rajncajn Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 My work PC that I mainly use is the Dell Latitude XT tablet running Windows XP. Here are the specs on it... Intel Core 2 Duo U7700 / 1.33 GHz RAM 2.75 GB DDR2 SDRAM - 533 MHz Hard Drive: 40 GB - 4200 rpm ATI Radeon X1250 shared video memory (UMA) Someone please explain to me why this rig is so freaking slow and how I can get the performance out of it that it boasts. The programs I use the most often are they typical MS products(and no I don't have a choice there); Excel, Word, Access. We also use Windows Journal & Acrobat Standard as well as a new PDF editing program called Bluebeam extensively. Using them to mark up drawings in PDF format that roughly are around 21KB in size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocknrobn26 Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 (edited) 1.33 is about as slow a chip you can get, even though it's Dual Core, plus the shared video memory isn't helping. Hit CTRL+ALT+DELETE and see how much free ram you have right after boot and again whilst all your normal progs are running. Also see how many processes are running. You may want to go into MSCONFIG and see what progs are loading at boot that you don't need. (BE VERY CAREFUL HERE) 2.75 is usually pretty good when using XP. Edited October 23, 2009 by rocknrobn26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt770 Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 My work PC that I mainly use is the Dell Latitude XT tablet running Windows XP. Here are the specs on it... Intel Core 2 Duo U7700 / 1.33 GHz RAM 2.75 GB DDR2 SDRAM - 533 MHz Hard Drive: 40 GB - 4200 rpm ATI Radeon X1250 shared video memory (UMA) Someone please explain to me why this rig is so freaking slow and how I can get the performance out of it that it boasts. The programs I use the most often are they typical MS products(and no I don't have a choice there); Excel, Word, Access. We also use Windows Journal & Acrobat Standard as well as a new PDF editing program called Bluebeam extensively. Using them to mark up drawings in PDF format that roughly are around 21KB in size. Are you connected to a VPN? Does your company mandate any security or encryption software to run on your machine? Those things can cause bottlenecks. Check with your company first, but I would run a spyware/virus scanner and a registry checker to make sure some software (malicious or otherwise) did not mess with your registry settings. Also make sure you have plenty of free space on your hard drive, as Windows keeps a swap/page file there for memory. It would not hurt to run a defrag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 I have 78 total processes running right now, Bluebeam being the biggest hog using up 318,312K. I can't reboot right at the moment, but my memory currently reads: Total: 2881392 Avail: 1588360 Sys Cache: 1751540 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt770 Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 I have 78 total processes running right now, Bluebeam being the biggest hog using up 318,312K. I can't reboot right at the moment, but my memory currently reads: Total: 2881392 Avail: 1588360 Sys Cache: 1751540 That's a lot, and as rocknrobn said, 1.33 Ghz is slow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocknrobn26 Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 I have 78 total processes running right now, Bluebeam being the biggest hog using up 318,312K. I can't reboot right at the moment, but my memory currently reads: Total: 2881392 Avail: 1588360 Sys Cache: 1751540 78 is way too many and adding to the slow down. You are at ~50% of ram. How many progs (Word,Excel,etc.) are running when you check ram? Is bluebeam running right after boot or do you load it manually? The reboot and check can tell alot when compared to the above. Let us know when you get a chance to do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 Are you connected to a VPN? Does your company mandate any security or encryption software to run on your machine? Those things can cause bottlenecks. Check with your company first, but I would run a spyware/virus scanner and a registry checker to make sure some software (malicious or otherwise) did not mess with your registry settings. Also make sure you have plenty of free space on your hard drive, as Windows keeps a swap/page file there for memory. It would not hurt to run a defrag. Our company uses AVG Anti-virus & Novell networking services, I don't use a VPN unless I am out of town & only when I need to connect to the network for file access. I have run Disk Cleanup. I also have 26.8 GB of free space on the HD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 78 is way too many and adding to the slow down. You are at ~50% of ram. How many progs (Word,Excel,etc.) are running when you check ram? Is bluebeam running right after boot or do you load it manually? The reboot and check can tell alot when compared to the above. Let us know when you get a chance to do that. Bluebeam is a manual load. I'll check again later today when I can reboot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt770 Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Our company uses AVG Anti-virus & Novell networking services, I don't use a VPN unless I am out of town & only when I need to connect to the network for file access. I have run Disk Cleanup. I also have 26.8 GB of free space on the HD. I had an old POS Toshiba laptop and the display went bad, so the company had to replace it. I'm now running a state of the art Dell with all the bells and whistles, and my productivity has about doubled. Maybe your management would see the logic of upgrading so you'll get more work done? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 I had an old POS Toshiba laptop and the display went bad, so the company had to replace it. I'm now running a state of the art Dell with all the bells and whistles, and my productivity has about doubled. Maybe your management would see the logic of upgrading so you'll get more work done? This machine is actually only a year old & as Tablet PCs go is actually pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coonazzsaintsfan Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 1.33 is about as slow a chip you can get, even though it's Dual Core, plus the shared video memory isn't helping.Hit CTRL+ALT+DELETE and see how much free ram you have right after boot and again whilst all your normal progs are running. Also see how many processes are running. You may want to go into MSCONFIG and see what progs are loading at boot that you don't need. (BE VERY CAREFUL HERE) 2.75 is usually pretty good when using XP. Shared memory sucks! and is a sucker! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt770 Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 This machine is actually only a year old & as Tablet PCs go is actually pretty good. Yeah, sounds like it's really getting the job done for you. Just saying. Don't underestimate your boss's ability to understand that a few hundred to upgrade a laptop could translate into many thousands in increased productivity. The big evil phone company gave me a dual core 2.4 Ghz machine with 3.45GB of RAM. Right now I am running 75 processes, with Outlook using 324M of RAM. I routinely have 15-20 IE windows open, 4 or 5 Excel workbooks, our IM client with 5-10 conversations, and maybe a Word doc or two. Never a hiccup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 Yeah, sounds like it's really getting the job done for you. Just saying. Don't underestimate your boss's ability to understand that a few hundred to upgrade a laptop could translate into many thousands in increased productivity. Right now I'm just trying to get them to spring for a $150 piece of software that would save me an enormous amount of time in productivity, but since it's possible to do my job without the software they won't pay for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt770 Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Right now I'm just trying to get them to spring for a $150 piece of software that would save me an enormous amount of time in productivity, but since it's possible to do my job without the software they won't pay for it. Sorry to hear that, that sucks. I remember the frustration of having to close windows and reboot 2 or 3 times a day just to keep my old machine running. Saints are probably going to the SB though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gonkis Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Sorry to hear that, that sucks. I remember the frustration of having to close windows and reboot 2 or 3 times a day just to keep my old machine running. Saints are probably going to the SB though. helping the cajn find the silver lining on a Friday.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdrudge Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 It's shared memory, but you should have more then enough for what you do even with the graphics card taking 256MB. Your CPU is slow, but what is your CPU utilization across both cores? Do you have any power management turned like speed step that slows the CPU when it's not under a load? The 4200 RPM drive also is slow, definitely as compared to a 7200 RPM drive typically found in a desktop. If it's older, it probably also has a 2MB cache that further degrades performance as compared to a modern desktop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 Unfortunately I'll have to pick this back up on Monday. Just had too much on my plate this afternoon to get to it today. Thanks for the help so far though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocknrobn26 Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Unfortunately I'll have to pick this back up on Monday. Just had too much on my plate this afternoon to get to it today. Thanks for the help so far though. being that its a company PC, you'll have to consult w/ the powers that be anyway. Novell can be a memory hog and slow things down also, but I admit I haven't played w/ that since I retired in 2002. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted October 26, 2009 Author Share Posted October 26, 2009 76 processes at startup, including Firefox. Time to have a talk with IT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 you should see if you can turn off your virusscan when you're working locally crunching data. I am guessing that would make a pretty big difference. just don't surf the huddle while it is turned off (and I am dead serious). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliaz Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 The big evil phone company gave me a dual core 2.4 Ghz machine with 3.45GB of RAM. Right now I am running 75 processes, with Outlook using 324M of RAM. I routinely have 15-20 IE windows open, 4 or 5 Excel workbooks, our IM client with 5-10 conversations, and maybe a Word doc or two. Never a hiccup. You sound just like me down to the 15+ browsers and spreadsheets - do you work for a company that sounds like Berizon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big John Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 You sound just like me down to the 15+ browsers and spreadsheets - do you work for a company that sounds like Berizon? Actually AT&T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt770 Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 You sound just like me down to the 15+ browsers and spreadsheets - do you work for a company that sounds like Berizon? Close. The other big evil phone company -- former Ma Bell, sells a lot of iPhones... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted October 28, 2009 Author Share Posted October 28, 2009 you should see if you can turn off your virusscan when you're working locally crunching data. I am guessing that would make a pretty big difference. just don't surf the huddle while it is turned off (and I am dead serious). Have to have admin rights to do just about anything on there including disabling the virus protection, which is a real b@#$h when we are using them on ship checks. We've already discussed it with the IT techs about how it slows it down & corporate has their hands tied. It used to be such that they would just give us unlimited access on them, but big brother watches too closely now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.