Linked by fran on Sat 29th Jan 2011 00:11 UTC
"Each time a new version of Windows is released, many computer users find that their hardware is suddenly outdated. For cash-strapped schools, upgrading to the latest hardware with each major software release is simply impossible. A New York startup called NeverWare is offering a possible solution - a server that lets even decade-old PCs upgrade to the latest Windows 7 operating system."
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RE[4]: Slightly off-topic
by Liquidator on Sat 29th Jan 2011 14:21
in reply to "RE[3]: Slightly off-topic"
Member since:2007-03-04
RE[5]: Slightly off-topic
by aaronb on Sat 29th Jan 2011 14:53
in reply to "RE[4]: Slightly off-topic"
Member since:2005-07-06
Memtest might show that the ram is fine, but not other components. There could be many reasons why that machine is running slow. There could be a build of dust causing it to over heat. The capacitors on the motherboard may have become worn. Electromigration could be causing the CPU or Chip-set to not work as effectively.
Also the new HDD may not play well with the 11 year old computer.
Swapping components one by one (if you have spares) is really the only way to find out if you are sure it is not a software issue and not an obvious hardware fault.
RE[5]: Slightly off-topic
by bert64 on Sat 29th Jan 2011 15:16
in reply to "RE[4]: Slightly off-topic"
Member since:2007-04-23
I suspect your HD is not fully compatible with the old machine, in particular older IDE controllers (i assume being an older machine it has IDE) are unable to perform DMA for drives over a certain size, and thus the drive will be running in slow PIO mode.
I had a machine with a UDMA66 controller, a 60GB drive would perform well but anything bigger would be extremely slow.
Ofcourse, it could also be related to planned obsolescence, a lot of commercial software seems to get slower with age and speeds up again if you set the clock back and reinstall.
RE[4]: Slightly off-topic
by bert64 on Sat 29th Jan 2011 15:10
in reply to "RE[3]: Slightly off-topic"
Member since:2007-04-23
memory errors, harddisk errors.
Old hardware dies slowly as it attempts to compensate for all the errors that come up as the hardware becomes more broken.
As a user you don't see any of this, but all the re-trying and error correction impacts performance.
Old hardware dies slowly as it attempts to compensate for all the errors that come up as the hardware becomes more broken.
As a user you don't see any of this, but all the re-trying and error correction impacts performance.
Such errors would appear in the logs... And only higher end ECC memory even performs error correction, lower end memory will just introduce corruption if it's failing.
Features
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Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
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2005-08-17
memory errors, harddisk errors.
Old hardware dies slowly as it attempts to compensate for all the errors that come up as the hardware becomes more broken.
As a user you don't see any of this, but all the re-trying and error correction impacts performance.