How to speed up my PC - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

04/23/2005 10:40:53 AM · #1

When I had my old Athlon 1.66 MHZ 750 MB RAM and 7200 RPM HD,one click on the folder with photos would imediately open every one of them.
Now I use Dell 3Ghz Pentium 4 with 750MB RAM and 5400 RPM HD,also 128 MB video card,it takes 2-3 minutes for photos to load.
Any way I can speed up the opening process ?

doctornick

Apple iPhone 13 Pro

04/23/2005 10:53:53 AM · #2

Faster Hard Drive and more RAM.

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

04/23/2005 10:54:40 AM · #3

I would go back to using that 7200 RPM drive. That definitely makes a difference. And try using a Gig of RAM.

Message edited by author 2005-04-23 10:55:07.

langdon

Canon EOS-20D

04/23/2005 10:57:53 AM · #4

2-3 minutes just isn't right though... 1800rpm of hard-drive spinnin isn't going to speed a 2-3 minute process up to 2-3 seconds...

Could be a problem with your windows install.. I'm assuming Dell installed Windows for you? And are any other processes terribly slow?

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

04/23/2005 10:59:26 AM · #5

Also... is 2 to 3 minutes an accurate measure, or an exageration?

dragonlady

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

04/23/2005 11:01:02 AM · #6

make sure too many things aren/t in the startup menu...go to run>msconfig> then check the start up tag to see what's running at startup..remove what you don't need and restart

colda

Nikon D800

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

04/23/2005 11:03:25 AM · #7

install Linux ;)

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

04/23/2005 11:04:15 AM · #8

Originally posted by colda:

install Linux ;)

LOL.

Canon EOS-20D

04/23/2005 11:04:37 AM · #9

How full is your hard drive? If it's right up near capacity, that can slow things down substantially, too.

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

04/23/2005 11:06:08 AM · #10

Could it be a MCAfee anti-virus software?
My old machine was free of that junk!

MK, machine is brand new and everything works fast,Photoshop opens fast and everything else ,except photo folders.

Message edited by author 2005-04-23 11:07:26.

awpollard

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

04/23/2005 11:06:45 AM · #11

What they said...

5400 RPM disk is a budget drive these days usually with a 2M Cache...quite a difference between a 7800 RPM 8M Cache.

Probably the best you can do is maintenance...

Keep your photo folders small 150-200 pics per folder.

And the routine stuff...

Spyware removal, Delete Temporary Internet Files, Clean MRUs (most recently used) and defrag regularly...I can never get this through to my users at work...and is the #1 cause of slow(ing) systems.

BTW: What is the size of your Swap File?

awpollard

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

04/23/2005 11:09:57 AM · #12

Originally posted by pitsaman:

Could it be a MCAfee anti-virus software?
My old machine was free of that junk!

MK, machine is brand new and everything works fast,Photoshop opens fast and everything else ,except photo folders.

Is this a brand new build? If so defrag it right out of the box, XP is way fragmented right off the install CD...This won't fix a 2 minute load problem but well help in the long run.

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

04/23/2005 11:16:27 AM · #13

Originally posted by vince31874:

Also... is 2 to 3 minutes an accurate measure, or an exageration?

Maybe longer,I have to shave after every folder :-)

awpollard

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

04/23/2005 11:24:05 AM · #14

Originally posted by pitsaman:

Kind of curious here but what kind of configuration for RAM do you have that you come out to 750Mb?

Anyways swap file per MSFT recommended should be 1.5 x Total System RAM...I recommend to make both Initial and Maximum to same size to curtail defragmentation. When you set a Initial and Maximum of different values the swapfile dynamically grows/shrinks as it does defragmentation happens (more often than not) as files are written back to the disk.

Telehubbie

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

04/23/2005 11:27:54 AM · #15

Originally posted by awpollard:

Probably the best you can do is maintenance...

Keep your photo folders small 150-200 pics per folder.

And the routine stuff...

Spyware removal, Delete Temporary Internet Files, Clean MRUs (most recently used) and defrag regularly...I can never get this through to my users at work...and is the #1 cause of slow(ing) systems.

What he said... Also, get another gig of memory if your motherboard supports it. It's so cheap these days. Your McAfee shouldn't slow it down that much unless it's actually doing a scan. Hit ctrl-alt-delete to bring up your task manager and in the processes tab, look under the CPU and Mem usage columns to see what's eating up your resources. If you don't know what something is, do a google for it and you can find out what it is and if it's safe to "end process." Good luck, hope this helps. Also, there's always the option of formatting and reinstalling... ;-)

04/23/2005 11:28:49 AM · #16

Originally posted by pitsaman:

Originally posted by vince31874:
Also... is 2 to 3 minutes an accurate measure, or an exageration?

Maybe longer,I have to shave after every folder :-)

Yep... Install Linux. :)

Man_Called_Horse

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

04/23/2005 11:39:42 AM · #17

try adjusting your virtual memory.

the manufactur default is usually slow, so go into your computer and make virtual memory faster.

system properties/performance/advance/virtual memory/

make sure the numbers are about 3000 mb apart ie, 1700-4700mb. if you encounter wrong numbers don't fret, just readjust. the program will give you advice.

Message edited by author 2005-04-23 11:50:25.

oksamit

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

04/23/2005 11:45:07 AM · #18

Hey, you have to try
1.Install faster harddrive 7200rpm ( if you have sata controler install sata h\d 7200rpm or 10000rpm)
2.Reinstall WIN XP Pro but not from Dell soft
3.Install all drivers
4.After installing windows defrag h\d , remove junk files.
5.Install antivirus beter if you have PCcillin or NOD32 (Mcafee and Norton Slow douwn you PC)
6.If it dosn't help you have problem with Proccesor or Mainboard.

(you must inter Dell key when you install Win XP other key not permitet by Dell BIOS)

Message edited by author 2005-04-23 11:51:36.

ButterflySis

Canon EOS-50D

04/23/2005 12:58:17 PM · #19

When's the last time you deleted your temp internet files, deleted the contents of your temp folder, or defragged?

Edit: Yea, what awpollard said. :-)

Message edited by author 2005-04-23 12:59:21.

Nelzie

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

04/23/2005 01:15:05 PM · #20

Originally posted by swinging_johnson_v1:

That's not going to help.

Virtual memory, by default, is slower then physical memory. The best thing to do would be to greatly increase physical RAM and cut down on the size of the Virtual memory pagefile. Windows is still terrible at managing memory and tends to put far more then should be, into the Virtual Memory system.

The only thing that increasing the pagefile will do is provide more room for Windows to arbitrarily toss things into Virtual memory. Which is a bad idea, since hard drives are nowhere near as fast as physical RAM is.

MikeO

Fujifilm x100

04/23/2005 02:20:55 PM · #21

Although yours is a new pc and you should not really need this, try running this programme - its free and when I first ran it I managed to regain about 800mb of disk space.

//www.ccleaner.com/

Message edited by author 2005-04-23 14:21:24.

Brad

Olympus OM-D E-M1

Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO M.Zuiko

04/23/2005 02:32:03 PM · #22

PC speed isn't always about the CPU, RAM & freespace/clutter.
A lot has to do with the IDE controller, HD mode and bus speed.
If the old PC was using a 7200 rpm 8MB cache Ultra ATA with a 133/166/200 Mhz FSB and the new PC is running a 5400 rpm 2MB cache PIO mode 4 or less on a 100Mhz FBS a lot slower performance will happen. The CPU, though much more powerful, is like putting a 2,000HP engine in your car to drive down to the grocery store in a 35 mph speed limit street.
Sometimes HD's won't be set in the advance properties for DMA mode, or the IDE controllers aren't allowing full speed throughput.
Shared resources on the MB are another, as well as USB settings (1.0 vs. 2.0) but you said it was taking a long time to load images, which sounds more like data access (HD read) and MB throughput issues.

There are A LOT of variables involved here.

I suggest you download Belarc and run it to see what you actually have now and give us some specs.

Message edited by author 2005-04-23 14:34:19.

MAK

Leica M Monochrom

Leica 18-56mm f/3.5-5.6 Vario Elmar-T ASPH

04/23/2005 03:08:36 PM · #23

Choose MAC .... sorry I know it don't seem like helpfull advice but believe me it is.

Get a MAC and RELAX.

Like Brad says there are a lot of things it COULD be. The only reason I still have a PC around is for playing Championship Manager on (addicted since 1992, how sad).

chig

Canon EOS-40D

Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro for Canon

04/23/2005 03:09:55 PM · #24

I had this problem when I upgraded my computer and after day's of trying everything I found the answer.Try uninstalling your photo editing software(in my case was photoshop 7).Now open up any folder with your photo's in. Is this any faster?. If so re-install your editing software this time select "custom install" and only select photoshop. Do not select image ready. Or plug-in files for either photoshop or image ready. You can add the plug-ins later.
I see you are thinking it's a hardware problem just like i did,do give this a try, it solved my problem, don't quite know how but it did.
Let me know how you get on.