System hangs for a minute at a time now!

[mpsan]

I know this system is old. I use XP Pro with 1 GB of memory. However, Browsers (IE and FF) will lock up the system for minutes at a time. I see the drive light a solid red. Even when I go away, and come back, it takes a bit to come back. Page file (using ctrl-alt-del) can 1.25 GB! Can I change a setting so PF can be better? Is this why the drive is being accessed for paging? This is making the browser(s) just about unusable now. I do know if I start Firefox in safe mode, that eliminates add ons, it is fast again, but I would think a 1 GB memory would be OK.

 

[hang-the-9]

Few things you need to do.

Upgrade ram to 2 gig +, download a drive check utility either from the drive vendor (can open case and look what brand it is), from the PC vendor if they have one, or try seatools from Seagate. Re-installing XP clean would be a great idea as well once you are sure the drive is good. 1 gig of RAM will cause a lot of disk paging and if there are any issues with the drive, it will be very slow.

 

[mpsan]

So, I believe the drive is good, but that 1GB of memory is the real issue. I can understand the paging!

However, I was surprised to see that 184 pin DDR RAM is expensive and do not wish to invest A lot of money to bring this system up to 2 or 4 GB. I would have thought that I could have done this for a lot le$$.

 

[hang-the-9]

You can't know the drive is good till you test it.

I had a system that was always accessing the drive, error check did not actually find anything but would not complete the SMART short test.

System was running, I was able to install Windows on the drive, and even use the computer, but it was slow. Replaced the drive, it was working a LOT better, no more constant reading the drive.

Your best bet to find cheap RAM for the system is a local used site like craigslist. Possibly ebay. New DDR ram, especially the 400 speed one, will be pricy.

 

[mpsan]

OK, this is an older system I built. It has a Maxtor 7Y250M0 and am not sure what software would test it any more. May check Craigslist to see if anything may be there for memory.

I do have a 160GB drive from a Tivo I upgraded, but can not simply restore an image as the "new" drive is smaller. Still, I could put it in and do a new XP install to see how it goes. I AM planning a new build, so may just leave this alone and use it for Ham Radio.