Computer too slow?

[htid]

My girlfriends pc is a 2.6ghz Pentium 4, with 512mb DDR PC2700 ram and it seems really slow. Even seems slower than my old 1.8ghz P4 with the same ram (although I can;t compare directly because I wasn't with her when I had that one, it just SEEMS slower)

Anway with those specs I get hexus superpi in 96seconds. Does that seem about right? Even if it does, what could be making it slow? She's going to format it tomorrow so we'll see if that helps, but just thought I'd ask here anyway if that's an expected pifast time for the specs

Cheers.
Chris

[dave87]

an extra 512mb RAM would help no end, have you checked the health of the Hard Disk? I had a dell (not mine) with a dying hard disk which cause the system to run at a snails pace...

Dave

[EtheAv8r]

A reformat and fresh build will be a good start.

What is the OS?
What protection have you from Internet bourne malware?
Is it patched fully up-to-date?
Do you have a hardware firewall in the router that connects you to the internet?
More RAM definitely will help

[htid]

an extra 512mb RAM would help no end, have you checked the health of the Hard Disk? I had a dell (not mine) with a dying hard disk which cause the system to run at a snails pace...

Dave

Hmm....cpu-z says the ram is DDR PC2700 (166mhz). I just checked on scan and the 2700 stuff is 333mhz

Is her ram just running really slow or what?

As for the hard drive health, how do you go about checking that?

Cheers.

[htid]

A reformat and fresh build will be a good start.

What is the OS?
What protection have you from Internet bourne malware?
Is it patched fully up-to-date?
Do you have a hardware firewall in the router that connects you to the internet?
More RAM definitely will help

-she has XP home
-Zone alarm firewall/ad-aware 6/Avira Antivirus/MS anti spyware/Spybot search and destory
-Auto update is on
-Not sure about that, have to ask, but I don't think it could be that as the others on the network aren't slow
- RAM...see above

[Smudger]

I think that would be the right RAM. 333 Mhz DDr is running at 166, just pulses twice in the cycle, or something like that.

The system would show DDR333 as running at 166Mhz.

[merdat]

Format,plus fresh install of windows and add more ram and you will see a magical difference.

[EtheAv8r]

A reformat and fresh build will be a great start, and more RAM definitely will make a big difference. I would prefer to be behind a hardware firewall for the build and going out the the Internet to get all the patches and updates..... You are very vulnerable at that stage.

My daughter has a PC with Abit NF7-s v2, Athlon 3200+ and has recently been crashing and re-booting.

Testing has highlighted that one of the sticks of Corsair RAM 1GB TwinX Platinum 3200LL (2*512) has begun to have errors, so it has been RMA'd (after nearly 4 years good use) back to Corsair for replacement. Temporarily I have popped in a single 512Mb PC 2700 stick and lowered the timings in the BIOS (or it would not boot) - and performace is dramatically slower!

So add more RAM and check the BIOS to ensure it is running at proper speed.

[MadduckUK]

in a desperate attempt to look for extra speed im currently running my Corsair Value-Select PC3200 at 233Mhz rather than 200. there IS some kind of tangible difference. but of course im scared it will BSOD any moment.. ah well such is life