Thinkpad X20 performance Degredation

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pete917 · #1 Post by **pete917** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:06 pm

I have an old ThinkPad X20. Its a PIII 600mhz machine with a 20gb hard drive and am running WinXp professional.

Although a few years old now it has been running perfectly but in the last few months it has been getting slower and slower. Startup takes ages as down shut down. When you launch an application, that too can take ages to startup. Its frustrating to say th least. I have run a virus check, disc check, disc cleanup and defrager....but nothing seems to help.

Does anyone have any idea of to find the problem and cure the mchine.

Any help much appreciated.

Pete

#2 Post by **Kyocera** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:53 pm

pete, welcome to the forum, I'll start off with the pretty much standard answer, have you checked for spyware, adware, ran a good virus scan, checked in task manager and checked for suspicious processes hogging lots of ram, ran PC doc and a good hard drive check, added any peripheral devices, pcmcia, usb's that may be causing some issues, installed any programs that may be slowing things down, is your hard drive getting filled up? Try a diagnositic start up and see if the system runs smooth without loading all the normal startup programs.

pete917 · #3 Post by **pete917** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:17 pm

Hi Kyocera,

I have done most of the things you suggest.

I have run a full system scan with Norton antivirus;
Done a disc cleanup;
done a defrag;
disc is only 50% fulll;
I havent loaded anything recently;
I have been running Mocrosoft antispyware;
No peripherals execpt PCMCIA WLAN, but has been in there while;

I havent run PC doc
Nor a good hardrive check. Could you advise me how I do these two things?

Cheers
Pete

#4 Post by **Kyocera** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:21 pm

Do you have pc dr. for windows or pc dr. for dos? I'd start with that, and what about task manager, this can be a big help to finding a program that may be out of control.

pete917 · #5 Post by **pete917** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:24 pm

I dont think I have PC doctor. At least I cant see it in the progromme lists. Is it freeware or do I need to buy it. With regard to task manager, what should I be looking out for?
Thanks
Pete

christopher_wolf · #6 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:46 pm

Look out for processes that take up way too much in terms of resources way too quickly; also, use CCleaner and take a good look at what processes are being initialized upon startup.

See; http://www.ccleaner.com/

Also, do a registry scan and backup; then fix all the issues in the registry (e.g. missing refs, missing dlls, unecessary file extentsions that sometimes need to be pre-cached, etc). I have seen heavily fragmented registries slow down powerful PCs on boot up.

HTH

pianowizard · #7 Post by **pianowizard** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:11 pm

Have you checked to see whether both the onboard memory and the memory in the slot are functional? One of them could have gone bad over time.

pete917 · #8 Post by **pete917** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 10:24 am

How do I check those two memory's? Im not that technical im afraid.
Cheers
Pete

pete917 · #9 Post by **pete917** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 5:15 pm

Does anyone know how I can check the RAM in my machine and also to find out what the maximum is that I can upgrade too?
Cheers
Pete

pianowizard · #10 Post by **pianowizard** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 5:29 pm

Just right-click on the "My Computer" icon and select "properties". The maximum supported is 320MB. My friend's X20 initially had only 128MB RAM (64MB onboard plus 64MB in the slot) and became very slow after installing a bunch of programs, but he replaced the 64MB in the slot with a 256MB stick and now it's much better.

If you want to buy a 256MB module for the X20, look for "33L3070" or "33L3069" on eBay.

pete917 · #11 Post by **pete917** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 6:20 pm

Thanks Pianowizard

I have 128mb RAM. So I guess that means 64mb base and 64mb in the slot. My machine is a X20 type 2662.

does either of the memory types you mentioned work in my machine????

My machine has slowed alot so maybe this is the route i need to take!

Pete

pianowizard · #12 Post by **pianowizard** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 6:58 pm

Yeah, I have used three X20's before (one was 600MHz PIII and the other two 500MHz Celeron) and the 33L3070/33L3069 worked on all three. I was really lucky and got one module on eBay last month for $19 shipped, but normally it costs around $40 to $50.

pete917 · #13 Post by **pete917** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:02 am

did you buy new or second hand. I saw some cheap ones, but they were not new!

pianowizard · #14 Post by **pianowizard** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 10:47 am

Second hand.

Thinkpad X20 performance Degredation

Thinkpad X20 performance Degredation

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