[Flasken]

Hi!

Once again I summon the people of head-fi with computer knowledge...

As you can see in the title my problem is quite simple. Well, not really, because I know my computer acts slowly in windows, but I´m not sure if the heavy use of ram is the problem... Anyways, any suggestions/comments are welcome..

OS:XPpro

 

[Budgie]

Too much stuff running in the background.

 

[acs236]

Flasken,

Gives us the rest of vitals -- ram, processor, HDs, etc.

 

[hongda]

go into task manager and see what's running. You might have some sneaky programs running from startup.

 

[andrzejpw]

hmm, that doesn't really sound too over the top for XP pro. . .

 

[eric343]

Install Win2K pro.

Trust me, you'll notice the speedup immediately. WinXP is rather bloated (and has some kind of QoS program built in that takes 10% of your bandwidth regardless of what you're doing)

 

[andrzejpw]

You can disable the QoS. . .

XP is the wave of the future. Personally, I find it much more compatible than Win2k, and I noticed a speed INCREASE over 2k.

 

[Flasken]

Agreed, XP is great in all sorts of ways...

Andrezjwp,

Thanks, then the real problem might be lack of ram...

This is the configuration my system came with:

1700+ athlonXP
GeForce3Ti200
40 gig HD - 30 free as of now.
256 mb sdrammers

 

[andrzejpw]

Yeah, I'm also running with 256 megs. I feel the pinch sometimes when doing video editing. . .

 

[eric343]

You guys need some RAM. Fast.

I usually consider 512 to be good, 1024 to be better, and 2048 for those who can afford it.

 

[taoster]

Quote:

Originally posted by andrzejpw Yeah, I'm also running with 256 megs. I feel the pinch sometimes when doing video editing. . .

geez.. i still remember the days of 20k

 

[Zanth]

Okay, first of all, Win2k and XP both idle nicely using 100-120 Megs of Ram. Sorry, they are bloated OS's. Nothing you can do but upgrade. The trick to XP is to decrease all the eye candy to really make it come to life. Turn off all the visual add-ons in preference for maximum performance. You will notice a significant increase. Switch the theme to the classic ugly one and get more ram. Also, get rid of all the icons in the system tray, they are running in the background and eating memory. Kill all icons on the desktop and kill the quicklaunch icons. Streamline your system as much as possible. Learn keyboard shortcuts, make your own. This will help A LOT. 2k and XP users should have 512 minimum. At the 1 Gig or ram point, 99% of users will never feel a pinch. At this point that is more ram than will ever be necessary. In the future programs will take advantage of the high levels of ram and use it to buffer.

XP is by far, a faster OS than 2k, but it still is clunky unless one tweaks it. For some more tweaks, download XP-antispy (google search it) as well as Proxomitron (proxomitron.org). This will help control the nasties MS has packaged up for you.

Lastly, if you want a really quick system, look to FreeBSD or Linux and use a light windows manager. Your system will sing

 

[BDA_ABAT]

Agreed that more RAM is gooder, BUT...

Can WinXP Pro effectively utilize more than 1 GB RAM???

Bruce

 

[Zanth]

Yes it can, I have 4 gigs or ram and it is used very nicely

 

[acs236]

I have 640meg (makes me remember the fond days of 640k) and that has been plenty. I think you'd have noticable improvement if you installed another 256meg -- 512 should be fine.