Performance question

[Surge1243]

How can my Intel P3 600 MHz 128 MB ram laptop start up, load, and run programs faster than my AMD Athlon XP 1600+ 256 MB DDR ram desktop computer? Both have basically the same programs that load during startup and both run Windows XP. My AMD desktop is unbelievable slow and I just don't understand why. I recently upgraded from a 900 MHz Duron and there has been very little performance increase. Can someone explain this?

[morriswindgate]

Got a NIC on the AMD and not on the Laptop?
Do you have the Anti-Virus set to scan at start-up.
Do you have a lot of fonts
Do you have stuff like QTask, Findfast, Adobe Gamma Loader in the start-up
Do you have a video card with taskbar icons
Do you have a lot of Icons on the desktop

All of this and more can slow start-ups

[rbraun21]

check in your os to see what chip it has listed, your new or old chip

[Cricket]

Hi Surge1243,

What speed hard drive does your desktop system have (5400 or 7200 RPM)?

Is DMA enabled for your hard drive?

Does your desktop run a lot of background programs? Installing the whole Norton System Works package and letting everything run in background will slow your system down.

Is your desktop system optimized for best performance with all it's components? Every in BIOS configured properly?

:) Cricket

[Surge1243]

Yes, I have a NIC on the AMD with Norton AntiVirus 2002 (does not scan at startup). There are not that many icons on the desktop and only about six programs have icons that are present in the taskbar. I have the usual amount of fonts (have not added any) and no video card icons that load either. The os detects that is an Athlon XP 1600+ and reports the speed at 1.39 GHz, which seems normal. I have a 7200 RPM hard drive. I think DMA is enabled, but I can't seem to find the option under WinXP. Any thoughts there?

[glc]

DMA is in the properties of the controllers in XP/2K, not the drives themselves.

[Gnerma]

Is your hard drive on the same IDE channel as a cd or dvd drive?

[morriswindgate]

Did you just upgrade the processor or the Motherboard also.
If your motherboard is older you may need a BIOS update to fully utilize the XP CPU

[padawan]

Did you remember to install the VIA 4-in-1 drivers?

[glc]

I was under the impression that you do NOT want to install the 4 in 1's on XP?

[Surge1243]

Ok, DMA is enabled. The hard drive is on an IDE channel by itself, while my CD-ROM and CD-RW are on the same channel. I flashed the BIOS before I installed the processor, because the latest version included support for Xp 2000+, in case I want to upgrade again. What are the VIA 4 in 1 drivers and why should I or why should I not install them?

[glc]

Those are motherboard chipset drivers that can be a royal pain in the butt. What motherboard do you have?