T42 with WinXP SP3- running slow- is AVG the culprit?

[helicopter]

I have a T42 with a 1.7Ghz Pentium M and 512Mb of RAM. I'm running WinXP Service Pack 3.

Recently I've noticed slower performance, even after I defragged the hard drive and ran CC cleaner to get rid of temp files. I don't think I have too many processes running in the background either. I've examined the running processes-- not in detail, but nothing alarming stood out. I guess there's a way to export the list, if someone wants to see it.

I'm wondering if the culprit is AVG (free edition, 2012) which updates frequently. When it does, the system slows down a lot. Or maybe it's Firefox 15.0.01. (I might have read somewhere that some users experience slowdowns due to some new add-on inside it. Sorry, can't provide any more details about that at the moment.)

Even though I'm only running 512Mb of RAM, for many years that was enough to run these simultaneously: MS Word, some type of PDF reader, a special database program I use (called Endnote), a Windows viewer to see images (photographs of documents), and Firefox.

Now, the system is definitely slower when trying to move from one app to the other.... delays in trying to type new addresses in the browser window, for example, or hesitations when trying to type in Word with other applications open.

So, is the slowdown due to anything I mentioned, or just the bigger requirements of the current generation of applications?

It's not a big deal for me to finally spring for some more memory, but I was wondering about the specific causes.

Mark

[flipteo]

You could check out the 'performance' tab in the task manager. When lags start happening, check and see the cpu usage meter, maybe there's something running that keeps eating up all the cpu.

But I think much more likely it is your RAM situation. You can also check this out in the task manager performance tab, under 'physical memory'. 'Page file usage' also has to do with RAM, but I'm no expert on this.

I also have a T42 with a 1.7Ghz, and a couple of years ago or so I added a gig of RAM taking me to 1.5gb. Made a massive massive difference. I can't imagine how laggy my system would be in 2012 with 512 megs of RAM.

25 bucks and five minutes to install and you'll wish you did it sooner.

[DaKKS]

Agreed. 512mb today isn't enough. Bump it up to at least 1gb. Preferably 1.5. Mine had major lag issues until it [censored] me off enough to bump it up to 2gb. No issues here.

Also, I'm using Avast. But more lightweight than AVG.

[RealBlackStuff]

You should have at least 1.5GB or 2GB in that machine, not a measly 512MB.
Install the free MS Security Essentials instead: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... essentials
It's 'lighter', better and faster than most of the other freebies.

[Neil]

^ +1 ... More RAM should help, but the problem may be not enough virtual memory too. A friend recently brought me his computer complaining that it was real slow. Turned out, he had less than 10% free disk space, and 512MB RAM. We couldn't even run defrag on the drive, but I see you were able to defrag...so I guess yours is not as bad as his was.

Keep in mind, Firefox uses a lot of RAM by itself, and photos do as well, so the scenario you describe really needs more.

[DaKKS]

Keep in mind, Firefox uses a lot of RAM by itself, and photos do as well, so the scenario you describe really needs more.

Agreed. Firefox eats 180mb for me right now, with three tabs open, (thinkpads, sweclockers, swedroid). Open a youtube vid and it goes up to 250-300. A modern, albeit properly managed, XP install eats around 200mb in itself. There goes your 512mb.

[helicopter]

Thanks for the suggestions. I agree with your analyses. I'm going to get another gig of RAM and switch to MS Security Essentials. AVG does a good job scanning, but the updating process is slow. I also have used Malwarebytes as a second scanning program when I thought I had a virus.

Re: the virtual memory. A month ago, when I first started having problems, I reset it manually for 2000-3000 MB. (The recommended in 768, I think.) Maybe that was overkill but I have about 7.3GBs free on a 40GB hardrive, so I thought it was OK.

[jronald]

I switched from AVG to Avast a few years ago. Found that AVG was "at times" hogging CPU cycles.

YMMV
Ron