XP SP2 - General pokiness

[SkyEagle 0]

I noticed with my computer on XP compared to XP SP2 that SP2 is a lot more pokey (slow) especially with my games. The mouse doesn't respond very well and doesn't adjust too well. Any tips on getting SP2 to run somewhere near as fast as XP and XP SP1 did?

[theefool 0]

Hmmm, pokey and slow? Defrag perhaps??

[SkyEagle 0]

I'm religious with running defrag. Basically this is just a change between XP (no SP) and XP SP2. XP SP2 just seems so much slower with my games.

[theefool 0]

Have you scanned for malware? How much memory do you have?

[SkyEagle 0]

It's a new install that's not on the internet. and 512MB.

 

Originally posted by theefool:

Quote:

Have you scanned for malware? How much memory do you have?

 

[ShadowSystems 0]

Two tips.

 

* Run MSCONFIG (Windows+R MSCONFIG [enter])

Under the GENERAL tab, click "Selective Start Up". Make sure all four boxes are checked, & "Used Modified Boot.Ini" is checked.

Under the STARTUP tab, go through and disable anything that you aren't INTIMATELY familiar with. "CTFMON"? Cancel that. "QTTask"? Kill that sucker. If you do NOT know what something is, *find out*. If it's not something you absolutely HAVE to run, then don't.

Once you're done, click Apply then Ok. Restart.

 

* Run SERVICES.MSC

Look at everything that's set to "Automatic". Is it something that NEEDS to be run, or is it something that can be switched to "Manual" and only run when needed?

If you can pair down the system to run with fewer than 200 processes, then it'll be very VERY responsive.

(The fewer the better, always, but you HAVE to run some of the services if you want a usable system.)

If you've already validated it & run it through the MS Update site, then go ahead and turn all the networking, remote desktop, error logging, blah blah blah garbage to Manual. You only need them when you're hitting the MS Update site, and if you *never* take it online, there's no real reason to do so.

Reboot.

 

Run MSCONFIG again, and make *sure* that as little is running as possible.

 

At this point, you should have a system that's fairly snappy.

If you want to make it even MORE frisky, turn off all the eyecandy. (Control Panel, System Properties, Advanced, Performance, Custom ... & turn everything OFF.)

Reboot.

At this point, you'll be running a very lean, clean, and *fast* copy of XP.

The only thing left to do at that point is max out the RAM the system can handle, & try not to slip & hurt yourself in the geeky drool of glee. =)P hehehe

 

[Cormac 0]

You do realise that this thread died over 1 year ago.

[Sampson 0]

Cormac, I sent him a PM to quit resurrecting the dead; lets hope he reads it.