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I wasn't quite sure where to post this query, as it combines hardware and software elements. Anyway, I have been using the same sturdy Gateway PC for some six years - P200, 32MB RAM, 56k internet, Win 95 - but I recently purchased a portable machine to go alongside it.
Obviously I was expecting a significant performance increase from a new machine (Dell SmartPC) with 2GHz P4, 256MB RAM and Win XP Pro. However, this has not entirely been the case. While programs which require heavy duty specs (such as Cubase SX for audio editing) run much more smoothly than they could ever have done on the older machine, many aspects of Win XP seem slow.
For instance (I don't know if this is common to the OS), the Start Bar and other drop-down menus are slow to load, taking a few seconds to appear - surely there is no good reason for this? Also, the internet is something of a problem. The new laptop also has 56k modem and I am using exactly the same ISP connection, but Internet Explorer under XP is significantly slower than on my old Win95 machine! Webpages take about three times as long (at least) to load, with the green status bar taking a good minute to fill. Why on earth should this be the case with the same connection spec and a much more powerful system??
I think maybe the system settings are not configured to the optimum, so I have considered investing in one of these web tweak/accelerator programs, but there are scores of them, and I've been told that they're actually rubbish anyway. In all, I'm rather frustrated by the apparent shortcomings of this new machine's setup. Can you suggest any solutions?
Thanks
Obviously I was expecting a significant performance increase from a new machine (Dell SmartPC) with 2GHz P4, 256MB RAM and Win XP Pro. However, this has not entirely been the case. While programs which require heavy duty specs (such as Cubase SX for audio editing) run much more smoothly than they could ever have done on the older machine, many aspects of Win XP seem slow.
For instance (I don't know if this is common to the OS), the Start Bar and other drop-down menus are slow to load, taking a few seconds to appear - surely there is no good reason for this? Also, the internet is something of a problem. The new laptop also has 56k modem and I am using exactly the same ISP connection, but Internet Explorer under XP is significantly slower than on my old Win95 machine! Webpages take about three times as long (at least) to load, with the green status bar taking a good minute to fill. Why on earth should this be the case with the same connection spec and a much more powerful system??
I think maybe the system settings are not configured to the optimum, so I have considered investing in one of these web tweak/accelerator programs, but there are scores of them, and I've been told that they're actually rubbish anyway. In all, I'm rather frustrated by the apparent shortcomings of this new machine's setup. Can you suggest any solutions?
Thanks
