[staceyn]

i recently decided to reinstall xp on my dell 4600 desktop. however everytime i attempt to reinstall the operating system, it is still extremely slow and i do not have any idea how to fix this. what are some possible solutions?

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Welcome to G2G staceyn

Do you mean that the actual reinstall of XP itself is slow or that the system is slow after reinstalling?

Also are you performing a clean install (i.e formatting the C drive first) or are you installing XP over the top of an existing installation?

[Samm]

Welcome to G2G staceyn

Do you mean that the actual reinstall of XP itself is slow or that the system is slow after reinstalling?

Also are you performing a clean install (i.e formatting the C drive first) or are you installing XP over the top of an existing installation?

[staceyn]

the system is still slow after reinstalling and yes i did format the c drive. any idea how to fix this?

[Samm]

OK, I noticed you said you had a Dell. When you reinstall XP are you installing XP only (i.e from an actual XP CD) or are you using a system restore disk that installs not only the OS but also lots of other software?

[staceyn]

im using the purple dell cd thats titled "reinstalling cd microsoft windows xp home edition including service pack 1"

[Samm]

OK thats cool. So am I right in thinking then that XP installs at normal speed but once loaded, without any other software being installed, it immediately starts running slowly?

Is it also slow to boot up or does it seem to run normally at first when booting from cold, then start to slow down after a while running for a while?

[staceyn]

the entire system is slow from start to finish. i have no idea whats wrong with this thing

[Samm]

just one more quick question - apart from the entire system running slowly, do you experience any lock ups or error messages at any point?

Can you also confirm whether the actual reinstall itself went slowly?

[zxSolidSnakexz]

I've had experinece with this CD, it is a clean XP CD with no software, but Dell has made some changes as the "Help and Support" utility is Dell branded as well as the logo in System properties.

It may be that you are bieng attacked as soon as your system comes online, make sure to unplug ethernet cables when you are installing as there are many script hacks to compromise people as they install.

It would also be wise to stay off the internet until you install SP2 from a CD.

Edited by zxSolidSnakexz, 28 December 2005 - 08:20 PM.

[staceyn]

it tells me that the SATA primary drive 0 is not found. . .thats the only error message i get. also the reinstall did go rather slow

[Samm]

Do you have an SATA drive or a standard IDE drive?
When you get this error message, does the system continue to boot as normal?

[staceyn]

yeah it boots as normal. . .just extremely slow

[Samm]

Ok, what about my question regarding the type of drive? Is it SATA or not?

[staceyn]

im not sure. . .i think ide

[Samm]

Yeah I suspect it may IDE as well, in which case the SATA message is nothing to worry about - it's just the bios trying to auto-detect the presence of SATA drives & as there aren't any in the system, you will receive that message.

The cause of your problem definately sounds like hardware, not software based. The problem may be determining exactly which bit of hardware is causing it.

I am assuming here that you have not changed, added or removed any hardware before this problem began & that you have not altered any bios settings. If this assumption is wrong, then please say so.

Some (although not all) of the possible causes of the problem are these :
1. Fault with the hard drive or the drive cabling
2. System overheating resulting in thermal throttling (i.e system being forced to slow down in order to prevent overheating)
3. Incorrect system configuration
4. Buggy or incompatible driver
5. Other faulty hardware

First things to try in order to narrow this down a bit are :

1. Disconnect any external devices (except keyboard/monitor/mouse), including network/modem cables & devices, printer, scanner etc

2. Try booting up in safe mode (press the F8 key a few times just after the system attempts to detect the drives & just before XP starts to load). From the boot menu, select the safe mode option.
See if it runs any faster like this

3. Follow the link below to download the Dell diagnostic utility.
I don't know exactly what this will test, but run it anyway & see what it finds :

http://support.dell....R76924&vercnt=4