This could well be the problem. My system is on 24/7 week in week out with occasional reboots for drivers and updates etc.... However there is a noticible difference with a clean boot. However this degeneration of the speed is not harmful to your PC at all. XP is built on NT technology and therefore is somewhat designed for prolonged usage.
Just reboot and this should then speed up the system. If the System is to be used over a long period of time without rebooting frequently (as mine is) then Defragmenting the Hard Drive regularly is a must.
What might be happening is that your ram may need to be freed up. Although this is probably not the case with Windows XP, sometimes information is stored in the ram for a previous program and it is not removed if the program encounters a problem. Therefore, if the rem is not released, the computer begins to use the pagefile.sys as a swapfile.
If you are concerned about not booting or shuting your computer off, then there are many programs including TweakXP and Release Ram which will manage your ram for you. You can just specify how much ram to release, or let the program do it itself.
Having a huge amount of ram will not solve the problem, especially if you have a slow processor or a lousy video card. Remember, ram operates at the processor speed. You might need to increse your swapfileif you do not have a large amount of ram. I believe the swapfile should be three times the size of your ram.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.