Any slower and it'd be running backwards

[fogartyolmos]

Please help, if possible! Our daughter was recently given a Sony Vaio PCG-K215M by a family friend who had had it for couple of years. It ran ridiculously slowly so we paid to have it completely reformatted. After that, it ran ever so slightly more quickly, so I splashed out another £45 on upgrading the memory to 1024MB. The only problem is that it's still running remarkably slowly. Any ideas why this might be or what I might do? Your answer could help me add a little extra to the somewhat meagre Xmas pile under the tree.

I will light a candle to the memory of all valiant souls out there who contribute to my successful resolution of this problem.

[Blencogo]

It would be useful to know exactly what is running slowly - this may give us a clue. 

I presume you are using XP Home Edition - did you reformat with the Sony version of XP or did you install a retail version?

Possible causes are: -

1. Too many background processes running - look in Task Manager and check the number of Processes running.

2. The Hard Drive is very slow on this model and replacing it with a 7200 RPM, slightly larger hard drive could be a good investment.  If large amounts of data are being copied to a paging file, this may make a big difference.  Changing the HDD is a quick job on this model.

3. Check that the Hard Disc and DVD/CD-ROM drive is transferring data in DMA Mode (Direct Memory Access Mode) which is much quicker than PIO Mode which puts everything through the processor.  Go to Device Manager and expand IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers.  Double-click on the Primary IDE Channel and select the Advanced Settings Tab.  Check that the Transfer Mode is set to 'DMA if Available' and that the Current Transfer Mode is 'Ultra DMA Mode #'.

4. Try running a Registry Cleaner as over time links to old programs etc can slow the computer down.  Most registry cleaners have a free 30 day trial.  Try something like 'System Mechanic'.

Try these first and let us know which programs are running slowly and someone may have some further ideas.

Of course, things have moved on considerably since this laptop was made and you cannot expect the speed to be comparable with a modern laptop with an up to date processor.  Your Vaio is using a Desktop P4 Processor.

Good Luck and have a great Christmas.

[fogartyolmos]

Thanks for taking the time to give such a considered reply. The slowest programs (although equally true to say the ONLY programs we are running on it) are the internet based ones. Google Chrome takes ages, IE is no longer even attempted. Witht he memory upgrade, things are marginally better.

Of course, I'd never do anything illegal like try to watch football/soccer matches over a streamed connection using TVU or Sopcast. But if I did, I'm pretty damn sure that I'd have to give it up and sit and stare frustrated at the damn screen.

Checked the processes - 49 were running, using between 2-5% of CPU usage. 49 seemed like a lot considering that I am only sat here with Chrome open and Panda software anti-virus running. But then I know less about computers than my eleven year old cocker spaniel.

Checked the DMA mode option. It was running as you suggested it shoiuld be. However, I enjoyed feeling as if I was almost an expert. It took google to help me discover the Device Manager.

Changing the HDD sounds interesting. Is this something that somebody as useless as myself might be able to do by himself? Or would I need to pay a real expert?

Your help has been really useful - if for no other reason than to reassure me that the computer is not about to die and I've wasted £90! I really appreciate it and hope you have an equally wonderful Christmas.