Windows XP Running Very Slowly after SP2 Install

[Madmanhattan]

Non-techie needs help! I installed SP2 yesterday and now my Windows XP is running slow as molasses.

At first I thought it was just my internet connection (high speed cable modem with wireless router) which all of a sudden was slower than dial-up.

But then I realized that it was everything - my whole system running slowly. Windows take forever to close, programs take forever to open. When scrolling down web pages, the images scroll choppily and slowly.

Any ideas? I'm using a Dell Inspiron 1150 with a Celeron 2.4 processor. It's never been the fastest computer, but this is ridiculous.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Sphyenx]

Well if you download\ed SP2, well first off that is a huge DOWNLOAD, and your speed may be slow for a while, day or two. ALL that pumping, also sp2 is a huge add on to XP, so it may actually require more resources. Now if you bough you PC stock and never updated or upgraded well its probably 256 mb ram which is what i run on a windows 2000, ad i upgraded. What you should do is consider picking up some more RAM. Take your motherboard stat's (name etc) and go to any computer store and ask them what you should purchase. I would say if your not full of cash like me then stick with another stick of 128, or if you gto some cash 256, but even better is 512. Or ask mommy for a nice 1gb stick of ram! that bad boy will be like starwar's.

[caperjack]

You could do a system restore back to before you installed sp2 .i found the same thing when i first install sp2 .restore got me back to normal , ,so i formated and did a fresh install of xp, then installed sp2 and now it workes just fine !!best to install sp2 on a clean install of winxp!
to perforem a system restor go to start /all programs /accessories /system tools and ,clik on system restore and pick a date before the install of sp2.

Well if you download\ed SP2, well first off that is a huge DOWNLOAD, and your speed may be slow for a while, day or two. ALL that pumping,

SphyenX, Just wondering ,what type of internet connection this happens with !maybe so during the download ,but After!!Should run just fine ,my cable connection does anyway and my dial up useto too.Im downloading 4000 megs right now and when finished it will run just fine !!

[Sphyenx]

Some internet connections are different. Like me im wireless, and i cant risk running up my router like that, lol. Im not mean!. I love my hardware. Also when a modem heats up it runs some what slower. So yes it does slow down a little but not alot. Ive tested all this before so im pretty sure.

[rcrevolution]

will i be bale to run SP2 with no problems?

AMD 64 3400+
1024Mb ram

[caperjack]

will i be bale to run SP2 with no problems?

AMD 64 3400+
1024Mb ram

You shold not piggyback someones thread ,create one of you own, or do a google search on SP2 problems and see it any are releated to your system.Thank you

[Sphyenx]

will i be bale to run SP2 with no problems?

AMD 64 3400+
1024Mb ram

yes because xp sp1 needed 256 mem, and i think sp2 kept it around there,. You got a gig, so your all set.

[rcrevolution]

how is that piggybacking? we are on the sp2 subject

[caperjack]

how is that piggybacking? we are on the sp2 subject

This is a help fourm ,not a discusion fourm !

[ConceptGuy]

I realize this is an old thread, but I'll take any help I can get. Here's the story:

Dell Inspiron 1150, belongs to another person. Installed SP2, then replaced the 256 MB of RAM with 2 512 MB chips. Should be rocking, right? Still very slow.

Cleared a lot of HDD space, so it's now about 50% free. Scanned for malware, etc. with a couple of apps to find whatever might be sapping resources, but found nothing that's obviously unusual. Where should I look next?

THANKS in advance!

[caperjack]

did you go to windows updates and get all the updates for after sp2, there are quite a few .80 or more ,might help

[ConceptGuy]

Thanks for the reply, caperjack.

Yes, I did DL and install the multitude of WXPSP2 updates. Also ran updated scans with AVG and SpyCatcher. Cleared the easy stuff with CCleaner. I also checked the items mentioned earlier in the thread - DMA settings, CPU set to "normal" - that sort of thing.

I'm wondering if the issue may be partially due to hardware. In WXP's Admin Tools, the Event Viewer showed a series of "Event 7" errors - bad block on the HDD. WXP tried to write to the same block about 20 times in a minute before moving on. Ran ScanDisk and defragged, and haven't seen that error again.

Resized the pagefile to 1.533 GB after the new RAM was installed and yet haven't picked up the performance I expect.

The HDD is a 20 GB 4200 RPM OEM device, but with a gig of RAM... <ponders the significance and heads to the fridge for a cold beer>