Windows XP slooow switching programs etc

[Dodge7]

A work I was given a fairly new Song Viao laptop, with 256 meg of memory and 1.5 Ghz processor. The thing is, it runs quite slow.

So I first degfragged the HD and set GUI for classic view. That helped just a little. Yet is seems to still be quite slow expecially in switching between programs.

And, if I am in MS Word for awhile, and close it, I can actually see the underlying screen recreate [generic icons chanage to specific icons].

I would think there is a lot of disk-memory swapping going on...but I am not usually running that many programs. [Outlook, MS Word, IE]

I asked the MIS person about it, he found I had multiple versions of MW word, and fixed that and a few other small problems. That didn't do much though.

He said in his experience a laptop runs like half the speed of an equalent desktop.... and that is the way it is. Any truth to that?

Any ideas?

[Force Flow]

Sounds like there may be spyware floating around on the system. Try downloading and running adaware and spybot. An AV scan might be in order as well.

[dataDude]

Maybe you have a slower video card, or depending on your OS, the RAM management might not be so good. WinNT/2000/XP do pretty good jobs with memory management. Any other MS OS, however, might bottleneck the RAM. The same is true if you try closing a program and its software doesn't free up the memory, it could still reside in there and force you to delve more in the VM. Then again, Force Flow may have the answer too.

[Dodge7]

I thought of spy prgrams and ran a couple of spy finders. Found a few, but it didn't do much.

All I can add, is it runs like it has 64 meg of RAM, as long as I am in one program I am find, however when I switch programs or access Windows features that usually come on instantly, it takes awhile.

Hmmm.... it just hit me, I *think* there is a scan disk/defrag program set to run in idle times. If I am typing in Word or writing an emai, could the scan activate then? That would explain it. The HD does seem to be active quite a bit [to me].

I checked memory usage with Outloo, IE, and Word running, it was about 240 to 260 meg. I have 256 so that shouldn't be that much of an issue.

Thanks for the assist.

[dataDude]

HD seems to be active quite a bit? Do you have an antivirus scanning ever? Also, if you have the "always on" internet type going and you have other programs that auto update themselves, that could have an impact. I haven't heard of scan disk/defrags running on an idle basis. If it is true, then you should turn them off until you need them, or change the schedule to once a week. But also, feel the bottom of the computer. Does it feel really hot after a while? If so, that could be a little issue. Hot systems tend to slow down a bit.

You said you have a 1.5 GHz system... what's the brand? You might also want to check your BIOS settings and manual just in case. If your BIOS config has the ability to enable you to set a higher frequency (e.g. 133 vs. 100), maybe you can set it to a higher setting.

An issue like this one alone can have a gazillion and one solutions.

Also in your BIOS, check your cache and make sure it's all enabled.

[Dodge7]

The computer is a Sony Laptop, A Vaio, forget the model #

I'll have to double check at work tomorrow. It does seem to me that the HD works alot, and I did see a setting to defrag or virus check while idle. That could explain why when I am writing a paper in Word for 20 minutes, it does seem the computer is especially slow to switch to another program.

I hope it is not a network problem, email takes awhile to send and the MIS guy told me the server is a mess and probably has three virus checking programs on it.

Still, he says the laptops just run slow, and equivalent desk tops run twice as fast. Is that true?

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Computer: White Tower purchased at road side white tower computer stand..along with a few oranges and such

[Dodge7]

Oh yeah, meant to say there doesn't seem to be a temp problem. I thought of that.

I just tried running defrag on this computer, running Win 98.. it didn't affect program switching at the least.

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If I was bitten by a white viper could I sue white snake the band?

Is one who makes allegations and allegator?

[glc]

Well, 256 megs of ram is not a whole heck of a lot for XP - and if that's a typical Sony preload, there are a gazillion things running in the startup. If you uninstalled all nonessential "fluff" programs and took the rest of the nonessential programs out of the startup, it would help a lot. Throwing another 256 megs of ram in would work wonders.

[Dodge7]

GLC: I have wondered about 256 being enough. So this morning I started the computer and checked the memory usage with no programs running. It was 240+ megs!!

So I got into the process list and started shutting down anything I knew was safe to do [like those Sony add ons]. That alone seemed to help. I aslo shut down system restore and a lot of the Windows "pretty screen" fluff programs.

The computer ran much better today. Only once did it seem bulky when I hit the icon to go to the desktop... and that was when the HD was active, it runs this virus check when it can. Oh yeah, our email was flaky today, emals took forever to open... and that came the system to stop and go a couple of times.... still, over all it ran far better. A shortage of memory seemed to be a major issue.

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If a White Viper bites you, can you sue the band White Snake

A dog with three legs walks in a bar and says " I am looking for the man who shot my paw"

[glc]

Now, try this - go into CP, system, advanced, performance, virtual memory - and make the pagefile 768mb minimum and maximum.