Hardware

Ask something
Question Locked

Troubleshooting older computer

0 helpful
6 replies

by jamescr

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

Hardware AMD Athlon Xp 1600+ 1.4 ghz 480 ram
three HD disk 0Wdc Wd 400EB 40gb 5400RPm
Disk 1 Maxtor 6y080PO 80gb at 7200 rpm
1 external Maxtor usb hd 3200HD at 7200 rpm
Performance has been terrible over the last 8mths
Do a lot of usenet file downloads. Works great as
long as I just surf the web. If I try to use it to web browsing and downloading files I get a lot of running out of memory errors. I adjusted the swapfile to 1152. I no it is not safe but I have been disabling Earthlink protection services
while I am using usenet. If I let it run the whole time it is using about 107,000 kb of memory. The most taxing problem is anytime I
try to use the usb devices. I fort to mention I have 2 sandisk usb thumb drives 8gb's apiece.
Just ran into a typical problem just now. I have over 240gb capacity left in my external maxtor drive. I was trying to unzip 30 rar files set at about 15,360kb apiece. It was taking forever to do the unzip and it then gave me message that either the hd was write protected or it had filled up. Usally whn I notice the slugish behavior of the external hd I disconnect the usb and ac cables and let it set for a few minutes and it works for about 8 hours before the slow down symptoms occur.I also takes foreve torun quickpar on this external usb drive. Sorry if this was so long of a post but I wanted to giv me as much information possible. I forgot to tell you running winxp sp2. TIa for any pointers.

6 replies

by older mycroft

What speed of internet connection do you have?
What antivirus software do you use?
What antispyware do you use?

How much free space do you have on each of your internal hard drives? Your system drive shouldn't run below 15% free space.

You should also run defragmentation on your internal drives.

Is your pagefile on the same hard drive as your XP installation? If so, you should reset it to be on your second internal hard drive. That way the pagefile reads and writes don't interfere with system reads and writes.

As for your external drive slowing down - it is most likely overheating. External drives are not built nor intended for constant use, more as a form of storage and backup, for occasional access. They are frequently not fitted with any fans and sometimes in plastic enclosures which do not help with the dissipation of heat.

Post back with the details and we can advise you on system protection utilities.

by jamescr

I had the computr since Sept 2002.
Went to speedtest.net D/L speed 7063Kbs,u/l
speed 358kbs. using Earthlink Cable Broadband.
internal drive 0 66% free
internal drive 1 55% free.
I wont squible but I did mention that I was using Earthlink Protection Center Software and
Adware and SDfix, a registry cleaner.Ran defrag on both internal hard drives about 2 months ago. The swapfile is on drive 0 and I will move a majority of it to the 2 internal drive. I did replace the pws fan about four months ago. What is quite puzzling is that the external drive has not given me any problems until recently. I guess the heat issuse is more crippling as the electrons begin to age. Would like to move to linux and
kiss MSdoze goodbye. I recently filed for disabilty and am waitng for their disposition. Money is tight right now and non-essitial expenses are being put on hold.
I am trying to arrange to move the machine up to one meg of memory. I probably should do a clean instal of winxp but it is a fricken nightmare.

by thechas

Just a note that fits a number of systems of this age.

Check for bulging or leaking capacitors on the motherboard. The capacitors in question are the silver top cylinders near the CPU and power connector.

Back in the 2000 - 2003 time frame a number of motherboard manufactures used capacitors that had bad electrolyte. Most of these failed very soon after being in service. I have started to see more of these show up again. I replaced 2 motherboards just recently. That had the symptoms, but the caps did not bulge until after they had sat unpowered for awhile.

Chas

by jamescr

Thank you chas for your comments . I am an ex
radioshack man and can solder pretty good. I I replaced componets before but never on pc boards. Does it not make miore sense to replace the CPU? I have been researching the new cpus and that will be my next adventure. One reason if I do go with a new system I do not want to be at the mercy of a retailer or microsoft. My suspicions is that the disk 0 hard drive is near eol. I have wanted to switch make drive 1 drive 0 but my xp install disk is keyed to the partion on the drive 0. I do not want to ever be held hostage again.I have had a whole lot of deferent issuses over the last 8-9 mos. Some times the computer self reboots, when I try to access any hd after a reboot the mouse does the spining thing for 20-30 seconds before i can look at any files. when going through my picture files it will skip over some files. I guess I just need a new cpu.I was hoping that there existed apossibility of either a simple software fix or a rather inexpensive hardware fix. I'm just dreaming

by thechas

Motherboards are a difficult to remove soldered components from unless you have the right tools and skills.

Most motherboards have at least 4 layers of circuits and the holes for the component leads are plated to make connections to the inner layers.

It can be very easy to fracture or even pull out the plating from the hole.

As to the CPU, you are limited by what the motherboard can support. You are further limited by what is available out in the market.

So long as you have had a good fan on the CPU, I would not suspect problems with the CPU itself.

Chas

This discussion is closed to new replies.