Performance Degrade

Every XP system I have installed and worked with slows down substantially over time. I can improve things a little by defragging, but that's temporary at best. What can be done to bring performance back to its level right after installation?

 

Follow these instructions and post back with results:

Advice from Shenan Stanley: Probably will want to clean up that machine...

Check for malware:
Download, install, run, update and perform full system scans with the following two applications:

Malwarebytes (MBAM): http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free
SUPERAntiSpyware: (SAS): http://www.superantispyware.com/


Removing everything they find. Rebooting when needed. (You can uninstall one or both when done.)

Then perform an online scan with the eSet Online Scanner.

The less you have running all the time, the better the things you want to run will perform:

Use Autoruns to figure out what all is starting up when your computer does/when you log on. Look up anything you do not know about usingGoogle (and/or ask here.) You can hopefully figure out if there are things starting when you computer does (or you logon) that you do not need and then configure them (via their own built-in mechanisms is the preferred method) so they do not start up - using your resources without reason.

You can download and utilize Process Explorer to see exactly what is taking up your processor/CPU time and memory. This can help you recognize applications you might want to look into alternatives for and/or get rid of all together.

Do some house cleaning and dust off that hard drive:
You may wish to free up some disk space (will also aid in getting rid of things you do not utilize) by going through these steps:

Windows XP should take between 4.5 and 9GB *with* an Office suite, Photo Editing software, alternative Internet browser(s), various Internet plugins and a host of other things installed.

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed...

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )
You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..
How to use Disk Cleanup

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312
You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:
- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the "System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...
1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest moving the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.
You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a size between 64MB and 128MB..
- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS - Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents" (the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10 minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet Explorer.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and temporary files and use that to get rid of those:
Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/
( just the disk cleanup - don't play with the registry part for now )
Other ways to free up space..
SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/
JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/
Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used. Then you can determine what to do.
After that - you will want to check for any physical errors and arrange everything for efficient access"
CHKDSK
How to scan your disks for errors
* will take time and a reboot.
Defragment
How to Defragment your hard drives
* will take time

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

autoruns

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

process explorer

 

Thanks for the response, Elizabeth23. I found no malware, but I appreciate having access to the anti malware utilities. I especially like Autoruns and used it to eliminate a large number of items that I did not need to autoload. The system is faster now. Thanks.

 

you are welcome.

 

There are some programs that cost a little money that may help. One is called CleanFix.

Bill

 

you do not need to pay for a program to keep your pc clean, all the ones in my previous reply are free and do well.

 

I just completed a clean install of Win XP Pro without any updates on an old Dell Notebook Pentium III with 500MB memory and it runs like a new computer. It's how XP should run.

I don't know which updates I may or may not install yet, if any. Perhaps the critical updates. I don't think I want any security updates, because they will bog it down.

I installed the .NET Framework 1.1 and SP1, 3.5 (Full Package) with no noticeable degrade in performance.

I also installed Office 2007 Pro.

The CPU usage is minimal and never pegs out like the full updated version. I've also got twice as much memory available.

I know if I turn on automatic updates, this system will make a fine doorstop.

Regards

 

I am fully updated at Microsoft updates and I have sp3 installed and do not have any bogging down issues.

the updates are for security purposes and you risk infections everytime you go online without these protections.

 

Old hardware can't handle a fully updated Win XP. My hardware is a Pentium III @ 1GHz and with memory maxed out at 500MB.

What hardware are you running with XP fully updated? Pentium IV and later may not be an issue.

Regards

 

I have a Dell Dimension 3000 with Pentium (R) 4 CPU
2.80 GHz
2.79GHz, 2.00 GB of Ram.

long ago I bought more ram as the pc came with only 512MB

 

My old Dell Inspiron 8000 hardware is below the minimum level of acceptable for running a fully updated version of Win XP. XP was an upgrade for my hardware. It came with Win ME. When I first upgraded, Win XP ran great, but then as the years flew by and updates accumulated, performance was slowly crippled to the point that you have to take drastic measures to have the system run at an acceptable level of performance.


Regards

 

have you set the page file to system managed?

Do you have a lot of programs running at the same time?

Windows requires at least 15% free space to function correctly.

 

I've done a number of things to try to get a fully updated version of Windows XP Pro to run satisfactorily on my Pentium III @ 1GHz/500MB memory system.

One update that was causing a lot of slowness issues was Windows Search 4.0. I removed it from the fully updated XP, but that didn't resolve the generally sluggish behavior. Surfing the web is where it's almost intolerable. It's almost as slow as a dial-up connections. You can see the cpu and memory resources overwhelmed in Task Master.

I've got a 120GB harddisk and only using about 14GB, so there is plenty of disk space.

All the updates demand too much processor and memory and they don't allow the memory to recover. With a fully updated XP, I usually on have about 140MB of available system memory. With a no-update XP, I've got 380MB without antivirus and 250MB with ESET Smart Security 6 internet security/antivirus installed.

There's a big difference between a Pentium III @ 1GHz w/ 500MB RAM and a Pentium IV @ 2.8GHz w/ 2GB RAM.

Regards

 

Okay, and windows search 4.0 is an optional update, I only install the high priority updates and in optional I install any rootkit updates.