old machine

H

Hovnus

New Member
Hi guys,

I have problems with my 7 years old tower :
-AMD Athlon 3800 , mother-MSI k9n
-2 * 512 RAM
-Graphics - Nx7600GT

It's very very slow, I reinstalled Win and I thing it is slower then before reinstallation, but PC works fine 1-2 years ago, so I think that problem is that I've installed some new version of WinXp (or different version) that makes my PC slower. So my question is:
-which version of Win is best for this HW(if this is solution)
(old version of WinXp is less protected against viruses ?)
-or some SW optimization - for example I red somewhere that best antivirus for old machines is AVG , or which version of browser(chrome/firefox) is best (fastest) ? etc...

I'm thinking about Ubuntu(which version?), but I want my PC mainly for gaming/videos/browsing, is there some fine winSimulator to play games in linux according to my HW/SW?

I'm looking forward for your answers , thank you.
Sorry for my english.

Have nice day :)
 
Windows XP Home is what is standard. You only have 1gb of ram which may be causing your slowness. Its also possible that the hard drive may be on its way out. How many programs are running at bootup?
 
Welcome aboard mate. :)

Not only you have 1 gig of memory which is lacking but today's software are more sophisticated which uses more memory. The OS is the least of your problem.
 
I've turned off most app/prog in msconfig - startup (with respect to startUp Database) and now I'm thinking about if I have proper drivers or win .net Framework... I red somewhere that maybe WinXp .Net Frameworsk causes problems... but I'm not sure.
PC in safe mode works really fast. Hard drive is "new" only 4years old :).
I know that 1gb RAM is low, but it used to be faster (for example only opening directories is slow as hell now...)
 
Have you ran any system maintenace yet? Like checked for malware or ran Ccleaner? What it still slow right after the fresh install?
 
Spybot found 4 entries = removed. Ccleaner done its job. And still no changes.
I'll try defrag. in night. but after hours of browsing net for solution,
I'm for uninstal Win Xp (it ends anyway in april 2014) and I'll install Xubuntu.

- I checked some articles about gameing in Xubuntu :), it should works.
 
Hovnus said:
Spybot found 4 entries = removed. Ccleaner done its job. And still no changes.
I'll try defrag. in night. but after hours of browsing net for solution,
I'm for uninstal Win Xp (it ends anyway in april 2014) and I'll install Xubuntu.

- I checked some articles about gameing in Xubuntu :), it should works.
Click to expand...

Use malwarebytes instead of spybot (which isn't good anymore).

Run sfc /scannow with your MS Windows CD installed (elevated privileges).

But really, I would simply reinstall Windows.
 
Hovnus said:
It is slow after fresh reinstallation of Win.
Click to expand...

Yeah you're not exactly running on the fastest hardware. This is quite an old machine.

Did you ever check your hard drive for errors? It could by dying and slowing your machine down, as has been mentioned before. If you know the manufacturer of your disk (just open up the case and look at the disk and see what it says on it), you can download the appropriate tool to check the drive: http://www.computerforum.com/211596-list-hard-drive-diagnostic-utilities-test-your-drive.html
 
Just started working on almost the same computer, It has XP with 1 gig of ram...
Only I am doing a tune Up on it.. You will have to fine Tune It/Tweak it.. For that amount of ram.. Since there is allot of Tweaks and Tricks to do this, It might be better if you just send me a PM or an email...
 
Twiki said:
Ah, I missed that. A fresh install of Windows.
Click to expand...

Hovnus said:
It is slow after fresh reinstallation of Win.
Click to expand...

See above. He's done this already and it's still slow.

I recommend checking your hard disk for errors. See my post on the previous page:

spirit said:
Yeah you're not exactly running on the fastest hardware. This is quite an old machine.

Did you ever check your hard drive for errors? It could by dying and slowing your machine down, as has been mentioned before. If you know the manufacturer of your disk (just open up the case and look at the disk and see what it says on it), you can download the appropriate tool to check the drive: http://www.computerforum.com/211596-list-hard-drive-diagnostic-utilities-test-your-drive.html
Click to expand...

It might worth checking your RAM too with Memtest86. Your RAM could be dying.

Download the ISO, burn it to a CD, boot off the CD and let Memtest run for around 6 hours or so. http://www.memtest86.com/
 
WRXGuy1 said:
If he formatted his drive and reinstalled Windows I don't think defragging would be beneficial.
Click to expand...

A new installation is probably the most fragmented drive you can have, very much a necessary step.

The OP should wait until indexing has finished and then use ReadyBoost.
 
In XP, I think Search 4.0 makes your machine quite slow. Disable that.

Or better still, never install that update for XP unless you want your machine to run at a snail's pace.
 
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