This laptop shouldn't be this slow! - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

ratbastid · 11-27-2004, 08:13 AM

Okay, so I'm sitting here with my newish HP Pavilion laptop. Generally I'm quite happy with it, except for the slowness it sometimes exhibits in windowing-related functions. Restoring a window from the taskbar or the system tray can take up to 10 seconds. Bringing background windows to the forground is like pushing a rock uphill, waiting for them to redraw.... and redraw... and redraw..... It's worst when I have several programs open. Most actual functions are very fast; the slowness is all around windowing.

The machine has an Athlon XP2800+ running at 2.12 Ghz, so it's not processor-bound. I suspect it's the ram, of which it has a mere 192mb.

Anybody else have any other thoughts than that? Anything else I ought to consider before I slap down the bux on some more ram?

I've gotten into digital music composition lately, too, and I suspect my realtime audio rendering would be much improved with some more memory.

merkerguitars · 11-27-2004, 08:33 AM

Yeah memory would help big time. XP needs at least 256mb to function OK in my opinion. And your probably running alot of stuff on it. Check task manager and see how much memory is being eaten up and where.

rocinante2003 · 11-27-2004, 08:42 AM

Hey, I have installed a couple of HP Pavilion notebooks with athlon cpu's. I remember that on one of them, one of the bundled applications was using 99% cpu cycles. I cant remember which one it was, but open up the task manager, and check to see if anything is using up your cpu. (right click on taskbar, hit task manager). Your notebook should still be quite zippy just in windows with that memory.

ratbastid · 11-27-2004, 09:29 AM

Sitting at idle (this Firefox window open to type in, Thunderbird minimized, and Task Manager running), I'm at 10% CPU usage, and 38MB physical memory available. That probably says the whole thing, right there.

My main RAM hogs are Sharp Reader, an RSS reader that lurks in the system tray (currently 15MB), Firefox (currently open, 25Mb), and POPfile, a bayesian email sorter (currently 22mb). With those guys running, I've got 38mb available and 343mb of page files in use.

Great. Anybody got a good suggestion for cheap PC2100 DDR 266mhz 200-pin SODIMMs? I have one empty slot just begging for a 512mb stick.

NegativeNine · 11-27-2004, 09:39 AM

http://www.amamax.com/51pc26200pin.html

Cheap? I haven't shopped for RAM in a while, so I don't know...

My motherboard runs RDRAM...expensiver than DDR

sailor · 11-27-2004, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ratbastid

Sitting at idle (this Firefox window open to type in, Thunderbird minimized, and Task Manager running), I'm at 10% CPU usage, and 38MB physical memory available. That probably says the whole thing, right there.

My main RAM hogs are Sharp Reader, an RSS reader that lurks in the system tray (currently 15MB), Firefox (currently open, 25Mb), and POPfile, a bayesian email sorter (currently 22mb). With those guys running, I've got 38mb available and 343mb of page files in use.

Great. Anybody got a good suggestion for cheap PC2100 DDR 266mhz 200-pin SODIMMs? I have one empty slot just begging for a 512mb stick.

I really dont know much about what prices are like at the moment, but I do know that Crucial makes good stuff.

I too am pretty sure that its a memory issue. Sounds like its having to page a lot of stuff and grab it all back off the hard drive whenever you start doing something else, which obviously is a lot slower than grabbing it from RAM

ratbastid · 11-27-2004, 03:25 PM

One 512MB SODIMM is on its way from Crucial, probably leaving there Monday.

Thanks, folks! I'll let you know that it worked after I've got it installed!

ratbastid · 12-01-2004, 11:49 AM

Oh

My

God.

I now have 412 megs free and it's like a whole new computer. Windows just FLY open now. It's like I hardly have to click them!

Thanks for the advice, people!

eyeronic · 12-17-2004, 11:07 AM

I tried to put RAM in my work desktop and the thing just didn't fit. I thought they were universal! Anybody able to help me out on why it didn't work? I took the older RAM out of a Pentium 2 Dell and was putting it into a Dimension2400 which has slowed down immensely and I can't figure out why.

Is there a glossary for the things that most commonly pop up in task manager? What the hell are all those things? I have like 20 processes and only 2 programs open? Aaaaaaarrrrggghhh.

heyal256 · 12-17-2004, 06:46 PM

Well, first up, RAM is not universal, there are many different varieties. This is why the memory configurator that crucial.com has can be useful, sometimes you have no clue what will fit where, and all the various different types.

Generally, for taskmanager I google the various processes to figure out what they do.
This is a good place to start http://www.answersthatwork.com/Taskl...s/tasklist.htm .

Some of the more normal stuff I have running is (win2k sp4)
System idle Process
System
winlogon.exe
svchost.exe
spoolsv.exe
services.exe
among others that might be more specific to the system depending on running programs.

Sudden slow downs can be caused by
scheduled tasks (virus scan/defrag, etc)
spyware (run spybot/adaware/etc)
hard drive issues (full/needs a defrag/bad sectors [run scandisk]/etc)
could also be some security software or something loading in the startup (I like this program to look at what's in my startup http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml )

Hope that some of this is useful to you.

eyeronic · 12-17-2004, 09:53 PM

Hey heyal, that was some concise useful information. Some I knew and other things I didn't leaving me roughly twice as knowledgabe as I was before. Here's a great thing too that replaces task manager http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/fr.../procexp.shtml that I got after reading one of SiN's posts IAT.

heyal256 · 12-18-2004, 07:41 PM

Good to know that the info helped you. I know about process explorer, but i haven't used it so I can't comment on it.
Hope that you can figure out what is causing the slowdown on that system... if not you can always format/reinstall (that usually works if it's not a hardware problem

)

zero2 · 12-18-2004, 10:07 PM

The biggest memory hog on my computer is IPodService.exe, unfortunately, there isn't anything I can do since I have a ipod.

westothemax · 12-18-2004, 10:35 PM

Computers are weird like that. My P3 866MHz with 640MB of PC133 runs Windows XP much better than my P4 2.0GHZ with 128MB of PC2100. I'm going to be upgrading the P4 to 512MB of PC2100 this weekend.

sailor · 12-19-2004, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by westothemax

Computers are weird like that. My P3 866MHz with 640MB of PC133 runs Windows XP much better than my P4 2.0GHZ with 128MB of PC2100. I'm going to be upgrading the P4 to 512MB of PC2100 this weekend.

Thats not that wierd, though. Just running the OS doesnt take much CPU power, but lots of stuff has to be cached to the RAM. Ive installed XP on several 600mHz machines, and as long as there is at least 256MB of RAM in it (preferably 512), it runs like a champ.

11-27-2004, 08:13 AM	#1 (permalink)
ratbastid Darth Papa Location: Yonder	This laptop shouldn't be this slow! Okay, so I'm sitting here with my newish HP Pavilion laptop. Generally I'm quite happy with it, except for the slowness it sometimes exhibits in windowing-related functions. Restoring a window from the taskbar or the system tray can take up to 10 seconds. Bringing background windows to the forground is like pushing a rock uphill, waiting for them to redraw.... and redraw... and redraw..... It's worst when I have several programs open. Most actual functions are very fast; the slowness is all around windowing. The machine has an Athlon XP2800+ running at 2.12 Ghz, so it's not processor-bound. I suspect it's the ram, of which it has a mere 192mb. Anybody else have any other thoughts than that? Anything else I ought to consider before I slap down the bux on some more ram? I've gotten into digital music composition lately, too, and I suspect my realtime audio rendering would be much improved with some more memory.

11-27-2004, 08:33 AM	#2 (permalink)
merkerguitars Buffering......... Location: Wisconsin...	Yeah memory would help big time. XP needs at least 256mb to function OK in my opinion. And your probably running alot of stuff on it. Check task manager and see how much memory is being eaten up and where. __________________ Donate now! Ask me How! Please use the search function it is your friend. Look at my mustang please feel free to comment! http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=26985

12-17-2004, 11:07 AM	#9 (permalink)
eyeronic I run E. Location: New York	I tried to put RAM in my work desktop and the thing just didn't fit. I thought they were universal! Anybody able to help me out on why it didn't work? I took the older RAM out of a Pentium 2 Dell and was putting it into a Dimension2400 which has slowed down immensely and I can't figure out why. Is there a glossary for the things that most commonly pop up in task manager? What the hell are all those things? I have like 20 processes and only 2 programs open? Aaaaaaarrrrggghhh. __________________ I hold with those that favor fire.

12-17-2004, 09:53 PM	#11 (permalink)
eyeronic I run E. Location: New York	Hey heyal, that was some concise useful information. Some I knew and other things I didn't leaving me roughly twice as knowledgabe as I was before. Here's a great thing too that replaces task manager http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/fr.../procexp.shtml that I got after reading one of SiN's posts IAT. __________________ I hold with those that favor fire.

11-27-2004, 08:42 AM	#3 (permalink)
rocinante2003 Insane Location: Dallas	Hey, I have installed a couple of HP Pavilion notebooks with athlon cpu's. I remember that on one of them, one of the bundled applications was using 99% cpu cycles. I cant remember which one it was, but open up the task manager, and check to see if anything is using up your cpu. (right click on taskbar, hit task manager). Your notebook should still be quite zippy just in windows with that memory.

11-27-2004, 09:29 AM	#4 (permalink)
ratbastid Darth Papa Location: Yonder	Sitting at idle (this Firefox window open to type in, Thunderbird minimized, and Task Manager running), I'm at 10% CPU usage, and 38MB physical memory available. That probably says the whole thing, right there. My main RAM hogs are Sharp Reader, an RSS reader that lurks in the system tray (currently 15MB), Firefox (currently open, 25Mb), and POPfile, a bayesian email sorter (currently 22mb). With those guys running, I've got 38mb available and 343mb of page files in use. Great. Anybody got a good suggestion for cheap PC2100 DDR 266mhz 200-pin SODIMMs? I have one empty slot just begging for a 512mb stick.

11-27-2004, 09:39 AM	#5 (permalink)
NegativeNine Tilted	http://www.amamax.com/51pc26200pin.html Cheap? I haven't shopped for RAM in a while, so I don't know... My motherboard runs RDRAM...expensiver than DDR

11-27-2004, 03:25 PM	#7 (permalink)
ratbastid Darth Papa Location: Yonder	One 512MB SODIMM is on its way from Crucial, probably leaving there Monday. Thanks, folks! I'll let you know that it worked after I've got it installed!

12-01-2004, 11:49 AM	#8 (permalink)
ratbastid Darth Papa Location: Yonder	Oh My God. I now have 412 megs free and it's like a whole new computer. Windows just FLY open now. It's like I hardly have to click them! Thanks for the advice, people!

12-17-2004, 06:46 PM	#10 (permalink)
heyal256 Not so great lurker Location: NY	Well, first up, RAM is not universal, there are many different varieties. This is why the memory configurator that crucial.com has can be useful, sometimes you have no clue what will fit where, and all the various different types. Generally, for taskmanager I google the various processes to figure out what they do. This is a good place to start http://www.answersthatwork.com/Taskl...s/tasklist.htm . Some of the more normal stuff I have running is (win2k sp4) System idle Process System winlogon.exe svchost.exe spoolsv.exe services.exe among others that might be more specific to the system depending on running programs. Sudden slow downs can be caused by scheduled tasks (virus scan/defrag, etc) spyware (run spybot/adaware/etc) hard drive issues (full/needs a defrag/bad sectors [run scandisk]/etc) could also be some security software or something loading in the startup (I like this program to look at what's in my startup http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml ) Hope that some of this is useful to you.

12-18-2004, 07:41 PM	#12 (permalink)
heyal256 Not so great lurker Location: NY	Good to know that the info helped you. I know about process explorer, but i haven't used it so I can't comment on it. Hope that you can figure out what is causing the slowdown on that system... if not you can always format/reinstall (that usually works if it's not a hardware problem )

12-18-2004, 10:07 PM	#13 (permalink)
zero2 Junkie	The biggest memory hog on my computer is IPodService.exe, unfortunately, there isn't anything I can do since I have a ipod.

12-18-2004, 10:35 PM	#14 (permalink)
westothemax Insane Location: Bay Area	Computers are weird like that. My P3 866MHz with 640MB of PC133 runs Windows XP much better than my P4 2.0GHZ with 128MB of PC2100. I'm going to be upgrading the P4 to 512MB of PC2100 this weekend.