Hi Russ,
I realize this is in answer to a now 2 month old post and I have no idea if you've resolved your problem.
There have been some recent answers to your post and without prejudice to those posts,
I like to offer some info and suggestions that you can "take to the bank" .
Realities: While XP will operate with 256 MB of RAM, it will hardly be satisfactory. It's really only a theoretical amount.
With 512 MB of RAM it's somewhat better ,but you can still expect freezing during AV scanning, graphics operations
or applications like Word , multi-tabbed browsers etc.
More satisfactory would be 768 or preferably 1 GB of RAM. Note comment below.*
Let's face it ,this is an older machine and as such needs to be finely tuned to cope with today's - or even yesterday's programs.
Please see info about this machine:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/plav/sm/index.htm
If you go to the page liked to below, you'll see your specs:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/plav/sm/specs.htm#1000450
* You will notice that the maximum amount of RAM for this model is 512 MB ,so any suggestions to increase it are not realistic.
Having only a P3 CPU doesn't help either.
I'm not putting it down ,just stating the facts. More power to you if you get it to run half decently.
My suggestion to get some reasonable performance ,is to curb the number of background services.(Disable them or at most set to manual)
Things like the Indexing Service Spool Service if no printing is required, System Restore if making manual backups.
System restore requires at least 2 services ,the Volume Shadow Copy Service and the SR Service)
Do not run Desktop Search from anybody,whether Micosoft, Google or Copernic etc
Minimize or reduce the number of Startup items.
An excellent source for Services is BlackViper.
This page will give you an overview for different conditions.
http://www.blackviper.com/2008/05/19/black-vipers-windows-xp-x86-32-bit-service-pack-3-service-configurations/
It will give you a good idea how to set your services.
If you want a custom setup that can very conveniently applied ,go to this page:
http://www.blackviper.com/2008/06/16/windows-xp-home-service-pack-3-custom-services-registry-file-tool/
You select the services as required and as indicated for a certain configuration.
When finished ,you download the .reg file that will do all those settings for you in one fell swoop.
(double click on the .reg file and select Merge.)
Since XP is a mature product ,there a literally hundreds of tweaks on thousands of sites to tune your XP for performance.
You may even want to consider a "slimmed down" version of it by using eg nLite. Free
http://www.nliteos.com/
HowTo's
http://www.nliteos.com/guide/
http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:nlitexp
A search will turn up numerous guides ,but will be similar to the nLite one - maybe with some extra tweaks.
Another option is XPLite http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html However it's almost $40
A free ,but limited function version is here http://www.litepc.com/download.html
FREE TRIAL - a free, feature rich, no-nags edition that works with both Windows XP and Windows 2000. Trial, or use for life.
On a personal note, I've used a mini version of XP for years. It's small and fast. Will fit on a small hard drive and is perfect for older hard drives
as low as 3 ,5 or 10 GB . basically it'll fit even on a 1 GB hard drive or USB flash drive. Obviously at that size ,the number of programs is limited.
I store personal data outside this drive. I don't bother with Windows updates and my main protection is using a protected browser at all times.
I mentioned them before : Sandboxie http://www.sandboxie.com/ and BufferZone http://www.trustware.com/
AV and malware scanning is done from another partition or system.
Before this system is exposed to the internet ,I create a full image backup.
This is not meant to include personal data files ,but just to quickly restore the whole setup in case of corruption or malware infection,
but really haven't had to do this because of the safe browsing aspect.
Everything depends on how you intend to use the laptop.
You major challenge is to limit the number of programs, choice of AV protection if really wanted and your choice of browser.
Expect to have some trouble with the latest versions of the major browsers. Most are multi-threaded and consume loads of memory
when multiple tabs are opened.
Because newer systems have loads of RAM and huge hard drives , efficiency went by the wayside ,so using a lot of RAM
became of no concern ,but in your case it is a concern.
There are lighter browsers ,but up to you to select which.
On a final note: Try to use the Dell drivers as much as possible. They were designed for this machine and usually provide special
accommodation for the proprietary hardware.
Happy Tweaking
and
Happy New Year.
Peter E.
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Russ Cox"
Sent: Saturday, 29 October, 2011 6:53 PM
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [PCBUILD] Win XP freezes
Recovering a Dell Inspiron 8000 (Pentioum 3, 512 MB RAM). It is using the XP
drivers, not the Dell drivers. Device manager shows no problems. Win XP
installs ok, accepts updates. Then will freeze at the Windows splash
screen about half the time. I have swapped RAM, tried a second HDD, removed
the battery. Also freezes in Safe mode. What's the likely problem?
Do you want to signoff PCBUILD or just change to
Digest mode - visit our web site:
http://freepctech.com/pcbuild.shtml
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