(SOLVED) Really slow system

grantmcduling · 2012-02-23 20:17:32

Hi, Just installed Archbang (used to run Bodhi) on my old HP Pavilion laptop. At present have only got what came with the install. No other packages. I am plugged into my wired network and have a connection. When using Aurora and trying it out on Youtube (to see if the sound is working) I notice it is unacceptably slow. In fact, I can't use this application. Any ideas? I used to run Arch and it worked fine. So did Bodhi. Where should I be looking to speed things up?

Last edited by grantmcduling (2012-03-01 00:01:30)

Keta · 2012-02-23 21:47:28

test any other browser?

grantmcduling · 2012-02-23 22:44:21

No, just that one.

doug piston · 2012-02-23 23:35:36

I found Aurora very slow as well. Installed Chormium and though a bit fatter it works well for me.

scjet · 2012-02-27 19:01:21

How "old" is HP Pavilion laptop ?
I had an "older" Compaq E500 Armada (P3, with 384Megs), and Archbang ran on it much faster then RedHat9 used to.

Last edited by scjet (2012-02-27 19:02:34)

Philippe1 · 2012-02-27 20:03:37

On my P3, firefox is also too slow so I use chromium.
As for youtube, it is also laggy so I use minitube.

I hope it helps...

Philippe

grantmcduling · 2012-02-27 20:17:26

I suspect my HD is past its best as I just tried loading up Puppy on a USB and it took 8 mins 30 secs from boot up. When I clicked on the terminal, it took around 25 secs for it to open and be ready to use. So I think I will buy a new netbook and ditch Windows, then reload up up either ArchBang or one of the 'out of the box' distros like Bodhi.

handy · 2012-02-27 22:17:00

You could just replace the HDD.

That's what I would do, if all else fails, you have another HDD.

oliver · 2012-02-28 07:38:22

grantmcduling wrote:

I suspect my HD is past its best as I just tried loading up Puppy on a USB and it took 8 mins 30 secs from boot up. When I clicked on the terminal, it took around 25 secs for it to open and be ready to use. So I think I will buy a new netbook and ditch Windows, then reload up up either ArchBang or one of the 'out of the box' distros like Bodhi.

If you loaded Puppy via USB then the HD shouldn't be touched unless I'm mis-understanding something (and assuming you don't have a 'save' partition carved out on the physical disk).

Mr Green · 2012-02-28 09:15:32

Puppy is live same as Archbang its loading from USB.

Without many system specs its hard to tell figure its low memory, as that would add to the slowness.....

grantmcduling · 2012-02-28 17:03:30

oliver wrote:

grantmcduling wrote:
I suspect my HD is past its best as I just tried loading up Puppy on a USB and it took 8 mins 30 secs from boot up. When I clicked on the terminal, it took around 25 secs for it to open and be ready to use. So I think I will buy a new netbook and ditch Windows, then reload up up either ArchBang or one of the 'out of the box' distros like Bodhi.
If you loaded Puppy via USB then the HD shouldn't be touched unless I'm mis-understanding something (and assuming you don't have a 'save' partition carved out on the physical disk).

I stick the USB into the port on the laptop, change the BIOS so it load from the USB and hit the start button. Then it starts to load, and it takes time ... Maybe I am doing it wrong but I don't think so. Perhaps loading this way is simply copying all the data etc onto the hard drive? It loads the swap partition /dev/sda5.

Last edited by grantmcduling (2012-02-28 17:04:51)

oliver · 2012-02-28 18:02:41

grantmcduling wrote:

I stick the USB into the port on the laptop, change the BIOS so it load from the USB and hit the start button. Then it starts to load, and it takes time ... Maybe I am doing it wrong but I don't think so. Perhaps loading this way is simply copying all the data etc onto the hard drive? It loads the swap partition /dev/sda5.

I may be high, but I don't think your HD is touched outside of mounting the swap partition. No data should be copied onto it (not including sockets that get opened and written to /tmp etc)

How much RAM do you have? I've used Arch with 256mb and it's been acceptable (but frustrating at times)

grantmcduling · 2012-02-28 18:28:20

512MB of RAM. It has an Intel Pentium M CPU with a processing speed of 1700 MHz. BIOS is version F.03 if that helps. I have just run a test of the HD and it passed OK. So it looks like it's not the HD that is the problem. But Puppy takes 9 mins to load up and operates real slowly. ArchBang is also real slow, hence my query.

oliver · 2012-02-28 20:00:13

that should definitely be usable (although I realise 'usable' is entirely subjective).

Do you have anything connected via USB that might be holding things up?

If you still have Arch installed, is it just as slow at the command line outside of X? (i.e. ctrl-alt-F2)

grantmcduling · 2012-02-28 20:23:25

I don't have Arch installed anymore. I did a clean of the entire disc (took all night) and loaded up Bodhi (because I am familiar with it). No change in performance. Running Memtest86 v4.00 at present to see if that throws up anything. Then I will take the laptop to my local computer shop and ask them to investigate. I was thinking along the lines of installing a new HD but it appears that may not solve things. If I get the all clear, I will reinstall ArchBang. Incidentally, I had Arch running nicely before, but installed Bodhi simply because I couldn't get my WiFi working and needed to in a hurry for work. Bodhi auto detected.

handy · 2012-02-29 01:44:57

oliver wrote:

grantmcduling wrote:
I stick the USB into the port on the laptop, change the BIOS so it load from the USB and hit the start button. Then it starts to load, and it takes time ... Maybe I am doing it wrong but I don't think so. Perhaps loading this way is simply copying all the data etc onto the hard drive? It loads the swap partition /dev/sda5.
I may be high, but I don't think your HD is touched outside of mounting the swap partition. No data should be copied onto it (not including sockets that get opened and written to /tmp etc)
How much RAM do you have? I've used Arch with 256mb and it's been acceptable (but frustrating at times)

True.

I must be on drugs...

Mr Green · 2012-02-29 01:58:53

Try Slitaz on it runs from ram...

oliver · 2012-02-29 08:03:04

i wouldn't be willing to give up just yet on this...

Just to confirm:
booting off USB = slow. Is it the same USB stick all the time? (it could have some bad sectors but I'd be surprised if it didn't force itself to read-only in that case)
installed on HD = slow.

What about booting off CD? Of course - you'll have to compensate for the general slowness of the CD spinning when accessing unread data

Have you looked in /var/log/messages (or the bodhi equivalent) to see if there are any errors?

Great idea from Mr Green too... if you can narrow this down you can probably find a replacement part on ebay for cheap unless this was the push you needed to get a new laptop :-)

grantmcduling · 2012-02-29 19:04:16

I took the laptop to a computer shop and he inserted 1G of RAM and booted. Still painfully slow. He reckoned the laptop is past its best and as it is around 6 years old, not worth spending money on. So I think I'll buy a new one and go from there. Thanks for all your help.

scjet · 2012-03-04 10:16:17

6 years old, thats all ?
as I suspected, my Compaq Armada E500 is even older, and it ran Arch better/faster than most other linux distro's, so your problem may be inherently more deeper (hardware-wise).
Sry to hear that -btw.

Arch Linux

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#1 2012-02-23 20:17:32

(SOLVED) Really slow system

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#15 2012-02-28 20:23:25

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