Old PC tuning

Well I got my old HP Pavillion out of storage and it came up good. Windows XP and 512M of RAM. I would appreciate any tips on how best to scrub up/tune this PC to get the best performance out it. Please dont say upgrade ok!

Been a while since I did PC support

Cheers

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dave330i

Set the display to 16-bit vs. 32-bit. Run regclean.

Bokeh

ccleaner is a good utility to help clean things up. Defraggler is another good program for cleaning up the HDD. Planning to read PDFs on it? Go with FoxIT reader, less overhead than Adobe reader.

MAC_Addy

Disable everything on startup that's not needed.

Start -> Run -> msconfig -> startup tab.

WafflesAndRootbeer

Turgon wrote: »

Well I got my old HP Pavillion out of storage and it came up good. Windows XP and 512M of RAM. I would appreciate any tips on how best to scrub up/tune this PC to get the best performance out it. Please dont say upgrade ok!

Been a while since I did PC support

Cheers

Gotta have the model number before we can give you any real advice beyond generic responses.

gunbunnysoulja

Since you won't be doing any HW upgrades and will really just be tweaking XP, I would reduce unnecessary services (I like Black Viper's recommendations).

Check out some decent tweaks here: Black Viper’s Windows XP Super Tweaks | Black Viper's Website | www.blackviper.com

rsutton

Control panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Adjust for Best PErformance

demonfurbie

linux mint

Tackle

Find the nearest Window -> open it -> toss the comptuer out -> go treat yourself to a new one!

If you don't want to do that, I'm a fan of CCleaner. Otherwise if it has a recovery partition, Google how to access it (I think it's esc or f2 on pavillions during boot). Then follow the prompts to do a "Factory image restore". This is your best bet for getting performance.

Turgon

LucasMN wrote: »

Find the nearest Window -> open it -> toss the comptuer out -> go treat yourself to a new one!

If you don't want to do that, I'm a fan of CCleaner. Otherwise if it has a recovery partition, Google how to access it (I think it's esc or f2 on pavillions during boot). Then follow the prompts to do a "Factory image restore". This is your best bet for getting performance.

I said in my post I dont want to upgrade in this case

Tackle

Turgon wrote: »

I said in my post I dont want to upgrade in this case

Ahh, I thought you meant you didn't want to upgrade parts. Would it help if I called it a replacement? haha.

tpatt100

gunbunnysoulja wrote: »

Since you won't be doing any HW upgrades and will really just be tweaking XP, I would reduce unnecessary services (I like Black Viper's recommendations).

Check out some decent tweaks here: Black Viper’s Windows XP Super Tweaks | Black Viper's Website | www.blackviper.com

+1 This

I had an old laptop and a buddy of mine went through it disabling stuff and somehow got it running pretty quick.

Turgon

LucasMN wrote: »

Ahh, I thought you meant you didn't want to upgrade parts. Would it help if I called it a replacement? haha.

Not really. Im stuck with it.

Turgon

Incidently it hates browsing..keeps tripping out and rebooting. Annoying.

NetworkingStudent

Turgon wrote: »

Incidently it hates browsing..keeps tripping out and rebooting. Annoying.

Would you up want to update the ram?
Here’s some good links to check out

How to Dramatically Speed up Windows XP: 15 steps - wikiHow

The PC Decrapifier Wipes Unwanted Junk | The PC Decrapifier

Maximum PC | How to Set Up a New PC the Right Way

Also, I might suggest updating the BIOS and using Google Chrome or Fire Fox it's faster and alittle more secure than older IE

Malwarebytes : Speed up startup! StartUpLite helps eliminate Windows' slow startup

Belarc Advisor - Free Personal PC Audit

This is good for checking on updates

Good luck

ptilsen

Reinstall Windows or clean boot. Disable unnecessary built-in services as has been recommended. Don't install a damn thing except exactly what you need. Use Chrome as your web browser if you need to browse the web.

CodeBlox

I have an old Pentium 2 which I "brought back to life". it's got a 450mhz processor and even though it can only handle one thing at a time, I makes for good network storage. It's capped out at 386mb of RAM to! Funny thing is that old dinosaur boots quicker than the computers we have at work for the clients. As others have said, only install what you need and disable anything thats un-necissary at startup

petedude

Make sure service packs are all installed. Defragment the drive.

Tuning old PCs can be a lot like tweaking old cars. . . always "one more thing" you can do.

Find some used but clean RAM on eBay if it's not maxed. No, you probably don't want to spend money on it, but there's no value in running it crippled. If it's worth keeping around to any degree, find better parts cheap. If it's not worth maintaining, it's probably not worth keeping.

What else? It probably uses a mid-tier processor and an old video card. Improve on those from used eBay parts. If you really want to go nuts. . . if it's not SATA, buy a cheap SATA card with firmware and a small used SSD (admittedly, other OSes will run better than XP on SSDs).

SteveLord

Start with doing a fresh install of Windows for sure.

Turgon

SteveLord wrote: »

Start with doing a fresh install of Windows for sure.

I would like to Steve but no media Im afraid. I just need this box to serve as a TFTP server and run SecureCRT really. I have got the defragmenter going though..

joehalford01

What kind of Ram is is running and how much can you add? I'll send you some from work if its ddr sdram (you pay shipping of course). We're replacing every single workstation in the building and all of the old ones are either being sold to employees for next to nothing or being recycled. They are a mixture of dell gx260/gx270/sx280s.

exampasser

Run CentOS on it.

Turgon

Guys. Thank you all very much for the advice on this thread. I have executed some of it this afternoon and still have more things to try. I think this system is more stable now!

I have managed to get SP3 onboard. One issue is my TFTP/Bootp server. Wireshark shows my term server making requests but the PC isn't offering responses. No windows firewall running. I haven't tried since just getting SP3 on so will have a look on Sunday. Perhaps I need updated drivers for the onboard NIC.

That said, I think this old application has struggled on XP before so if anyone can recommend a good TFTP/BootP app that would be good. The app needs to know the MAC address and IP address of the device requiring the system file and should then provide it over the network.

CodeBlox

I've never had a problem using TFTPD32: TFTPD32 : an opensource IPv6 ready TFTP server/service for windows : TFTP server Give that a try!

Turgon

CodeBlox wrote: »

I've never had a problem using TFTPD32: TFTPD32 : an opensource IPv6 ready TFTP server/service for windows : TFTP server Give that a try!

Does it have BootP/RARP functionality? I have had trouble with the app Im using and XP before if I recall.

CodeBlox

Um... I think it has BootP functionality but honestly I've never checked. And I'd hate to sound stupid but I really thought that DHCP replaced BootP (Which by the way, this does have DHCP functionality). I've never had an issue with the server learning MAC/IP addresses either.

esswok

I scanned pretty fast through this and did not see mention:

Simply removing all extra fonts drastically increases speed.
Especially any eastern character support <(that in itself slows it down allot.
Removal of all help files also speeds it up lots.

2 specific copies of XP come to mind for me that are very nice.
I have a copy of XP pro 64 from a Norwegian fella it is super speedy, also there is a French copy of xp 64 that is nice but u must know xp well enough to install it in French or know French.
>note if above mentioned install only what you want was insinuated to remove fonts/help files/…my bad sorry.

PS: i though the title would insinuate Legacy as in w95 or w98.
I recently did a w95 that was fun, but not a fun as the alleged“Plug n Play” w 98 wow a what fun!