I installed windows xp home edition on an older computer(emachines, 366mhz, 128 ram) and now it crashes constantly. Sometimes I get the blue screen of death. It always says there is a different reason for the crash though. Other times it just reboots. I have tried registry cleaner programs but they seem to have made the problem worse. My computer only crashes occasionally if I use one program at a time. Using morpheus, winamp, and windows media player seem to increase the frequency of the crashes. Maybe my computer shouldn’t be running windows xp? But is there anything I can do to make my computer run smoothly?
Windows xp needs 128mb to run, so my ram should be good enough.
Tagged with: blue screen of death • crash • older computer • winamp • windows media player • windows xp • windows xp home • windows xp home edition
Filed under: Windows Repair Software
You should definitely start by adding more RAM, then if that doesn’t work, you may want to invest in a better CPU.
Well, your system is quite old for Windows XP. But I have actually installed it on older ones. They dont run well though. The first thing I notice is Microsoft recommends 256MB of system memory for Windows XP. I would never use less than 512MB myself. Also the crashes could be caused by hardware incompatibility, or failing hardware. If you know Sandra Lite run a diagnostics test, if u dont know Sandra you should learn it. Download here:
http://www.download.com/3000-2086-10018691.html
You may also need the latest chipset drivers for your motherboard. And You may also need to flash your BIOS to the latest version. Many older systems have BIOS updates just for XP compatibility.
Rab is right/ wimpy is the word. What you have just won’t "turn the crank on XP
A 366 Mhz with 128 ram is a bit wimpy for XP. Can try to up the ram to 512 may help but ultimately should go to Dell and get a new one for under $500.
It’s possible that the computer just doesn’t have enough RAM and CPU to support Windows XP. Even though Microsoft would have you believe all you need is 64MB RAM, it just ain’t so. Most users seem to find they need a minimum of 256MB RAM and at least a P3 processor for "crash-less"operation.
Perhaps if you access the Task Manager (ctrl+alt+del) and look at the processes running at startup, you might be able to eliminate some of them to reduce the startup load.
If that doesn’t help, perhaps the System Configuration Utility will. (Start > run > type in msconfig > OK) and display the General tab. Use the Diagnostic Startup option. If Windows boots and does not crash, you’ll have to go through the Selective Startup and check mark one box at a time, reboot, see if the crashes occur. If it starts crashing when WIN.INI is checked (for example) then you’ll have to try to narrow down the problems by going to the WIN.INI tab. This is a slow process but might get your comp back on it’s feet.