T42 running incredibly slow

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brynwulf · #1 Post by **brynwulf** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 12:18 pm

ETA: Sorry for duplicate posts. Grrrr. Can anyone tell me how to delete the other one? All I can see is how to edit. *facepalm* Now I feel DUMB!

I kinda of asked this in an existing thread that wasn't totally on topic, so I thought a new thread would get a faster response. Also, HI! I'm new and really looking forward to learning all about my Thinkpad now that it's actuallly mine.

I'm hoping that a R&R will solve my problem, however, if there are other suggestions out there, I'm open and hopeful I can get my baby back to optimum performance.

I do not have the disks, as the computer was given to me (see below) and I'm positive it's no longer under warranty. From the research I've done, including reading just about every possible related subject in this forum today, it sounds like I can do what I need to with the IBM Access blue button, right?

What happened is my company closed its doors, as in went out of business. They did the best by us they could, including giving us our laptops and docking stations. But first they said they had to reformat and wipe them clean (due to privacy).

When I worked for them and used this machine (it was my primary work computer with docking station) it was amazing and I loved it. Now that I've gotten it back from them, it runs slower than I could have imagined any machine being, takes forever to boot up, takes a full minute for applications to load and I can no longer play any type of video media, be it online or just local on my HD. I have no idea how they could have messed it up so badly.

So, I'm hoping doing a restore will do the trick, but if not, perhaps simply totally reformatting the HD and reinstalling Windows XP (I'd have to buy a copy) will do the trick? I think this a great little computer and don't want to trade it in when I know what it's capable of.

Also, it seems to have ALL KINDS of security software running that I don't remember having to go through when I used it at work. Would disabling this in MSCONFIG hurt anything?

If anyone has better suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Thanks,
Meg

ArtShapiro · #2 Post by **ArtShapiro** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:48 pm

Some of that corporate security stuff is almost (perhaps more than almost) untouchable due to weird stuff like Group Policy Restrictions that even machine administrative usercodes can't seem to get around. I've spent a lot of time unsuccessfully trying to find where some of those unacceptable restrictions are hidden in the registry.

I'd probably do a clean install of the OS, perhaps initially as a parallel dual-boot installation just in case something goes wrong, so that you'd have the fallback position of the unusably-slow existing partition.

As long as you had pre-download all the current IBM - oops, Lenovo - drivers to an external drive or a thumb drive, especially the network drivers (just in case you ended up having to reformat the hard drive after all) this shouldn't be a major deal. Of course you'd lose any installed programs, which might be a show-stopper for you.

Art

brynwulf · #3 Post by **brynwulf** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:58 pm

Nope, that wouldn't be a show stopper because I've got minimal stuff on it now, hoping the less I installed, the faster it would run.

I have MS Office and any other software I'd want. it's just the OS I don't have.
thanks, Art!
Meg

ulrich.von.lich · #4 Post by **ulrich.von.lich** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 3:43 pm

1. Unselecting everything in MSCONFIG won't hurt anything.
2. Have you tried to get rid of the software you don't want in Add/Remove Programs? It's the first thing I would do after restoring my system by using IBM/Lenovo's disc set.
3. You can find out the culprits in Task Manager.

Hope it helps!

Paul Unger · #5 Post by **Paul Unger** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:36 pm

This is a bit of a long shot, but I recently rescued my Dad's Dell from a case of "molasses in february". Check to see what mode your HD is running in (System Properties > Device Manager > IDE Controllers > Primary IDE Channel > right click, Properties > Advanced Settings tab > Transfer Mode). It should be in "DMA if available". If it's in "PIO only" mode you'll want to restore it to Ultra DMA.

#6 Post by **carbon_unit** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:27 pm

Does it have an XP COA sticker on the bottom of it? If so maybe someone in the Marketplace could find a set of recovery discs for you.

chan_man · #7 Post by **chan_man** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:54 pm

My t42P was slowing down to the point that all I could load was Firefox and Lotus Notes. The problem turned out to be the HDD was running in PIO mode and not DMA. You can check this by going into Device Manager in XP and showing the properties in IDE controller 1 and 2. If they show DMA then this is not the problem. If if is in PIO, then you have to make some registry changes to get it back. This was a know bug in XP. Here is a link to the fix if you need it. It is from Microsoft.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817472

zdriver · #8 Post by **zdriver** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 4:10 pm

Have you checked to be sure they did not downgrade some of the parts..... ram, hd, processor.
Maybe you went from 2gig to 512mb, a 4200rpm drive etc.
Is it the same exact thinkpad you got back or another one?

brynwulf · #9 Post by **brynwulf** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 5:10 pm

It's the same one, I know that for sure. I checked the RAM and everything. But thanks, anyway.

I'm going to check that it isn't running in PIO mode only and if that isn't it, it's the blue IBM Access button for the old girl.

thanks,
Meg

chan_man · #10 Post by **chan_man** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 12:03 pm

good luck... just an adder, the HDD that was running in PIO mode was actually in the early phase of failing, I ended up replacing the drive 6 weeks after when it started ticking...

brynwulf · #11 Post by **brynwulf** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 12:59 pm

Well it is not running in the wrong mode, so it's off with it's virtual head this weekend!:)

SlamX · #12 Post by **SlamX** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:20 am

You ever get it running faster? Are you sure they installed the chipset drivers? If not that wold make it run slow for sure.

brynwulf · #13 Post by **brynwulf** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:25 am

Funny you should ask, today of all days. I've brought it to work and am trying, as I type [censored], to format the HD before reinstalling with the R&R disks I just received in the mail.

But it won't let me format because it says the volume is unlocked and in use and when i use the /x command, it says there's still something using hte volume and it can't lock it.

I really wanted to do a totally clean install (even to the point of using an eraser program to erase data, but I'm to the point of just sticking the R&R disk in and letting it do its thing.

and i have all the drivers saved, so hopefully I'll be good soon. Thanks for checking.

SlamX · #14 Post by **SlamX** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:55 am

I have a T-42 also. Can you PM me or email me gdepetro@msn.com. I am interested in your recovery CD's

T42 running incredibly slow

T42 running incredibly slow

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