another question, slow computer

[noname]

My pentium 2 computer(Computr Renaissance, genuine intel, Intell(r)
Celeron(tm) processor,64 RAM, ) with windows Millenium boots slow,opens
programs slow and takes long to shut down. I have remove most of programs
from startup ( by running msconfig. I also have antivirus, spyware blater, A
square, ad-aware etc already installed. Please help, is it safe that I
uninstall millenium and install wind. 98 or 2000.

[Noel Paton]

Win 2000 will not install on that system without upgrading the RAM (or if it
does install, it'll run like cold treacle)

Have you tried a ScanDisk and Defrag?

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2005, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm
http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's

"noname" > wrote in message
...
> My pentium 2 computer(Computr Renaissance, genuine intel, Intell(r)
> Celeron(tm) processor,64 RAM, ) with windows Millenium boots slow,opens
> programs slow and takes long to shut down. I have remove most of programs
> from startup ( by running msconfig. I also have antivirus, spyware
> blater, A
> square, ad-aware etc already installed. Please help, is it safe that I
> uninstall millenium and install wind. 98 or 2000.

[cquirke (MVP Win9x)]

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 15:33:03 -0800, noname

>My pentium 2 computer(Computr Renaissance, genuine intel, Intell(r)
>Celeron(tm) processor,64 RAM, ) with windows Millenium boots slow,opens
>programs slow and takes long to shut down.

OK, let's start with the hardware. Is it Pentium II or Celeron?

The first Pentium II generation Celeron (266MHz, 300MHz) were very
slow because they had no Level 2 cache at all. These can be expected
to run like Pentium-200 and -233 respectively, and IMO would be
unsuitable for Windows 2000 or WinME.

Later PII-generation Celeron were way faster, because they contained
Level 2 cache that was smaller than the original PII, but ran at full
core speed where the original PII ran this at half core speed. So
"Celeron-300A" and faster Mhz (333MHz - 1.2MHz or so) will work quite
well; from 500MHz up, should be nice even with XP.

But while 64M RAM will be OK for WinME and nice for Win98xx, it's too
low to run Win2000 or XP effectively.

OTOH, if this is a system that ran WinME acceptably before, but is now
too slow, then it's not hardware spec that is the problem.

>I have remove most of programs from startup ( by running msconfig.
>I also have antivirus, spyware blater, A square, ad-aware etc already

Dunno A square. Presence of av etc. does not rule out the presence of
active traditional malware (viruses, worms, trojans).

>...is it safe that I uninstall millenium and install wind. 98 or 2000.

Safe in what way - as in, likely to work, or data safety?

Changing OS is not a trivial matter, won't fix bad hardware, and may
not avoid active malware even if you wipe and rebuild.

Bad RAM will crash the PC at full speed, but a failing HD may slow the
PC down due to retries, and an overheating processor (PII-generation
OEMs fans will be old enough to fail by now, and even the Intel fans
will be old enough to be packed with dust) can slow the PC by
retreating to a slower mode for thermal protection.

Bad HD is the baddie, because that can not only make a
freshly-installed OS prone to failure, but can kill data too.

I'd start by...
- formal virus scan http://cquirke.mvps.org/9x/virtest.htm
- check hardware http://cquirke.mvps.org/9x/bthink.htm
- clear temp and TIF, set TIF to 20M or less
- disable WinME's System Restore, or reduce to 400M tops
- defrag
....then take it from there. If you have more than one HD volume, then
I would definitely disable System Restore, because in WinME this has
to copy all backup material from other volumes to C:

http://cquirke.mvps.org/9x/sr-sfp.htm refers.



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