Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

[shovenose]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

Norton is not VERY light....I wouldn't go that far to say that. But it is still a huge improvement...

[dood]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

@momaka - Shame on you for discouraging Anti-Virus

FWIW, I use norton on all my PCs. It may be payware, but it's effective and VERY light on memory, and never scans unless you leave the PC alone for like 15 mins.

You must be using some version of Norton that I've never seen...

Or an older copy of the corporate AV... that was pretty light on resources.

[shovenose]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

Well then that is it. Malwsrebytes Pro has real-time protection. You got the trial so it has it! If you uninstall then reinstall and decline the trial it wont do that.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

Well it said something about a trial, so i guess i tried the Pro version.

[shovenose]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

I don't see a startup service for MBAM. Maybe you're using the Pro version which includes real-time anti-virus protection?

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

Flash even works on Win98. Btw, i don't like the new politics of Malwarebytes. I needed it last month, and they added a service so that it runs at all times... Well, that would be fine and dandy - if that service wouldn't hang Windows Explorer at startup! No taskbar, no icons. Awesome work dudes.

I let it do its job then quickly uninstalled it. I miss the old MBAM.

[shovenose]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

As far as AV, I always use either Microsoft Security Essentials (light on RAM but not very good protection), Comodo Internet Seucirty, or AVG Anti-VIrus 2012 Free...

Norton is great but not free :-(

On the toughbook I put Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free on it so if I get suspicious I will just run a scan
And as far as web browsing speed, I use AdBlock, which helps a lot, and Flash won't work on Windows 2000 anuyway,

[kc8adu]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

My guess is that the TFT wasn't that precise to begin with.

i noticed slightly off colors on the one i have here.its a bit newer.might just be the nature of the beast.has the touchscreen too.edit.these are transflective screens.they always look a little "off".but can be read out in the sunlight.

[kc8adu]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

av might stop you from dragging in an infected file on your flashdrive,ect.but the crap mutates fast nowadays.av is like a cop.comes in after the event to clean up.common sense will stop most infection attempts in their tracks.

Common sense is the best antivirus. Well, the best anti-anything really...

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

Norton has changed a lot. It is no longer the memory hog it had become in 2004-2007. I still wouldn't use it tho.

Common sense is the best antivirus. Well, the best anti-anything really...

[c_hegge]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

@momaka - Shame on you for discouraging Anti-Virus

FWIW, I use norton on all my PCs. It may be payware, but it's effective and VERY light on memory, and never scans unless you leave the PC alone for like 15 mins.

[momaka]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

Oh and now I uninstalled Comodo and I'm going to not have any anti-virus. I can already notice the speed difference,

Good choice there.
Most anti-virus programs do more harm than good anyways. I rather get my PC infected and then clean it myself instead of have an AV scan for hours (and sometimes not find anything when the PC is clearly infected).

I've been running pretty much all of my computers (which are all Pentium 3 or AMD equivalent in speed except for one) without AV. The only computer on which I have AV is my download box because I'm a bit reckless on it sometimes. But I'm considering removing the AV even on that one. It's just been getting on my nerves lately, especially when trying to open a CD, only to find Avast! trying to scan the whole thing before I can access it.

First off, I have NO IDEA why anybody would sell a system new with ONLY 256MB of RAM!!! I mean of course I've seen it in Dells and Compaqa...but it's just utterly stupid.
Maybe back then SP1 of XP was less of a memory hog?

XP was never a memory hog, even with SP2 and SP3. In most cases, XP will use 120 MB or less if there are no other startup programs. The computer I'm sitting on right now, for example, has SP2 and it uses whopping 90 MB of RAM when it boots. And my PIII laptop - 86 MB. Even with a bunch of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents open, I still never broke past 200 MB.

So as you can see, XP has no problems running on old hardware. The real problem comes when you try to use some of that "new" software. Many programs are so bloated nowadays that it's just too sad to discuss. And don't get me started on .NET or FLASH.

I just installed XP on a new-to-me computer the other day - Pentium 4 with 256 MB or RAM, 40 GB HDD, and FX5600 video card. I was able to run games like Collin McRae Rally 4 and Need For Speed Underground/Underground 2 without a hiccup. Went on CNet and a few other flash-bloated websites after that, and the computer went pretty much all to shit. CPU at 100% use and RAM maxed out in just a few seconds.

Anyways, enough of those rants...
256 MB isn't a whole lot, but if you are not going to surf the web much on that computer, it should be more than enough.
Also, if you still end up using the old slow HDD in that Toughbook, make the pagefile smaller, like 128-192 MB. This will slightly shift the memory usage in XP from the pagefile to the RAM.

[shovenose]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

PM sent.

[ratdude747]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

Crap! It won't take PC100...only PC133...what a shame. I've got this nie 256MB module of PC100 but when I turn it on it doesn't recognize it :-(

PM sent.

[shovenose]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

haha touchscreens are SO FUn!!! guess what I'm on right nw :P

[shovenose]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

Update:
-Blazing fast with Windows 2000 and a 32GB SSD!
-Battiries Plus would have charged me $115 for the damn battery. I can't buy it on eBay and I'm unwilling to spend $100+ on this old thing.
-XP =/= touchscreen. I'll try the touchscreen drivers, etc. on 2000 and see if I can get it to work.

@c_hegge & dood: how would I test the backlight? thanks!

[dood]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

My guess is that the TFT wasn't that precise to begin with.

[c_hegge]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

It should be dirt cheap if you can find some used stuff on fleabay. I outrightly refuse to sell ANY computer with less than 1GB of ram for XP and 2GB for vistrash or 7.

EDIT: The screen issue sounds like it could be a CCFL problem. On an older laptop, that wouldn't surprise me, (depending on the usage it had before you got it). you'd probably have to replace the screen to fix it.

[larrymoencurly]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

I tried running XP in 256MB but gave up. Even 512MB gives a huge performance boost, and my 466MHz Socket 370 Celeron system with 512MB ran XP faster than a 2.8GHz Pentium4 with 256MB.

[shovenose]

Re: Panasonic Toughbook slow, messed up, etc.

Crap! It won't take PC100...only PC133...what a shame. I've got this nie 256MB module of PC100 but when I turn it on it doesn't recognize it :-(