My computer has become extremely slow since the installation of my new operating from windows 98 to windows xp

Question

so whats the solution. my games are also not running smoothly and the computer also hangs when playing them. (pentium-4 2.4gh)

Answer 1

You need more RAM.

You might also be under-clocked. Check to see:
(1) Right click on My Computer
(2) Look at "Computer:" What's your processor speed say there?

To reclock or overclock your computer go into BIOS and change you multiplier. Your processor speed is (i think) front side bus times the multiplier. Sometimes mine gets underclocked some how, and I have to go in and fix it. (133mhz X 15 = 2.0ghz).

Also, you can add some more Virtual RAM. To do this,
(1) Right click on My Computer
(2) Click on the Advanced tab
(3) Under Performance, click on Settings
(4) Click on the Advanced tab
(5) Under Virtual Memory, click on Change

This lets you allocate DRIVE SPACE and turn it into virtual memory.

You should also turn off junk running in the background.

(1) CTL-ALT-DELETE
(2) How many processes is your computer running? My Win XP machine runs with as little as 16 processes.

Turn off start-up programs:
(1) Run this program: msconfig
(2) Click on the Start Up tab
(3) Turn off everything you don't NEED
(4) If you don't know, try turning it off (it really can't hurt your machine)
(5) Now click on the Services tab
(6) Click on Hide All Microsoft Services
(7) Turn off everything you don't NEED

Run Adware/Spyware destroyers. Try Spybot: Search and Destroy. (I linked it for you)

Maintaining a good computer is like maintaining a good car.
I hope something there helps!

Answer 2

You should see some speed issues going from Windows 98 to XP because XP is a lot more graphical operating system. Windows 98 doesn't use as much system resources.

You can try downloading AdAware and delete all the spyware on the computer.

To speed up the start-up of Windows XP, you could type in msconfig and eliminate the start-up items from starting.

Also, make sure you have at least 512mb of ram. The more ram, the better.

Answer 3

Several factors will impact your computer's performance. Too many programs running at start up. Too many spyware programs sneaked into it. But right off, perhaps you have too little ram - XP requires at least 256 mb of ram to run decently, and so even though it will run with that, 512 would be much better. And you should also check for viruses. So if you have 256 or less ram and also have gotten a bunch of spyware and have a lot of start up programs running in the background, you would experience performance problems. It's not all about the cpu speed....

Answer 4

from my pov there might be 6 things that may resolve this issue

but first answer these questions: did your games run smoothly on 98? whats your video card like?

-- I agree with the previous posts I suggest you take them all into consideration --


1 - not enough ram. XP ALONE eats 300++ MB of your RAM on startup.

(so thats 300MB drain + other memory requirements of your other applications)

of course you can install it and the minimum specs say it should be okay on 256MB RAM - well thats because whatever is lacking XP eats from your virtual memory hence degrading performance.

Modify your pagefile (virtual memory) and tick that box where it says let windows specify etc etc. An earlier post outlined how to access the performance area of XP.

if you're riding on 256MB i suggest an upgrade ASAP! 512MB will do u good but 1GB wouldn't hurt either :p

2 - download CC Cleaner from www.download.com its freeware last time i checked it. Run a complete scan and let it analyse and fix the issues with your registry. I've done this heaps at computer cafe's and it works for me.

(Not to insult anyone's intelligence or anything... but just to prove a point...)

In opening programs the hard disk loads application into RAM (if not enough it loads in virtual memory) Virtual memory is a chunk of your hard disk that is allocated to run as RAM. So if you don't shut down properly that chunk becomes a file fragment.

Remember the checkdisk that runs everytime you don't shut down windows properly? Its there for a reason - it looks for the file fragments of virtual memory used and chucks it.

If you don't run that utility - fragments of virtual memory will eat up your hard drive space and surely slow it down. CC Cleaner takes care of this issue as well.

3 - check your startup by running msconfig and having a gander at start up tab -- don't fiddle around with this unless u know what you're doing.

4 - Check for spyware, malware, virus, worms and then clean.

5 - I agree with everyone here - DEFRAG!

6 - backup your files, make sure u have your programs and their serial numbers, backup your drivers, reformat and perform a clean install of XP ( with SP2 )

hope these help solve your XP issues and goodluck! :D

Remember that upgrading to XP is a love it or hate it thing. 98 very good for gaming because it doesnt eat too much memory - keeps things nice and simple. heck im thinking of having dual OS on my machine (XP for normal , 98 for games) coz im a gaming person myself.

If you can't seem to solve your problem - I suggest changing hard drives or RAM

Answer 5

Sounds like you need to add more memory to it. While 98 will run on 128, XP crawls with 265 or less. Becomes useable at 512. Likes it when over that.

Answer 6

Windows xp needs about 256 of ram to run fairly okish. The mininium it needs is 128MB. Windows 98 on the other hand does not does as much. It seems like its a cse of you having to upgrad your ram to a higher level.

Answer 7

Did you do a clean install or just upgraded it?.. If you just upgraded it, chances are your hard drive may have spyware or adware... Try running spybot and ad-aware se. Its free from download.com and they actually work. another thing is your hard drive may be full.. Check your Ram, you need at least 256mb but 512mb will be even better...And theres always the sure way and that is to fdisk your hard drive, reformat it and do a clean install of xp. Of course you will loose all your data but that should solve your problems. Good Luck!

Answer 8

I have a sneaking suspicion that it is your RAM but I am not sure. Do you have SP 2 installed for it? Check out the link for more information. Since you are a gamer, I suggest you have at least 1 GB of RAM and a 80 GB hard drive or better.

Answer 9

PLEASE tell me you didnt just insert the XP disk and accept the install. If you did that is your problem. A direct upgrade from a previous version of windows is very unstable. Your best bet, save anything you want to keep, reformat the system, and do a Clean install from a basic OS.

http://www.myspace.com/jatznic

Answer 10

512 mb is better for xp,not 256, at 256 you will be doing a lot of hard drive swapping ,thus slowing your drive down, 1GB is even better as most new system ship with that much xp