Performance Enhancements

[DrRaid]

Hello. I have a question I would like to know if anyone can help me with finding working software or methods to enhance the performance of two Windows XP Machines. Heres the break down. My Mother Has 2 Windows XP Desktop PC's that she is using for her small business and they have financial information and all sensitive data she does not really want to upgrade yet as she has had these machines for years and years. Anyway the issue is the machines are very slow on start up and they lag around alot once loaded when browsing the web or going to control panel or other folders and everything I just would like to know is there any software that actually works to help boost the performance so they will run faster and what can i do to enhance her performance. They both only have about 2 GB OF Ram with 80GB HD's they are dinosaurs. So any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. BTW. I have already removed programs from the startup that were not needed and changed the index volume

[Xander]

Upgrade.

You will never turn a dinosaur into a cheetah.

[DrRaid]

You are right sir. I realize this but My Mother believes that something can be done thanks for this post I will show it to her so she can see for herself but if there is any software or something that may increase it and enable it to run smoother let me know.

[14049752]

Originally Posted by DrRaid

You are right sir. I realize this ... but if there is any software or something that may increase it and enable it to run smoother let me know.

I believe the software you are looking for can be found at FinallyFast.com. Here's a great testimonial to show how well it works! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5mGAUwMbXg
All of those upgrades, like ram, are just a waste of money... The reason why everyone suggests that is because they don't know about the *secret* settings to maximize your computer's performance!










...



..

I'm kidding. Don't install that software. Tell your mom that ram is cheap and will be the best upgrade short of getting new systems.

[Xander]

Originally Posted by 14049752

Tell your mom that ram is cheap and will be the best upgrade short of getting new systems.

She's already got 2GB which means, unless she's doing high-end stuff like video editing and CAD/CAM, she's not getting full use of what she already has.

Check the disk for errors, defrag to <5%, SFC, etc. There's not a lot you can do for those old ones.

[Big Jim]

backup
format
reinstall

[OfficeTechs]

replace the stock IDE/SATA drive with an SSD drive, doesnt sound like she needs much storage space and smallish SSD drives are fairly cheap nowadays.

Ive done this to a few low end XP laptops and it makes a world of difference as long as you have the RAM sizeing correct which seems you have.

[YeOldeStonecat]

New hard drive...clone the drive to a new one. You stated an 80 gig drive, I bet that drive is over 5 years old.

100 bucks...clone the drive to a new one, swap.
Keep the "old" drive and configure it as a second drive. Add the pagefile.sys to it and make it system managed....on both the new drive, and now also on the old drive.

She'll run noticeably better.

Adding more RAM won't help much if it's already at 2 gigs...a big law of diminishing returns comes into play with Windows XP and going above 2 gigs of RAM....unless she runs some app that REALLY needs RAM. It's cheap enough where you could add another pair of sticks to bring it to 4 gigs. XP (it's most likely 32 bit) will only see 3.2 or 3.4 or maybe 3.5 gigs (depending on video card and other hardware)...so it'll really only be able to use 3-ish gigs.

But seriously....older computers....clone the drive to a new one, instant regain in performance...and probably a longer expected life...on a new HDD. As hard drives age....they degrade in performance. Plus current generation HDDs perform better than older ones.

[FoolishTech]

>2GB of RAM is pointless in Windows XP.

New HDDs could help. Basic maintenance.

There is NO software that will make a PC run faster. Unless you're talking about the DOS days when QEMM by Quarterdeck was around.

LOL @ Finallyfast.com

[14049752]

On the Ram, fair enough. I missed the 2gb part in the op. But, like everyone else said, the real point is that money needs to go to hardware because there isn't a program that'll work like that.