My friend wants me to fix her dell. It's a used system and it ran fine. Windows XP just ran really really slow when she first got it. It took like 10 minutes to start and then afterwards it takes like 5 minutes for the controll panel to come up after you click it. Mouse and keboard work fine. So we're like just reinstall windows and that's it. She has an official windows XP that isn't from dell from her old computer. Started to install it and that's when we knew we had a problem. The OS took like 7 hours to install really slow. Then after the computer still ran rediculously slow. So we took out the ram and tested it on other computers and it ran fine. (so it wasn't bad ram) Then we took the HD drive and put in a brand new one and it still ran slow. I don't konw what to do now. I can't find a setting in the dell bios to set defaults. There is now way to install new mobo and cpu because the dell case won't fit another brand of mobo. is there anything else I can test to see if it's the problem.

It may still be the RAM, as i found out the hard way. If the RAM is faulty it may still function on a installed system but will be unstable and or slow because of constant re-writes etc. Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 Athlon 64 3500+ Dual - Corsair TwinX CMX512-3200XL Gecube X800 XT Platinum Seagate 200 Gig Coolermaster Wavemaster Silver

HI, Try resetting the BIOS to default values. I worked on a HP computer last summer that had the very same problem, and that was the cure for that particular system. Tony AMD Athlonxp 3200+ OC Asus A7N8x-deluxe-E ATI AIW 9600pro 2x WD SATA raptors/raid0 Corsair XMS3200 16x Lite-on DVD 12x DVD-R 48x Lite-on CDRW Aspire Super Alien Case

it may be worth checking exactly what processor you have to see what CPU caching is available, and then check in the bios to see if CPU caching is enabled.

Morning, I might be wrong, but did you say that you installed XP from her old computer and did not use the Dell Restore CD or restore function? Might be that by using the XP from her old computer, you might be using different incorrect drivers, etc that the Dell needs to run correctly. just a thought, XDon

i'm going to check the bios one more time. Oh and I already bought brand new ram for it and it still ran slow. I hope it's not the Dell CD that we need, cause she doesn't have it!!