Which operating system to use. 1

[archmotel]

Hi I have been using windows xp professional with my current setup and its been really slowing down as of yet. I was wondering if maybe trying out the windows vista beta was worth a try or the 64 Bit version of XP to speed up the system or maybe someone can give me any other other advice as to speed it up.

My Rig:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
ASUS A8N-SLI MOBO
Patriot Signature Series 1GB Dual Channel
Radeon X800XL PCIe 256 MB DDR

I am constantly defragging and have tried all optimization tips. Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[Johnthephoneguy]

What is slowing down? bootup? Applications? Everything?

 

[erikhertzel]

Upgrading to Vista or XP 64 bit will not help, probably will hurt.

You need to drop more RAM in your PC, you only have 1 GIG...

Erik

 

[satrow]

Have you scanned the System log for clues as to why the current system is slow?

 

[skialta]

Spyware maybe...are you running AV? Lot's of these contribute to perceived slowness.

 

[kmcferrin]

This is a huge can of worms, but I think that erikhertzel has jumped the gun on his recommendation.

First, we need to know when it's slowing down. What sort of programs are running when you see the slowdown, what sort of programs you run for general use. On most PCs you will see a performance bottleneck in one of three areas:

1. CPU utilization
2. Memory utilization
3. Disk utilization

If you play lots of 3D games, then your video card can also be a 4th bottleneck area. Also, if your memory utilization is high you will usually see a high degree of disk utilization as the system swaps out pages to the swapfile.

If you are running general office/business apps and doing some web surfing, your system should be more than adequate and I would look for a possible configuration issue or malware infection. If you are running high-end imaging software, video production, etc, then you may need more memory or faster disks.

Your best bet is to open task manager (hit ctrl-alt-delete and then click 'task manager') and watch your CPU or memory utilization via the 'performance' tab during normal use. Pay special attention during the slowdowns that you experience and note any usage spikes or sustained periods of high utilization. Use the 'processes' tab to determine which applications are eating up the most memory and CPU cycles. Report the results back here, and we can offer an educated opinion on what the problem might be. Running a virus/adware/malware scan wouldn't hurt either.

Moving to Windows XP x64 Edition won't do anything to improve your performance, unless you have some 64-bit applications that you want to run that can take advantage of it. On 32-bit applications the performance is nearly identical, but drivers for the x64 edition are much more scarce than for 32-bit Windows. "Upgrading" to a Vista beta isn't recommended, since it's a beta. That means that not only is it potentially unstable and buggy, but it also is a bit of a resource hog (performance tuning is usually the last thing done to an OS before it ships). Adding that to it's already higher system requirements would likely make your experience even more frustrating.

 

[paparazi]

archmotel
How long has it been since your last reformat?
Obviously this period varies considerably between users, personally I reformat at least twice a year and I'm the first to admit that's a little excessive but I would still say re-installing is a necessay evil for most users and good house keeping generally, I would say every 18months or so for the average user, that's if you want reliable clean performance without slow downs.
Of course it also helps in the process to determine if you have any further faults, hardware or otherwise.

Martin


We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[cdogg]

archmotel,

Yep, hundreds of thousands of Windows users have been saying this for over a decade now. It hasn't changed much from Windows to Windows, though it has gotten better with each new system (especially after the jump to Windows 2000 and XP).

There are many causes:

1) Spyware/adware builds up from surfing and clicking where you're not supposed to
[tab]- Visit this forum, especially the FAQ section there, for some ideas: forum760

2) Installing program after program which takes up space in the registry (Windows garage)
[tab]- There does come a time for every system when it gets crowded, or perhaps something was put in the garage that shouldn't be there. A program called Registry Mechanic does a good job cleaning this up.

3) Having too much run at startup, which is often the result of what we just described in #2
[tab]- Some of the suggestions laid out by kmcferrin will help you here (no need for me to repeat his excellent advice). You can run the program msconfig from the "Start -> Run" menu and look on the startup tab for a list of what's loading with Windows. Don't uncheck anything just yet, unless you're absolutely sure it's something you don't need. Keep in mind that it's better for you to disable apps from within their preferences rather than from here.


As paparazi said too, reformatting is sometimes key to restore fading performance. However, if you take this route to quick and sure success, be proactive. Take the steps necessary to make sure it doesn't fade as fast again. You can do this by making regular backups to DVD or to another hard drive (say once a month, or everytime you install a major application). Don't rely on Windows System Restore. Use a 3rd-party app such as Norton's Ghost. It makes it painless and easy to go back just a few months when you discover a problem, saving you the hassle of having to reformat often.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884