Super slow dell w/P4 2.4

[DishDude1]

HELP! I bought a new Dell Dimension 8250 desktop in Jaunary. Within the last month, it has gotten so slow at loading programs it is ridiculous. Without any programs running, it takes like 10-15 sec to load AIM, sometimes just opening up my favorites list in explorer causes a 2-3 sec delay. I reinstalled windows which did nothing. It has a pentium 4 processor, 512 MB ram, so it shouldn't be doing this. Anyone have any ideas?

[Mike123abc]

You check the cooling fan on the CPU? The P4 automatically slows down if it gets to hot to keep from frying. Since you reinstalled windows I assume you wiped the disk and did it so you do not have a virus on there.

My first thought was a virus, but since you did clean install it should be ok.

[firephoto]

There was a windows update that made some programs run slower so you might go to the windows update website (Tools/Windows Update menu) and look under the XP updates for it. Your favorites, or anything that lists web related content that you've visited, might have an ftp site listed and this will make things slow because windoze wants to make it display like a local folder. The other thing to check would be your HOSTS file.\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc folder is where it is.
It caused some problems on my machine due to the hundred or so addresses that were listed in it.

Try the windows update thing first then look into something internet/network related.

[MikeW]

When you say re-installed Windows, do you mean a complete re-install (reformat hard disk) or just reloading the OS keeping your previous settings? If you did not reformat the Hard Disk, look to see if there are programs installed that you are unaware of. If you installed Kazaa, you may have also installed "spyware" software. Look through the installed programs and verify they are things that should be loaded. I've seen many computers that had this behavior with Kazaa. If you see a program loaded called "Save Now", then this may be the issue.

[gcutler]

Is the PC in sleep mode and is it slow coming out of sleep mode or you're typing away for like 15 minutes and try to load the program and still slow.

Are there many programs loaded in your system tray (bottom right next to clock, each of those should have a specific purpose and if you don't know what they do that can be an issue.

You may want to contact Dell tech support as it is probably still under warranty, take advantage of that.

[HarryD]

Check your disk fragmentation. Could be you need a good de-fragging! ! !

[DishDude1]

Thanks for your suggestions guys...although I formatted the hard drive and reinstalled XP, that didn't fix it. I contacted tech support and they had me repair XP with the installation cd, and that did it. Why I don't know but it seems much much better now.

[sampatterson]

If you used autoupdate or windows update and installed Patch 811493, your computer will be 2 or 3 times slower than it used to be. Go to control panel, add/remove program, and uninstall patch 811493.

[Kevin]

Originally posted by sampatterson
If you used autoupdate or windows update and installed Patch 811493, your computer will be 2 or 3 times slower than it used to be. Go to control panel, add/remove program, and uninstall patch 811493. My comp has been so much slower than it should be, so maybe this is the problem. I'd like to delete it but I'm wondering what this patch does. I don't want to be deleting something important and then have hackers swiping my info through my cable modem. :shrug: :confused:

[ERSanders]

See: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;819634

[DishDude1]

That sounds like it, and I have mcafee set to do that. After I had reinstalled windows the last time, I updated it.

[sampatterson]

811493 only affect someone that can logon to the computer when sitting at the keyboard. MS is working on a performance fix for it and will be re-releasing it as a critical update in a few week. Uninstall it and see if it fixes you problem. If it doesn't, go back to windows update and reinstall it. We installed it on alot of Dells, HPs, Gateways and it messed up every one. Some were so slow we couldn't use the control panel/add/remove program. We had to use a cmd prompt, change to the $uninstall directory for that release and run the uninstall.

[sampatterson]

Read the FAQ on this link for info on what the fix does, and the performance problems they have encountered.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/ms03-013.asp

[gcutler]

I have it installed on 4 dells and have no problems (all home edition), I'm running Norton Anti-Virus on all 4 as well.

Wonder what seems to be the exact cause of it being an issue or not??? I am NOT using the XP firewall included with the OS, that might be part of the issue, as the problematic patch seems related to external access. On one machine I turned off File and Print sharing but that dosen't seem to make a difference???

[sampatterson]

The biggest problems are with XP Pro, and only on SP1 versions.

[gcutler]

Ok, well I mostly have Home SP1 at home, so that is different enough to make sense why I'm not having the problem.

[invaliduser88]

Check this out

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];815411

You might want to search for the file Q815411_WXP_SP2_x86_ENU.exe.

This is the patch described in the above article.

[Bogy]

Originally posted by sampatterson
811493 only affect someone that can logon to the computer when sitting at the keyboard. MS is working on a performance fix for it and will be re-releasing it as a critical update in a few week. Uninstall it and see if it fixes you problem. If it doesn't, go back to windows update and reinstall it. We installed it on alot of Dells, HPs, Gateways and it messed up every one. Some were so slow we couldn't use the control panel/add/remove program. We had to use a cmd prompt, change to the $uninstall directory for that release and run the uninstall.
My daughter got home Thursday night with her HP, so dad sat down to play with it, which included all the updates she has not done since spring break, the last time she was home and dad had a crack at it. :D
I noticed that HP has a patch for the patch. I figured I could always uninstall the patch, so I installed both the MS patch, and the HP patch. We left Friday to attend our other daughter's graduation and just got back into town, so I don't really know what it did to the performance, but it seemed to be ok. Let you know if she starts to complain.

[bentbike1]

the proball issue is xp and pro version have many service running in the back ground and those usally are not neccassry goto windows annonaces.org ? they have deatails on tweeking your system it could also be your memory or the lack of it do some reasearch on your computers compants dell does not make computers they merly buy parts with there name on it from some one else and not all computers are equal also go to pcpit stop also take note of all of the programs that run when you boot up tgoto the run box type in msconfig and goto the last tab and see what is running turn off everything and reboot some programs you may need at the start but programs that relate to the internet are not needed also find out what type of ram some of the newer ram are really bad just because you have 512 in memory what is the speed and does it actually preform at that spped goto the screnn savers and maximum pc they also have a amg and have discuesd this very issue

[jeffwtux]

Come on man, can't you think of a better thread title than "Super slow dell"?? Something like:
"Dude, this Dell is in slowmo" or something like that?

[Bogy]

Originally posted by bentbike1
the proball issue is xp and pro version have many service running in the back ground and those usally are not neccassry goto windows annonaces.org ? they have deatails on tweeking your system it could also be your memory or the lack of it do some reasearch on your computers compants dell does not make computers they merly buy parts with there name on it from some one else and not all computers are equal also go to pcpit stop also take note of all of the programs that run when you boot up tgoto the run box type in msconfig and goto the last tab and see what is running turn off everything and reboot some programs you may need at the start but programs that relate to the internet are not needed also find out what type of ram some of the newer ram are really bad just because you have 512 in memory what is the speed and does it actually preform at that spped goto the screnn savers and maximum pc they also have a amg and have discuesd this very issue
Dude, go to bed. You have either been up all night, and are burned out, or 6:12 is way to early for you to be up. :D