win xp slowing down

[noelcassidy]

a friend of mine bought a dell pentium-966 which had win ME installed on it from the factory. He then upgraded to Win XP home version. All was well for awhile, but now the computer has slowed down to a crawl. Programs boot slowly and shut down slowly. Was wondering if anyone else has run into this and i so what did you end up doing. I suggested formatting and clean install a version of Xp pro.:(

[Steve]

Hi noelcassidy,

A format and install is always an option but the usual drill is, do a virus scan, run an anti-malware program such as ad-aware, check task manager to see what's running (ctrl-alt-del), check msconfg (Start>run>type msconfig>startup) to see what is starting up when you boot-up.

Check these things first. If you need help, just yell...:)

[Budfred]

You can also get some good ideas for streamlining XP at this site:

http://www.blkviper.com/index.html

Budfred

[jabarnutcase]

Hi noelcassidy- (Hey! Someone else from NH!)

In addition to the above suggestions, which are all good and should be kept for future reference, A clean install of XP IMHO is always the best way to go.
Especially when installing such a different animal on top of the ME animal.(A good formula for potential problems)

As much of a pain as it can be, if it were me, I would go for a clean install!
Good luck and welcome!
;)

Edit-(A little after thought here...Make sure your DMA is enabled in device manager. Under controlers/Primary IDE Channel/Properties/Advanced. XP has been known to disable it in some cases)

[pawprint]

I suggested formatting and clean install a version of Xp pro.
This is your friend's best advice due to the major differences in each operating system's kernels. There might be compatability issues that are causing his system to bog down.
Another option would have been for your friend to create a dual-boot of WinME/WinXP due to already having ME installed on the C drive.
cheers, ~pawprint~

[Mark Miller]

Hi Noel,
I would try what Jabber said about the making sure dma is on. That will speed up your box somewhat. The only caution on a clean install is that it wipes the stuff that orginally came with box. Lots of times the mfg does not give you disks for this. Make sure you have all your programs that yopu want before clean install, ie cd writing, dvd writing, photsoftware and so forth. You cam loose alot of free stuff if not careful
Mark:)