Dell optiplex gx280 slow response when saving a word document

[jdrbeans]

Hello,
I volunteer my time as the Network support tech for my daughter's school.Recently the school secretary advised me that she is having a problem saving a word documnet on her pc. She has a Dell Optiplex GX280 (512mg RAM for Memory, 37 Gig Harddrive). The OS= Windows XP Service Pack 3.
The Document that she is saving Contains the school Logo and total size of the file is about 24K. I noticed when I remove the school heading and saving the document the response takes only a couple of seconds to save the document. But when I save the word documnet with the school logo it takes up to 5 mins to save. The school has several of the Dell Optiplex GX280 in their network and each PC has the same issue. I tried saving the same document on my Toshiba Laptop which is running Vista does not having any issue saving the document. I also tried saving the document on a Dell Latitude E6400 and I had no Problem. The problem seems to be with the Dell Optiplex GX280 machines. What Can OI do to resolve this issue.

 

[jimmysmitty]

The biggest problem is that thats a very old PC, roughly 7 years old. Its running a Pentium 4, probably 2.4GHz to 2.8GHz.

The one thing slowing it down is probably that since you are running XP SP3, it needs more than 512MB of RAM. Whats going on is that the system is using all the RAM for its main processes, but for Word its using the hard drive, also known as Virtual Memory that is extremely slow.

I know this because my work just upgraded from the GX280s and some had 512MB and the programs would sometimes take 20-30 minutes just to load.

The reason why the PC with the E6400 runs faster is 1. the CPU is newer, a dual core and probably about 2x faster and 2. most likely has about 1GB+ of memory which is better for XP SP3+ If it was XP SP2 or lower, 512MB might have been fine.

The best thing you can do is see if they can upgrade it to one of the newer ones. There is pretty much nothing you can do to speed those PCs up. Trust me, I tried to tell the IT department at work and they tried what I said and nothing.

Wish I had better news for you.

 

[jdrbeans]

Jimmysmitty,

What is the Maxium amount of Memory that the Dell Gx280 can be upgraded to, and if we can increase the memory can that speed up the responce time.
I read that part that you stated that most likely has about 1GB+ of memory which is better for XP SP3.


Regards,
JDRBEANS

 

[Onus]

They should be able to take 2GB. That will make a notable difference, but as jimmysmitty said, there's really not a whole lot that can be done. For sufficiently gluttonous office programs, those old machines just aren't up to it any more.

 

[jimmysmitty]

The largest my companies GX280s had was 1GB. I actually found the user guide to it on Dells website, amazingly:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/opgx280/en/ug/index.htm (thats to see which one you have)

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/opgx280/en/ug/specs02.htm (thats the specs on what CPUs, memory and such)

If its the small form factor then its 2GB, if its anything else then it is 4GB max. Each slot can carry 1GB sticks of DDR1, so 2 cslots means a max of 2GB 4 means max of 4GB.

If you have the extra RAM laying around, install it and it should help a lot. If not then chances are that it will be near impossible to find any DDR for sale and if so, probably not at a decent enough price.

As for the response, more memory will help greatly for that. Windows XP came out only needing 128MB of RAM, but with all the enhancements and updates to it up till SP3, most people I know say it needs at least 1GB to be responzive.

Hell my computers t work only had SP2 and if the machine had less than 1GB it was slow as all get out. I remember one time the login screen took a good 20 minutes......

 

[jdrbeans]

Thanks for all your information, I have guy on my technology team that has spare memory, and will be trying to add more memory this Sunday. I will let you know the results.

Regards,
JDRBEANS

 

[jdrbeans]

The largest my companies GX280s had was 1GB. I actually found the user guide to it on Dells website, amazingly:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/opgx280/en/ug/index.htm (thats to see which one you have)

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/opgx280/en/ug/specs02.htm (thats the specs on what CPUs, memory and such)

If its the small form factor then its 2GB, if its anything else then it is 4GB max. Each slot can carry 1GB sticks of DDR1, so 2 cslots means a max of 2GB 4 means max of 4GB.

If you have the extra RAM laying around, install it and it should help a lot. If not then chances are that it will be near impossible to find any DDR for sale and if so, probably not at a decent enough price.

As for the response, more memory will help greatly for that. Windows XP came out only needing 128MB of RAM, but with all the enhancements and updates to it up till SP3, most people I know say it needs at least 1GB to be responzive.

Hell my computers t work only had SP2 and if the machine had less than 1GB it was slow as all get out. I remember one time the login screen took a good 20 minutes......

 

[jdrbeans]

Hey Jimmysmitty,

FYI, I went on Sunday and upgraded the Secretary pc RAM from 512 to 1 Gig on the GX280 and that made a major difference. Now when she saves a document that contains a logo on the heading takes it takes about 3-4 seconds, where it used to take 3-4 minutes.

The secretary is ecstatic that her pc is working normally. Thank you very much for all your help.


Regards,
JDRBEANS