XP Pro very very slow

[xcaret]

I just junked my old pc with 98se and about 900 mhz .I got a used pentium 4 1700 mhz 256 and xp pro ..I'm on a dial up ..problem is It is very slow compared to my old one .Someone said it maybe too much pc for my phone line ,but that seems unlikley ..This was cleaned out before I bought it so there shouldn't be anything bogging it down ,and I have hardly put anything on it ..My old one had way more stored in it ..any suggestions will be helpfull
Thanks

[cauzomb]

Any idea how much free drive space? can you upgrade the memory any time soon? you may want to check out the malware/spyware section to check if there are baddies running in the background.

[Gizmokid2005]

Like cauzomb mentioned, I would definitely get some more memory as a start. WinXP has a MINIMUM RAM of 256MB, though I've seen it run on less, and it runs pretty slow with it. Also, make sure you've done a disk defragmentation, and make sure that you check for viruses, malware/spware

[TurcoLoco]

I just junked my old pc with 98se and about 900 mhz .I got a used pentium 4 1700 mhz 256 and xp pro ..

I have seen XP run on a system as low as 450MHz P-II with 96MB SDRAM but it was like placing a pinto engine into a Corvette! I am sure you get the picture...

Even though XP would run OK on a system with 1700MHz CPU, 256MB RAM is a bit low, especially if you have an onboard (integrated) Videao card using 32+ MBs of it...so I agree with others, double your RAM or another stick of 512MBs but I'd not recommend upgrading much of anything else as it'd probably make more sense to get a new system instead.

I'm on a dial up ..problem is It is very slow compared to my old one .Someone said it maybe too much pc for my phone line ,but that seems unlikley ..This was cleaned out before I bought it so there shouldn't be anything bogging it down ,and I have hardly put anything on it ..My old one had way more stored in it ..any suggestions will be helpfull
Thanks

What is slow exactly, your Internet connection or your system in general?
If you were referring to your Internet connection, the problem could be that the drivers for the same Dial-up modem could be utilized and better performing on the Windows 9x system (assuming you are using the same modem). XP, generally works better with newer hardware components. This is mainly due to manufacturers tweaking their device drivers primarily for XP.
This could be the case or you simply are using a bad or outdated drivers, check for updates on the modem vendor's web site. Second thing is to make sure the related settings are optimized. Third to check for line noise and use shorter, unshared phone cables...

If the problem is with the system performance in general, again starting with the partitioning/formatting of the Drive, BIOS configuration, the mobo drivers to every other hardware component's drivers that is installed, could be the culprit.
Not to mention a malware infection, a 3rd party application that is buggy in WindowsXP. Incorrectly configured services, too many startup processes, etc...

Lastly, as Cauzomb mentioned, how big is the drive and how much of it is used? Especially with older HDD (less than 40GB capacity), when you exceed the 50% of the drive's full capacity, the performance could start to drop. Most drives perform their best at a maximum of 30%-35% of the HDD's max capacity.

If you are frequent installing/uninstalling programs, moving, copying and/or deleting files, then a ScanDisk and then a defragmentation should be done as well...

~TL