hotdog Posted January 4, 2005 Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 OK you IT boffins!! I have a Toshiba satellite pro SP4280 which has recently been upgraded to Windows XP. It seems to run quite slowly now, is there anything I can do to speed it up a bit? i.e change the processor etc. I think it has an Intel processor at the moment. I can't justify shelling out for a new bit of kit as I don't use it daily, its really just for on site use but it is annoying sometimes as it takes ages to load programs etc. Cheers for any suggestions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigyb Posted January 4, 2005 Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 Is your laptop memory starved? more memory is always better than a slightly faster CPU. CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotdog Posted January 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 Not sure about the memory side of it. Is there any way to tell how much available memory is on the laptop? I've had a look at the task manager and the CPU fluctuates between 6 and 92 %. The page file usage is about 141MB whatever that means!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky Posted January 4, 2005 Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 To run XP properly, you need a minimum of 512MB of RAM. This is because XP caches a lot more applications it thinks you'll use. If you're only on 256MB, or lower - you'll suffer in style from excessive page swapping (disk activity) which drastically slows down your PC. To find out what you're running, right-click on My Computer, and select "Properties". At the bottom right of this window will be your computer specification. Let us know what it says in there. For example, mine says: Computer: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3500+ 1.00GM of RAM Physical Address Extension You can also clear out your Prefetch folder. This is the part that XP "guesses" what application you use often, and places a copy of it in here so to speak. If you've used XP a lot already, there may be some programs being loaded now that you'll not use. Open My Computer and Navigate to: C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch and delete the entire lot within this folder. XP will rebuild a new list automatically. This will conserve memory usage if you've opened lots of programs to see what they do, but don't indend on using them often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted January 4, 2005 Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 If this is a standard Toshiba Satellite Pro SP4280 (and they were only manufactured for a short period of time) then the problem is self explanatory by specification. The SP4280 ran a PIII 500Mhz CPU with 128mb of RAM. Windows XP Home or Professional will run, for want of a better word, like a dog on this. The socket availability in the SP4280 does help you though - you can readily buy 2 x 256mb RAM chips to replace the 2 x 64mb that are currently installed (unless it is a latter model in which case they installed 1 x 128mb chip). Try Kingston Memory - they do support the platform but you'll have to give them all the machine references including serial number for them to cross reference with. It's solvable though and the upgrade will cost around £150. It should be remember that a PIII 500Mhz isn't ideal for XP, but as was pointed out earlier RAM is a critical factor. There is something else to bear in mind though and it is something I haven't been able to confirm for you - that is that not all laptops can simply be upgraded to a new O/S. Many have very specific driver devices that aren't compatible with newer O/S's. Always visit the manufacturer website to check beforehand. You maybe did, but I suspect the slow performance won't be the only problem you may have with this machine following upgrade. Toshiba's legacy path for upgrade is better than most but still strewn with problems on XP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotdog Posted January 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 Howdee! I've checked the properties as you described and it comes up with: Toshiba Personal Computer Intel Pentium III processor 497MHz , 64.0MB of RAM I've also done the deletions as you suggested. If the memory size is a problem, is there an easy way to upgrade like you can with a desktop PC? Thanks for the help so far Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UBM Posted January 4, 2005 Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 Have you tried the obvious - defragged the hard drive and got rid of all temp files, inclusing temp internet files? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotdog Posted January 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 Hadn't thought about checking Toshiba's site as it is quite an old model! Doh! Mind you, now I've got an idea what the problem could be I know where to start looking. Thanks for the input received Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky Posted January 4, 2005 Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 With respect, 64MB is shocking in today's standards when you look at XP's heavy requirements. Never trust MS when they say it runs on 64Mb of RAM - they just want your money!! It's clearly the RAM that's holding you back, then the CPU Speed. You can't do anything about the CPU, but upping the RAM will help slightly - but you'll not see massive improvements unless you went over 512MB and upped the CPU speed too. Depending on the model, most laptops have a slot on the underside of the machine that lets you add more memory. desktop RAM. The bad news is that you cannot upgrade this model with standard memory according to Crucial (large RAM supplier). When searching their site with your model number, it claimed... [ QUOTE ] No products are currently available for this system. Your system may require proprietary or non-standard parts. If your system requires RDRAM or Rambus technology click here. For more information about compatible upgrades for your system, please contact your system manufacturer. Alternatively you can call us on 0800 013 0330 (free from within UK) or 44 1355 586100 (from outside the UK) or e-mail us your system details to check for an alternative upgrade solution. [/ QUOTE ] This doesn't mean it's not possible elsewhere though! Give them a call if you like - they're excellent and very helpful. On another note, try the following to reduce RAM overhead: 1. Defrag your PC 2. Reduce the number of applications which start automatically 3. Stop services that you don't use (we can tell you these) 4. Run Disk Clean-up Wizard (Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools) XP runs best on 512MB or higher, attempting this on 64MB deserves a medal if nothing else! Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chav Posted January 4, 2005 Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 64MB is crap, but it wont be the sole cause of the problem. a computer is as fast as its slowest bottleneck.... the processor is also not ideal as the slower IDE harddisk in your laptop will consume cpu bandwidth. also check your installed software. often people have plenty of crap running in the background. not a problem on a new computer, but on yours it could save a few meg of ram etc. same with removing wallpaper, removing startup programs, and turning off all the flashy visual stuff in xp, like menu shadows/animations etc. also newer drivers for things like video cards, usb, network etc may use less cpu bandwidth giving a speed boost too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotdog Posted January 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 [ QUOTE ] Have you tried the obvious - defragged the hard drive and got rid of all temp files, inclusing temp internet files? [/ QUOTE ] I'll give this a whirl and see if it helps. The pages I search through on t'internet do contain a lot of pdf files and graphics, so getting rid of a few of these would probably help! Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotdog Posted January 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 Cheers Sparky, I'll give them a ring tomorrow and have a chat! Also i'll send you my neck size so I can get that medal in snug fit!! Cheers for the help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotdog Posted January 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 Thanks too CabrioJ, I'll have a run through and sort out stuff I don't use, which will probably be quite a lot. Love the avatar!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted January 4, 2005 Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 It won't help at all - the spec of the laptop simply isn't sufficient to run XP, per the earlier posts from myself and others. I'd like to wrap the news up better, but it can't be! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky Posted January 4, 2005 Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 You're welcome mate. They have helped me loads of times when building PC's and upgrading others. If you wish to keep the laptop, I'd suggest putting Windows 2000 pro on it - there's little difference to be honest. It's very stable (unlike 98/ME) and uses a lot less memory. Otherwise, could this be time to treat yourself? Dell are doing some cracking deals right now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotdog Posted January 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 Windows XP Home or Professional will run, for want of a better word, like a dog on this. Couldn't of put it better myself!! Looks like upgrade the memory is the way to go, but I'm a bit concerned that the new software we are to install next month will just fill the memory again. I work for an Electrical Contracting company and we are due to transfer all of our testing, inspection and Quality Assurance files on to computer next month. I won't be storing the data on the laptop, but I will need to be able to open files and work on them from the laptop. We also use Autocad which I know is a massive program. I only have a viewer version of this on my laptop but I can't do without it. Ah well, looks like a few phone calls to be made tomorrow! Thanks for the feedback Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chav Posted January 4, 2005 Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 hi mate.... autocad wont run on an xp system with 64mb. startup time for the app alone will be ages as it will have to cache the plugins to the swapfile and back. win 2000 wont help either. i'd try and find a memory upgrade if you need to run autocad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotdog Posted January 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 I only run Voloviewer to run autocad drawings, I don't make any changes to them on my laptop. Having said that, looking at all the feedback, I'll be researching a memory upgrade. I can't see the company shelling out for a new laptop!! Cheeers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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