You pooter problem diagnoses please!

One of the pooters at our FCH went down last Friday - damaged video card I
think. However the temporary replacement pooter has an 800MHz Intel cpu,
but is soooooo sluuuuggggish. Click on a link, and go and make a coffee
before the page downloads. Right click on desktop icon and go and get
another coffee before the menu pops up. It's connected to 1Mbps BB and
that's OK. Anyhow I did a defrag (started of with 21% fragmentation). Did

pmj...

Defragmenting it might help a littel bit.

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

Yep did that, and think it did, but not much.

a full check on pcpitstop and it found loads of stuff I should get rid of.
Did a Disk clean up and got rid of over 80 Mbs of Temp Int Files and stuff

pmj...

Try Setting the Space allocated for the Temporary Internet Files
to something much smaller than the Default.

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

Oops! Forgot about that.

Internet Options...>General>[Settings...]
Temporary Internet Files Folder ---
Amount of Disk Space to use: 64 MB (is usually plenty)

That Setting is, by Default a *Percentage* of the Disk Space
& was Set way back in the days of tiny Hard Disks.
So with a decent Sized Hard Disk, the Default Setting is *way*
too big.

But the Temporary Internet Files won't affect the general Speed
of the PC.

Try also Clearing out the Temp Folder.

Start>Run %temp% [OK]

That will Open the Temp Folder - Sort the Files by Date Modified
& Delete everything in there from before the last ReBoot.

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

Just checked mine here - it's almost empty.

in recycle bin. Downloaded CCleaner and ran that. Downloaded Spybot S & D
and that found 58 more things to fix. It's running XP Home so I did a

pmj...

It sounds like its just a typical "well used" PC?
It may well benefit from a Format & Re-Install from Fresh.

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

Yep! That's what I thought too. It has been used by someone's
granddaughter and is full of Goff stuff + loads of audio - msainly MP3 I
think.

Memory check - 128 MB with 13.9MB free memory. Do you think that is why

pmj...

Yes.

256 MB is the generally accepted practical Minimum for WinXP.

But WinXP *will* actually Install (& work) OK in 128 MB (or even
as little as 96 MB!)...

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

I wondered about that, but it is on the machine. Perhap somebody has
swiped a memory stick from it.

But then you need to be very careful about what's Running in the
background.
It's not usually very practical to try to use WinXP with only 128 MB,
unless you're prepared to go sorting through what Automatically Loads
& Runs at Boot up.

pmj...

See above.

Jeff Gaines...

Yes, XP is much happier with 512MB, I have 1.25GB in my laptops and 2GB
in my main machine. Doesn't mean there aren't other things as well!

What's an FCH, is it a Sheffield thing?

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

Oops! Sowwy - dyslexic keyboard again - should have read FHC or FHL - same

Jeff Gaines...

I'm still no wiser :-)

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

Family History Centre/Library. It's run by the Church of Latter Day Saints
(Mormons)

Rabbit...

E ba gum lad tha needs to learn them Tykes talk in odd ways :-)

thing really. :)

it's so slooooooww? I thought the minimum recommended memory for XP was
256 MB. What else could be making it slow? Any more ideas? I think I'd

Ponder...

The minimum it will install under is 64 and by God that's why it's slow.
Try to up it to 256 at least, or preferably more if you (or your boss) has
that option. XP under 128MB is too slow to be usable.

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

I have emailed the FHC director and mentioned - first upping memory - I said
512, and secondly format and reinstall - providing he has a restore CD.

Ponder...

It the memory is upgraded he won't need to reinstall :)

Ponder...

I did say need. It might be desired but probably won't be necessary ;)

pmj...

General baggage, which accumulates on any PC after a while...
Picked up from use over a period of time by different people,
who don't know how to make sure that they don't Install & Run stuff
that clogs things up.

go for a format and fresh reinstall since there's loads of stuff on it we
want to lose anyway.

pmj...

Yep.
That sounds like the best solution.
& also (if possible) fit some more RAM in it, but that isn't
actually essential.

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

Thanks pmj some help and reinforcement. :)

Charlie Drake...

I'd go for a clean install and 512MB, my backup is a PIII 550 with 512,
XP Pro and works like a dream.

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

My thoughts too Charlie and that's what I recommended, but thought I might
have been missing something trivial.
My backup pooter is a Duron 800 with 448 and 98SE - that seems fine too.