. You'll need to make sure you're looking at the one with the hard drive attached to it. It's probably easiest to go through them one at a time and just look at the different modes -- look for any in DMA mode.

If you haven't installed the chipset drivers, then you probably don't have the correct ones installed. You'll want to find out what chipset drivers you need and install them. Easiest way is to go to the downloads section for your laptop and grab them. They'll be outdated, but they should work fine.
 
Demon10000 said:
Slow, but still usable.

I'm still waiting to hear if the hard drive is in PIO mode and that all the drivers have been installed. A WinXP machine from that period definitely needed drivers to be efficient.
Click to expand...

I'd agree with this guess - especially since it's got a 4200rpm drive.

512MB is plenty for winXP even with SP2/3...should be plenty usable. More RAM is mainly needed for folks that have a bazillion things all starting up in msconfig, loading in the taskbar/etc. A clean install of XP SP2/3 and 512MB on a 1ghz P3-based Celery should run pretty well.

Go download any drivers available for the laptop from Toshiba's website..XP really needed drivers to run the best - stock drivers are way better on win7/Vista...don't take that for granted. XP needs the proper driver downloads to run well most of the time.
 
shoota said:
This is what I was thinking. If that doesn't work and you're only using it for skype then install a light Linux flavor like XFCE or something.
Click to expand...
>Check to make sure the proper chipset (specifically, the mass storage controller) is loaded and working properly<

Could you please let me know how to check this?

Also to check whether the laptop is working in the DMA/PIO mode?

Thank you.
 
GreenMonkey said:
I'd agree with this guess - especially since it's got a 4200rpm drive.

512MB is plenty for winXP even with SP2/3...should be plenty usable. More RAM is mainly needed for folks that have a bazillion things all starting up in msconfig, loading in the taskbar/etc. A clean install of XP SP2/3 and 512MB on a 1ghz P3-based Celery should run pretty well.

Go download any drivers available for the laptop from Toshiba's website..XP really needed drivers to run the best - stock drivers are way better on win7/Vista...don't take that for granted. XP needs the proper driver downloads to run well most of the time.
Click to expand...
Hi, I found the info about DMA mode. I have posted the question (how to check DMA...) twice and please ignore the last query.

I found the following controller (and settings) in the device manager.

+IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers: (Under this there are 3 controllers/channels)

- Ali M5229 PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
- Primary IDE Channel
- Secondary IDE Channel

Following settings were found under Primary IDE channel.

+Device 0:
- Device Type: Auto-Detection
- Transfer Mode: DMA if Available
- Current Transfer Mode: Ultra DMA Mode 4

+Device 1:
- Device Type: Auto-Detection
- Transfer Mode: DMA if Available
- Current Transfer Mode: Not Applicable.

The same settings in the Secondary IDE Channel.

Please let me know whether this is correct or I have checked and given the right info.
Cheers
Hfdo
 
It may not be in PIO mode, but still needs a driver.

Go here and use the Intel Web Site to check for necessary drivers. It will find your chipset and install the correct storage drivers (and most likely, a few other drivers too).
 
Intels site will have Ali drivers ?

C:\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\aliide.sys is provided by XP
 
dbwillis said:
Intels site will have Ali drivers ?

C:\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\aliide.sys is provided by XP
Click to expand...
Thanks for the information.

Could you please advice me how to identify the correct chipset driver for my Toshiba Lpatop?
It is nearly 12 years old. The drivers I should look in Intel site or is it coming from XP?

I also found my microphone not working while speakers are working. I could not find a driver for the microphone. The driver for the microphone comes with the sound/multimedia system (speakers) or should there be a dedicated driver?

Can the micron phone problem is due to the slow response of the machine?
Cheers
Hfdo
 
What you need is Windows FLP - it's Windows XP optimized by Microsoft to run on 98SE-level hardware. It was the first OS to use the ImageX stuff that Vista+ all use to install, and was enterprise-only. It was meant to keep older machines that wouldn't be swapped out compatible with newer things quickly (due to deployment sizes and no immediate need), so that these large deployments didn't hold software progress back (as XP was a big technology change from 9x). It also made environments more uniform for tech support.

Obviously this is not a legitimately buyable OS, but it can be found on the 'net. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating "warez", but if you own a legitimate XP license (and it sounds like you certainly do), I see no harm in downloading a less-feature-packed version of the same OS to use.

This version was designed for machines down to 233Mhz, 64-128MB RAM, etc.. so it should fly as fast as Win2k on there without issue. If you can't find it, shoot me a PM.

On the other hand, I'd personally end up with Win98SE on there at those specs - there are unofficial service packs to keep it more up-to-spec, and new software compatibility packages that keep it compatible with XP+ software. "KernelEx" adds NT kernel compatibility to 98SE, and allows it to run things like Flash 10, Firefox 3, Opera 10, and more. With Seamonkey (which until recently supported 9x) you can get a pretty fast browsing experience without even using such compatibility layers.

I do vintage computing as a hobby (don't attack me, I find it fun damn you!), so I know quite a bit about getting old hardware/software working in modern environments. I run a Win3x For Workgroups box next to my modern box and can browse the 'net on it with decent compatibility, even. :3

I don't post here a lot, but I can't sit by and let an older machine fall into unnecessary disuse - my hobby makes that a very sad thing to see.
 
Last edited:
dbwillis said:
Go here and choose 'archive' for the product type since thats an old old machine
http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe.com/innovation/download_drivers_bios.jsp
Click to expand...
Hi,

Thank you for the link and I did check. There were only two driver files (BIOS and Ali Sound driver) it could recognise. I downloaded the both and updated the sound driver. No improvement I could see.
Do you think I need to update the BIOS as well? Any other suggestion for this slow response of the machine?
Best
Hfdo
 
Demon10000 said:
It may not be in PIO mode, but still needs a driver.

Go here and use the Intel Web Site to check for necessary drivers. It will find your chipset and install the correct storage drivers (and most likely, a few other drivers too).
Click to expand...
Hi,

Thanks for the link. I checked in the Intel site and ran the program to check my machine. After checking the machine, it listed a few drivers including Graphics, chipset software etc. However there was message under each driver saying "This device is unknown or unresponsive. Please contact the manufacturer for possible updates".

Is there any other thing I could do or check to improve the speed/response of the machine?
Best
Hfdo
 
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