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Thread ID: 55790	2005-03-19 19:43:00	Painfully slow laptop	jcr1 (893)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
335846	2005-03-20 01:07:00	You might want to consider trimming back some of the services and see if that helps. There is a really good guide here (www.blackviper.com), and you can use the "Safe" option as a reference. As tweak'e mentions, background programs can also be a problem. Have a visit to msconfig and stop un-necessary programs loading automatically. You can still start them manually when required, but they certainly add clutter if left to load everytime automatically. You can use this site here (www.sysinfo.org) and check out the items on your startup list.	Jen (38)
335847	2005-03-20 01:51:00	firstly has it always been slow? if so format/reinstall will most likly not make it better. you really need to find whats making it slow, ie running to many programs at once, running to many unneeded services, slow hardrive, speed controll slowing CPU down. also what cpu is the other pc? the laptop is a celeron which do run very slow. Yes, it has always been slow and I wondered about the celeron, but I thought if I was a bit conservative about how I used it, it would be OK. The other machine is an Intel(R) P4 1.6ghz. I just checked this on "System", in control panel and I noted it stated the full amount of RAM - 384 megs; whereas on the laptop it states 192 megs when I know it has 256. The 1.6 machine certainly goes like a rocket compared to the lap top and if anything I'd say I've got heaps more junk on it.	jcr1 (893)
335848	2005-03-20 01:54:00	It may be wishful thinking that unused services will cause a big slow down. They don't use much CPU and only use memory if windows hasn't got anything better to use the memory for. Have you checked what speed the Celeron is running at?	PaulD (232)
335849	2005-03-20 02:09:00	Yes, it has always been slow and I wondered about the celeron, but I thought if I was a bit conservative about how I used it, it would be OK . The other machine is an Intel(R) P4 1 . 6ghz . I just checked this on "System", in control panel and I noted it stated the full amount of RAM - 384 megs; whereas on the laptop it states 192 megs when I know it has 256 . The 1 . 6 machine certainly goes like a rocket compared to the lap top and if anything I'd say I've got heaps more junk on it . 256 ram minnus 64 for the onboard video would leave you 192 so thats about right . changing the amount of ram allocted for the video will limit the video's output and if you go to small it makes the pc seem slow (video can't keep up with the rest of the pc) . running XP with 192 meg of ram is going to make it slow, exspecially when the celeron isnot a good performer and being a budget type laptop its proberly got a slow hardrive . just make sure that the manafacture didn't stuff anything up, ie check ram settings, hardrive settings (pio, dma mode etc), clean out any unneeded crap (manafactures love to fill their pc's up with their bull programs that you never use) . otherwise upgrade the ram (add 256) if you can and mayby even upgrade hardrive . one last thing, check the cooling . if the cooling isn't working correctly the pc could be slowing the cpu down to stop it overheating .	tweak'e (69)
335850	2005-03-20 08:07:00	I've cleaned out the services and uninstalled quite a few programs, including Power Toys (I was using multiple desktops a la KDE - but not near as good). There might be a small improvement. A bit more work to do as regards the cpu (I keep getting interupted).	jcr1 (893)
335851	2005-03-20 20:17:00	Hmmm... this might be due to RAM shortage, try installing FreeRAM XP pro (www.download.com) , it can tell you real-time CPU usage, RAM usage and virtual memory usage. How old is your Intel Celeron laptop? Another reason to your laptop lagging is that you are running too many programs at the sametime. Go to STart > Run > type in "services.msc" (without the quotation mark) and press enter. Disable the services that you don't require. Good luck! Thanks for your help James. Ihave made some difference. I tweaked "services.msc", using, as a guide the site that Jen linked. I also installed FreeRAM XP. Plus deleted or uninstalled a whole lot of unneccessary files or folders. Had a skim through the registry and found some entries there that should go. Tweaked the cpu (using "Tweak XP"). It is definitely faster but still not like my 1.6 machine. So I guess the celeron chip could be a factor plus maybe some more ram might help - but I don't think I'll go there, as the money spent on upgrading could very well go towards a new machine in the next couple of years. It does the job it was intended for, albeit a bit slow. I just have to be careful how I use it.	jcr1 (893)
335852	2005-03-21 00:13:00	I have a HP ze4520ap, 2.4 celeron, 256 mb ram, running XP Pro. It is so slow it's a proper pain. I run nortons (updated all the time), same for adaware - they show the system as clean. I notice from System Properties, in Control Panel, that 192mb of ram are allocated, which means, I believe that 64 mb are allocated to graphics. Apparently this can be throttled back from within the Bios? I wonder if this is true, if I cut it back to 32mb, whether this would make much difference? There are probably implications. I do all the other stuff; defrag etc. I am seriously contemplating a clean install. But that is a decision I take "not lightly". You could try removing Norton AV and installing a different AV scanner. I have found in the past that Norton is able to slow things down quite a lot, esp on startup. Other AV scanners dont seem to be quite as clunky and often have smaller downloads for the definition updates. B.	Barnabas (4562)
335853	2005-03-21 01:25:00	I've got a 400mhz celeron desktop and installing ANY A/V software causes it to lag very badly... celeron's are crap anyway	Agent_24 (57)
335854	2005-03-21 03:49:00	You could try removing Norton AV and installing a different AV scanner. I have found in the past that Norton is able to slow things down quite a lot, esp on startup. Other AV scanners dont seem to be quite as clunky and often have smaller downloads for the definition updates. B. Trouble is I paid for the 2005 Norton AV Professional as I thought it would be the best and it has a few months to go before it runs out; so I want to get my money's worth. But next year I think I'll go back to AVG (actually now you mention it, I think the machine's performance did fall off after installing Nortons - shouldn't really buy software, there's some real good open source stuff out there). I also run Kerio as a firewall; but I think that that has a very small impact on performance.	jcr1 (893)
335855	2005-03-21 05:31:00	i used to have NAV 2003, now that was a system hog, my pc was real slow overall, i removed it, installed AVG and that solved my problem at that time....	Prescott (11)
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