xp still very slow

[#1]

Thanks for all the replys.
The peak and total commit charges are always less than the installed ram.
I have let it run looking at task manager.
wuauclt.exe and svchost.exe appear to hog huge chumks of memory for around 15mins after startup.  At one point they were taking p a combined total of just under 600meg!!!  MsMpEng also appears to be a bit of a memory hog as well, but nowhere near as bad...

[#2]

Quote from: penfold

The peak and total commit charges are always less than the installed ram.

70% would be the target I'd be looking for.
Think of an office that you're moving furniture round in, you need space to move stuff around in. Programs are like bits of furniture, not grains of sand.

[#3]

Thanks
the total amount of memory is 1gb, reported in task manager as something like 976000K.  Peak commit charge was somewhere in the region of 670000K, but usually seen to be around 400000-450000K.
Does that sound right?

[#4]

Sounds fine. 

[#5]

Well it sounds like its not a memory issue....
Seems like windows update has some kind of issue with wuauclt hogging loads of memory for ages after boot up.
I did find this after some searching...  Anyone had any experience of it before I go wading in....
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058

[#6]

Windows update can require lots of memory. Best to turn the PC on and leave it alone for a long time to let it run through (occasionally).
WU is one reason why 2GB is a more sensible RAM amount for XP. With that it whizzes through.

[#7]

I get what you are saying hp but my concerns are that this is happening every time he starts his system. It lasts for approximately 20mins. I think first step would be completely disabling auto updates and get him to check manually once a month and see what happens.

[#8]

Is Windows Update working OK? Do you have the updates from last Tuesday (11th Feb)?

[#9]

Obviously difficult/impossible to guess what's going on without seeing the system running.
However I have seen many systems where they "appear" to be working OK and not using a huge amount of RAM but actually "something" just gets roadblocked.
It's as if some processes just decide there's not enough memory to run so won't load, or run horribly badly in restricted memory.
In almost all these cases just adding RAM and letting it run through a few boots and updates until quiet each time leaves it running smoothly.
I'm not pretending to understand or explain, but I've seen it a lot on systems with as much as 1GB that you would think were fine.
If you're continuing to run XP I'd say have 2GB as a minimum if at all possible. If you can't make sure no unwanted programs/processes are loading. AV products are often a major culprit as is Skype.

[#10]

There was a recent issue on XP where Windows update slowed the system to a crawl.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=windows+xp+updates+slow+down+computer&newwindow=1&safe=off&sa=X&ei...

[#11]

Quote from: jelv

There was a recent issue on XP where Windows update slowed the system to a crawl.

That's why I was asking whether Windows Update was working ok. If it's not then there is a possible solution which is as follows:
Download and install the relevant Cumulative Security Update for your version of Internet Explorer from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms14-010 and then run Windows Update. Your problem might be sorted! 

[#12]

Cant say for sure. Dad mentioned that until yesterday he cant recall seeing the yellow shield recently. Yesterday it downloaded 9 updates one of them a cumilative update for ie8. Its still seems as bad to be honest. I am going back tomorrow to have another look.

[#13]

How much memory is installed on the system? Also Page filling can cause issues.

[#14]

Update.. its fixed. Switched offcauto updates and disables the autoupdate service. Still takes about 4-5mins from booting to be fully useable, but thats far far better than it was.  Ni access now to updates even manually, but dont see that as a great deal as updates cease in april anyway.  Thats all for the advice.