New Dell PC is pretty darn slow.

My friend just bought a Dell Dimension 2400 with the 2.4GHz Celeron
Processor. Turned it on and it seemed a bit sluggish. We unistalled
all the McAfee stuff that came with it. Uninstalled the AOL 9.0
optimized that Dell had put on and reinstalled with a copy AOL had
sent. Then installed Norton SystemWorks Professional 2002. Now the
computer is really sluggish. It's as slow as my 400MHz Pentium 2.
I did ctrl+alt+del to check cpu usage and it was at 100% so we
rebooted and it mostly stayed between 0-10% with a few spikes up to
22%. But it's still pretty slow.

Does anyone know what is causing this? I've never had this happen with
my Packard Bell or HP. Could it have anything to do with all the
Microsoft patches Dell installed? I know some of those patches/updates
have messed up people's computers so I thought maybe that could be it.
So does anyone have any ideas?

Mike wrote:
My friend just bought a Dell Dimension 2400 with the 2.4GHz Celeron
Processor. Turned it on and it seemed a bit sluggish. We unistalled
all the McAfee stuff that came with it. Uninstalled the AOL 9.0
optimized that Dell had put on and reinstalled with a copy AOL had
sent. Then installed Norton SystemWorks Professional 2002. Now the
computer is really sluggish. It's as slow as my 400MHz Pentium 2.
I did ctrl+alt+del to check cpu usage and it was at 100% so we
rebooted and it mostly stayed between 0-10% with a few spikes up to
22%. But it's still pretty slow.

Does anyone know what is causing this? I've never had this happen with
my Packard Bell or HP. Could it have anything to do with all the
Microsoft patches Dell installed? I know some of those patches/updates
have messed up people's computers so I thought maybe that could be it.
So does anyone have any ideas?

How much memory is in the PC? Remember that your memory is shared with the
video subsystem.

Did you get the econo drive (5400 rpm)? That could also be a source of the
speed issue.

Have you tried removing SystemWorks? If removing it helps the speed then
reinstall piece at a time until you find the cooperate. I'd bet its the AV
component.

Lastly make sure you go to disk manager and defrag your drive, especially
after you uninstall and reinstall software.

hth

--

Rob

It's possible that you didn't uninstall things correctly. More likely,
Norton SystemWorks is your problem. If you install it with the defaults it
will suck the life from your system. SystemDoctor alone is a performance
killer. Have a look at the program options: Do you really need all that
stuff running in the background?

And - in my personal opinion - get rid of AOL. It's like changing a dirty
diaper.

Tom Swift

"Mike" wrote in message
om...
My friend just bought a Dell Dimension 2400 with the 2.4GHz Celeron
Processor. Turned it on and it seemed a bit sluggish. We unistalled
all the McAfee stuff that came with it. Uninstalled the AOL 9.0
optimized that Dell had put on and reinstalled with a copy AOL had
sent. Then installed Norton SystemWorks Professional 2002. Now the
computer is really sluggish. It's as slow as my 400MHz Pentium 2.
I did ctrl+alt+del to check cpu usage and it was at 100% so we
rebooted and it mostly stayed between 0-10% with a few spikes up to
22%. But it's still pretty slow.

Does anyone know what is causing this? I've never had this happen with
my Packard Bell or HP. Could it have anything to do with all the
Microsoft patches Dell installed? I know some of those patches/updates
have messed up people's computers so I thought maybe that could be it.
So does anyone have any ideas?

SystemWorks is the problem. It is a huge resource hog. The 2400 shares
system RAM with video and audio also. My advice is to make sure that you
have at least 256KB of RAM (512KB is better) and limit the background
applications running to the bare necessity.

Mark

"Mike" wrote in message
om...
My friend just bought a Dell Dimension 2400 with the 2.4GHz Celeron
Processor. Turned it on and it seemed a bit sluggish. We unistalled
all the McAfee stuff that came with it. Uninstalled the AOL 9.0
optimized that Dell had put on and reinstalled with a copy AOL had
sent. Then installed Norton SystemWorks Professional 2002. Now the
computer is really sluggish. It's as slow as my 400MHz Pentium 2.
I did ctrl+alt+del to check cpu usage and it was at 100% so we
rebooted and it mostly stayed between 0-10% with a few spikes up to
22%. But it's still pretty slow.

Does anyone know what is causing this? I've never had this happen with
my Packard Bell or HP. Could it have anything to do with all the
Microsoft patches Dell installed? I know some of those patches/updates
have messed up people's computers so I thought maybe that could be it.
So does anyone have any ideas?

one thing you could check to see is in the BIOs select the CPU and make sure
it is set to normal and not compatable
"Robert R Kircher, Jr." wrote in message
...
Mike wrote:
My friend just bought a Dell Dimension 2400 with the 2.4GHz Celeron
Processor. Turned it on and it seemed a bit sluggish. We unistalled
all the McAfee stuff that came with it. Uninstalled the AOL 9.0
optimized that Dell had put on and reinstalled with a copy AOL had
sent. Then installed Norton SystemWorks Professional 2002. Now the
computer is really sluggish. It's as slow as my 400MHz Pentium 2.
I did ctrl+alt+del to check cpu usage and it was at 100% so we
rebooted and it mostly stayed between 0-10% with a few spikes up to
22%. But it's still pretty slow.

Does anyone know what is causing this? I've never had this happen with
my Packard Bell or HP. Could it have anything to do with all the
Microsoft patches Dell installed? I know some of those patches/updates
have messed up people's computers so I thought maybe that could be it.
So does anyone have any ideas?

How much memory is in the PC? Remember that your memory is shared with
the
video subsystem.

Did you get the econo drive (5400 rpm)? That could also be a source of
the
speed issue.

Have you tried removing SystemWorks? If removing it helps the speed then
reinstall piece at a time until you find the cooperate. I'd bet its the
AV
component.

Lastly make sure you go to disk manager and defrag your drive, especially
after you uninstall and reinstall software.

hth

--

Rob

If you still within the 30 day return policy, send it back.

The Celeron is lame. If you can afford a few bucks more, get one with a P4.

That aside ... I assume your running XP Home? Open the Task Manager and
select the Processes tab. Click on the CPU heading to sort by CPU usage.
What process(es) are using lots of CPU time???

"Mike" wrote in message
om...
My friend just bought a Dell Dimension 2400 with the 2.4GHz Celeron
Processor. Turned it on and it seemed a bit sluggish. We unistalled
all the McAfee stuff that came with it. Uninstalled the AOL 9.0
optimized that Dell had put on and reinstalled with a copy AOL had
sent. Then installed Norton SystemWorks Professional 2002. Now the
computer is really sluggish. It's as slow as my 400MHz Pentium 2.
I did ctrl+alt+del to check cpu usage and it was at 100% so we
rebooted and it mostly stayed between 0-10% with a few spikes up to
22%. But it's still pretty slow.

Does anyone know what is causing this? I've never had this happen with
my Packard Bell or HP. Could it have anything to do with all the
Microsoft patches Dell installed? I know some of those patches/updates
have messed up people's computers so I thought maybe that could be it.
So does anyone have any ideas?

"G. Mark Kelm" wrote in message
...
... have at least 256KB of RAM (512KB is better) ...

That would be MB?

Norton is the killer, have an inspiron laptop 2.4 gig P4 processor and it
ran like ****. Removed Norton and it runs like it should. Of course I
installed another AV program.
\
"Mike" wrote in message
om...
My friend just bought a Dell Dimension 2400 with the 2.4GHz Celeron
Processor. Turned it on and it seemed a bit sluggish. We unistalled
all the McAfee stuff that came with it. Uninstalled the AOL 9.0
optimized that Dell had put on and reinstalled with a copy AOL had
sent. Then installed Norton SystemWorks Professional 2002. Now the
computer is really sluggish. It's as slow as my 400MHz Pentium 2.
I did ctrl+alt+del to check cpu usage and it was at 100% so we
rebooted and it mostly stayed between 0-10% with a few spikes up to
22%. But it's still pretty slow.

Does anyone know what is causing this? I've never had this happen with
my Packard Bell or HP. Could it have anything to do with all the
Microsoft patches Dell installed? I know some of those patches/updates
have messed up people's computers so I thought maybe that could be it.
So does anyone have any ideas?

Do'oh - too early on a Sunday morning...

Thanks for the correction.

Mark

"Lester Horwinkle" wrote in message
.. .
"G. Mark Kelm" wrote in message
...
... have at least 256KB of RAM (512KB is better) ...

That would be MB?

My friend doesn't want to send it back because he can't wait 1-3 or
however long it would take to get a new one. I think that's a big
mistake. I don't even know what Dell's policy on returns/refunds is.
Anyone know?

I'm not sure but he either got 128MB RAM or 256MB. I think 128 though.
Pretty stupid, huh? I swear, some people have no business even just
looking at computers and he's one of them.



"Lester Horwinkle" wrote in message . ..
If you still within the 30 day return policy, send it back.

The Celeron is lame. If you can afford a few bucks more, get one with a P4.

That aside ... I assume your running XP Home? Open the Task Manager and
select the Processes tab. Click on the CPU heading to sort by CPU usage.
What process(es) are using lots of CPU time???

"Mike" wrote in message
om...
My friend just bought a Dell Dimension 2400 with the 2.4GHz Celeron
Processor. Turned it on and it seemed a bit sluggish. We unistalled
all the McAfee stuff that came with it. Uninstalled the AOL 9.0
optimized that Dell had put on and reinstalled with a copy AOL had
sent. Then installed Norton SystemWorks Professional 2002. Now the
computer is really sluggish. It's as slow as my 400MHz Pentium 2.
I did ctrl+alt+del to check cpu usage and it was at 100% so we
rebooted and it mostly stayed between 0-10% with a few spikes up to
22%. But it's still pretty slow.

Does anyone know what is causing this? I've never had this happen with
my Packard Bell or HP. Could it have anything to do with all the
Microsoft patches Dell installed? I know some of those patches/updates
have messed up people's computers so I thought maybe that could be it.
So does anyone have any ideas?