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Dell XPS 420 running really slow - any way to upgrade?
Posted on 1/10/16 at 6:50 am
Posted on 1/10/16 at 6:50 am
Desktop computer that's 8 years old. I don't use it for much except to dial into my office remotely and a few other things. I upgraded to windows 10 and its slow as hell now. I know 8 years is several lifetimes for computers - are there any parts i can switch out/upgrade to speed it up? I'd rather not buy a new computer.
1
Posted on 1/10/16 at 7:36 am to drexyl
What model is your XPS and what do you mean by slow? What OS did you have previously and how did it run on that? The short answer is yes, you can make some upgrades.
Posted on 1/10/16 at 7:49 am to DisplacedBuckeye
I thought 420 was the model?
Slow as in click on a program and it opens a minute later. Type on the screen and there is a severe drag. I mean slow in every possible way
Started with XP, moved to Windows 7, then recently to Windows 10 (admittedly this was a bad decision) it was already pretty slow on Windows 7 and now like a snail on Windows 10 ( I know. Bad decision)
Slow as in click on a program and it opens a minute later. Type on the screen and there is a severe drag. I mean slow in every possible way
Started with XP, moved to Windows 7, then recently to Windows 10 (admittedly this was a bad decision) it was already pretty slow on Windows 7 and now like a snail on Windows 10 ( I know. Bad decision)
Posted on 1/10/16 at 8:11 am to drexyl
quote:
I thought 420 was the model?
That's the series. Within the 420 series you have a few different models. Would be something similar to "dxcwqj13".
quote:
Slow as in click on a program and it opens a minute later. Type on the screen and there is a severe drag. I mean slow in every possible way
An SSD would help, and might be some settings you could change. I have an XPS laptop that's about as old as yours. An SSD made it a different computer.
Posted on 1/10/16 at 8:34 am to DisplacedBuckeye
dell website says 420 is the model. Only other info is the service rage which is specific to my computer. Google images only shows my computer when I google "XPS420"
I'm not sure what an SSD is but It would probably be helpful if I could post the current specs of the computer. Let me know if I left anything out.
OS: Windows 10 Pro
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz 2.39 GHz
RAM: 3.00 GB
System: 64 bit operating system, x64-based processor
I'm not sure what an SSD is but It would probably be helpful if I could post the current specs of the computer. Let me know if I left anything out.
OS: Windows 10 Pro
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz 2.39 GHz
RAM: 3.00 GB
System: 64 bit operating system, x64-based processor
Posted on 1/10/16 at 8:46 am to drexyl
The processor should be more than adequate for either Windows 7 or 10. I would suspect that you're memory constrained so a solid state drive is not going to be that much help. You can get rid of any desktop gadgets like news, sports, and weather feeds and close any background processes but the only permanent solution is going to be maxing out the memory. A 64 bit PC really needs more than 3GB to run Windows 7 or 10. It probably had Windows XP installed originally.
This post was edited on 1/10/16 at 8:48 am
Posted on 1/10/16 at 9:16 am to drexyl
quote:
dell website says 420 is the model. Only other info is the service rage which is specific to my computer. Google images only shows my computer when I google "XPS420"
Understood, but that isn't your model number. There's a wide range of components that could be installed in the 420. The model number would tell me what you have. Google images would show your computer because the tower is the same for that series number.
quote:
I'm not sure what an SSD is but It would probably be helpful if I could post the current specs of the computer. Let me know if I left anything out.
Solid state drive. It would help drastically, but may not be the only cause.
This post was edited on 1/10/16 at 9:18 am
Posted on 1/10/16 at 10:33 am to DisplacedBuckeye
quote:can you point me in the right direction? Dell website did a system detection and only shows the model as XPS 420 and a service tag #. I can't find the model number.
Understood, but that isn't your model number. There's a wide range of components that could be installed in the 420. The model number would tell me what you have. Google images would show your computer because the tower is the same for that series number.
Posted on 1/10/16 at 10:35 am to Layabout
quote:i don't have any desktop gadgets. It's really bare bones as far as add-ones go.
You can get rid of any desktop gadgets like news, sports, and weather feeds and close any background processes but the only permanent solution is going to be maxing out the memory. A 64 bit PC really needs more than 3GB to run Windows 7 or 10. It probably had Windows XP installed originally.
How much memory do I need?
Posted on 1/10/16 at 10:44 am to drexyl
Upgrading to 8 GB of ram and moving to a ssd would help a lot. I think you could probably benefit from a good clean up too.
Posted on 1/10/16 at 10:45 am to drexyl
quote:
can you point me in the right direction? Dell website did a system detection and only shows the model as XPS 420 and a service tag #. I can't find the model number.
Should be on a tag on your machine. Should say Model No: and look similar to the number I posted. I'm not familiar with the 420, but it should be near the service tag or OS sticker.
Posted on 1/10/16 at 11:02 am to drexyl
i/o bottleneck, years of clutter on an aging hard drive, not to mention potentially drivers not playing nice with Windows 10. You need to start over on a solid state drive. Download all the drivers for your PC from Dell's website, back up your files, buy an SSD and install it, UNPLUG your hard drive, then reinstall Windows, drivers, and programs on an SSD.
And yes, your RAM is on the low side, but based on your intended use, it's not necessarily the root of the problem. Do what I said above, and you may not need to buy more RAM, but if you do, $30-$50 will get you an 8GB DDR2 kit (4x2GB) of some white-label brand on Amazon.
If you approach it any other way, you'll likely achieve nothing.
And yes, your RAM is on the low side, but based on your intended use, it's not necessarily the root of the problem. Do what I said above, and you may not need to buy more RAM, but if you do, $30-$50 will get you an 8GB DDR2 kit (4x2GB) of some white-label brand on Amazon.
If you approach it any other way, you'll likely achieve nothing.
Posted on 1/10/16 at 11:38 am to DisplacedBuckeye
I'm striking out on the model #. Here is everything dell says came with the computer.
223-2365 : XPS 420, Intel Core2 processorQ6600(2.4Ghz 1066FSB) w/QuadCore Tech and 8MB cache 375W Power Supply
"410-1174 : Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security, English, 15-Month Subscription
"310-8030 : Dell 2-Button USB Optical Mouse
"320-5954 : 256MB Radeon ATI HD 2600 XT
"420-7616 : Roxio Creator Premier for Inspiron/Dimension/XPS
"310-8626 : You have chosen a Windows Vista Premium System
"341-5418 : No Floppy Drive
"420-6719 : Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit Edition English
"320-6118 : Analog/Digital TV Tuner + Basic Remote
"412-0912 : MS WORKS 8.5
"412-1054 : Turbine Lord of the Rings Online,XPS
"420-7649 : Adobe Premier Elements Photoshop Elements, and Soundbooth Software
"313-5656 : Dell Resource DVD with Application Backup
"313-4591 : 56K PCI Data Fax Modem
"310-7963 : Dell USB Keyboard
"341-5334 : 320GB NCQ Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) w/ 16MB DataBurst Cache
"311-7872 : 3GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
"313-5829 : 16X DVD+R/RW
223-2365 : XPS 420, Intel Core2 processorQ6600(2.4Ghz 1066FSB) w/QuadCore Tech and 8MB cache 375W Power Supply
"410-1174 : Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security, English, 15-Month Subscription
"310-8030 : Dell 2-Button USB Optical Mouse
"320-5954 : 256MB Radeon ATI HD 2600 XT
"420-7616 : Roxio Creator Premier for Inspiron/Dimension/XPS
"310-8626 : You have chosen a Windows Vista Premium System
"341-5418 : No Floppy Drive
"420-6719 : Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit Edition English
"320-6118 : Analog/Digital TV Tuner + Basic Remote
"412-0912 : MS WORKS 8.5
"412-1054 : Turbine Lord of the Rings Online,XPS
"420-7649 : Adobe Premier Elements Photoshop Elements, and Soundbooth Software
"313-5656 : Dell Resource DVD with Application Backup
"313-4591 : 56K PCI Data Fax Modem
"310-7963 : Dell USB Keyboard
"341-5334 : 320GB NCQ Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) w/ 16MB DataBurst Cache
"311-7872 : 3GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
"313-5829 : 16X DVD+R/RW
Posted on 1/10/16 at 11:42 am to ILikeLSUToo
Posted on 1/10/16 at 11:59 am to drexyl
Question: If it came with 32-bit Vista, how did you get from that to Windows 10 64-bit? You can't do an upgrade from a 32-bit OS to a 64-bit OS, and you can't upgrade from Vista to Windows 10 directly. So at some point, a 64-bit version of some Windows release was installed from scratch.
This post was edited on 1/10/16 at 12:03 pm
Posted on 1/10/16 at 12:20 pm to ILikeLSUToo
quote:good catch. a couple of years ago I installed windows 7 from scratch. really started from ground zero fresh install. I just moved all the files I wanted to an external hard drive and installed 7 - I think the way I did it wiped out everything that was on the computer.
Question: If it came with 32-bit Vista, how did you get from that to Windows 10 64-bit? You can't do an upgrade from a 32-bit OS to a 64-bit OS, and you can't upgrade from Vista to Windows 10 directly. So at some point, a 64-bit version of some Windows release was installed from scratch.
Posted on 1/10/16 at 1:10 pm to drexyl
quote:
I'm striking out on the model #.
No worries, it may have been removed at some point.
Your machine is good enough to run Windows 10 and perform the tasks you want it to without issue. Pick out an SSD ( Used this in my wife's build ) and follow what ILikeLSUToo posted. As I said, that should make it feel like a new machine. If you're still having issues after you upgrade to an SSD, you can start looking at upgrading other components, starting with increasing the RAM.
Posted on 1/10/16 at 1:16 pm to drexyl
When you did that, did you reinstall all the drivers for the PC? Most importantly, the dedicated GPU and chipset drivers.
Posted on 1/10/16 at 1:59 pm to ILikeLSUToo
quote:cant recall. I can go to the dell website and reload those drivers just in case.
When you did that, did you reinstall all the drivers for the PC? Most importantly, the dedicated GPU and chipset drivers.
So recapping the thread I need to upgrade to an SSD and perhaps increase the RAM (8GB?)
Thanks for the help.
This post was edited on 1/10/16 at 2:00 pm
Posted on 1/11/16 at 8:09 am to jcole4lsu
quote:
Upgrading to 8 GB of ram and moving to a ssd would help a lot. I think you could probably benefit from a good clean up too.
I have an old toshiba, and the RAM helped a good bit. Then when I added the SSD it was like night and day. His sluggish response surely should be RAM related, but new RAM plus SSD be ideal for sure.
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