Slow, stuttering performance

Alexexex

Posts: 105   +0
I'm running windows XP on my old Dell Dimension 2400, and after a reformat and

installing drivers, it's never been the same as it was before the format. I'm not sure where I

went wrong, however I do have a strong feelings that it may have something to do with a

conflicting drivers of some sort. This was probably because I didn't know what drivers to

install before, so I just took a bunch of them from the Dell website. Now with all these

drivers, my computer experiences stutters, slow performance, and just terrible response

times. Now I'm not completely sure that the problem lies within the drivers, although that

was just my instincts. Now if it isn't my drivers, I'd like to hear what I should do, or if it is

my drivers, I'm not sure how to uninstall the unnecessary ones, so any suggestions

would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.
 
The motherboard chipset drivers should be installed first, then the network drivers. Place the Dell drivers on a CD then reformat and install XP. If the system is still slow there could be an incorrect bios setting or a hardware issue like memory or hard drive
 
Dell drivers

If your Dell PC is 'as new', in that you haven't changed the Graphics card or sound, then use your service tag that you will find printed on the case, and enter it into the 'Support and Drivers' section on the Dell site. That will give you the correct set of drivers. If you have fitted a different Card from new, you will need to get the correct driver from the makers site, rather than Dell. You can find out if, and which drivers are missing, by going to 'Control Panel', 'system', 'hardware', 'device manager', and any Yellow warning triangles will tell you the faulty files. Right-click on each one, and select, 'Update driver'.
That should get the XP system to a basic 'as new' performance.
 
I looked at my device manager window, and it shows no yellow warning triangles.

I was hoping not to reformat my computer, as I have many important applications, and files, so maybe

just as a last resort option.

As for the drivers, I have installed all the drivers, except i believe I installed too many, mostly

unnecessary ones.
 
If your computer is running at all back up all your important files now, using a DVD, USB memory stick or an external USB hard drive. The "I was hoping not to reformat my computer, as I have many important applications"... excuse should never be used again, with all the easy backup options available now. I have a 1TB Raid setup and all my pictures, music and documents are filed away on DVD's. The apps can be downloaded again, or if you paid for them you should keep paper records of the transactions, account numbers and passwords. If you see no yellow marks in the device manager, drivers are not your main problem
 
Do you do any 'clean-up' or 'maintainence' on your PC? It sounds as if your drivers are not really the problem. I use 'CCleaner', it's free to use.
If you do download it, use it as it installs, don't tick all the extra boxes, thinking it will be improved. I also use 'Winmend', from the their website, in the freeware page. Also, but less important, defragment the 'C' drive about once or twice a month. But do back up any photo's or music or any files you value, to a disc off of your 'C' drive. The external hard-drives are excellent for this.
 
There could be many reasons.

1.How much free space is on the HDD, hold your mouse over the drive icon on My Computer and it will tell you.

2.Do you by any chance have TWO anti-virus programs installed and running.

3.Have you used any registry cleaners - they are usually useless and frequently dangerous to the health of the computer.

4.How much ram do you have and what is the speed of the processor. Go Start, Right click My computer, click properties and it will on the general tab tell you the processor speed and how much ram. If you have installed more programs and applications than you had on the computer before, when it was running OK this may be the problem.

5.How much ram is actually available when the system is running. Press Ctrl, Alt and Delete and Task Manager will open, click the performance tab and on the lower right it will tell you.

6. Do this, as per the link and post back with information as I have asked for and any improvement on the clean boot.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353/
 
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