eMachine slow

[AbleDog]

Just bought a new eMachine for my wife's shop. Win XP Home Edition and 2.6 GHz chip, 256 Ram. This thing is S-l-o-w as the dickens. Takes forever to move about on the web. It is not the browser (Earthlink) since it's the same browser as the Win 98 machine it replaced. I understand this is common to some new eMachines "out of the box". Any ideas?

[Mark H]

For one thing, Windows XP will work better with 512 megs of RAM rather than 256 megs. Aside from the physical change, there are some things you can check.

1. What is running in the background? Many vendors put several programs on that load on startup and slow the PC down.

2. Defragment the hard drive.

3. Run a spyware scan with Adaware and/or Spybot, which can be downloaded from the download page at this site. Update them once installed to have the latest information.

Mark H

[Carskick]

Is it just the intrernet that's slow? If so, you may have a defective modem. Just a thought, but possible. A friend recently bought a compaq with a 2.6ghz Celeron and 256MB RAM, and it's no speed demon, but I wouldn't call it slow, so I wouldn't blame the lack of RAM. Follow mark's advice, and also try calling E-Machines. If it's new and extremely slow, give them hell and make em fix it. If they refuse, return the machine and get something else.

[Hoot]

Just bought a new eMachine for my wife's shop. Win XP Home Edition and 2.6 GHz chip, 256 Ram. This thing is S-l-o-w as the dickens. Takes forever to move about on the web. It is not the browser (Earthlink) since it's the same browser as the Win 98 machine it replaced. I understand this is common to some new eMachines "out of the box". Any ideas?

I use one just like it in my computer office (PC shop) - got it at cost co as a return from a friend that works there for $250.00. I put and extra 512 stick of kingmax PC2100 and a Gforce 5600 Ultra (XFX) - fast as he|| for an OEM machine. loads pages fast and games with aplumb, even though it's an SIS P4 chipset. It takes everything I throw at it.

[Hoot]

Open the box and reseat the IDE cables if you know what your doing, if not, get someone to do it for you. Also reseat the ram. If you do make sure to ground yourself with the power supply. Reseat the connection to the motherboard, and to the optical drives, and to the HDD carefully, then reseat the ram, but try it in the other slot. So many people buy machines and just expect it to work great out of the box, but you have to realize that things can move around during shipping and just from the truck to the shelf. I have fixed so many of these type machines from people coming into my shop...brand new and they're screaming about how HP sucks,  or eMachines, or Gateway. Within 20 minutes usually I have the machine running as fast as as it should run. Easy money for me. I can't imagine how many PC's re returned to staples, Office Depot, Best Buy, Circuit City, and other stores  that are ok and just need a cable seated properly, or drivers loaded correctly, or MSCONFIG to get all the startup crud out of startup.

[AbleDog]

Will give that a try. I can handle it. This is the first packaged machine I have bought, usually I put them together myself or upgrade myself. I guess I'll put 512 RAM in there while I have it open. 512 M of RAM!! Bill Gates once said 640 K of RAM is enough for anybody. LOL. Thanks, and static is something you seldom worry about here in So. Florida. This time of year though you will get an occasional day when you have to consider it.

[Hoot]

I hope you get it to run ok. I know it can be frustrating when things don't run like you know they can.