Zit possible Acer A1 could be running 1/2 speed?

I remember several years ago an event where my A1 seemed to slow down about half speed. Excruciatingly slow!!!! There was a fix, a setting that got it back on course. This netbook has become so slow all of a sudden. Even the Windows XP sign on wav file sounds like it's drunk.

I've got
XP Home/ Student
1meg ram
SP 3

I've stopped all kinds of services, stopped startup of unnecessary programs, ran CCleaner and defragged the drive.

Done full Malware scans. But all of a sudden. I still think I have a recollection of a setting that had somehow gotten changed and when returned to right, all was well. Anyone have any evidence I'm not getting senile? Thanks! Jack "{:-D

 

I haven't used XP in years. However, I seem to recall that the hard drive would sometimes lose it's DMA setting and would revert to PIO. That would certainly slow down your computer. It is corrected by going to Device Manager. Here is a link that will give you instructions on how to check it out: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/147161-45-forcing-mode-primary-hard-drive

 

Here is an easier way simply to check your settings:
[ame]

 

Nestone50, thanks so much. I think I remember this as the same thing that fixed it several years ago. I've done a couple of full factory restores since then. It is stuck on PIO mode. That box is greyed out as is Autodetect. I can change to DMA when available. One fix I read said to toggle each choice, PIO and save then DMA and save. It didn't work. I see another that has a registry fix. I am pretty good at registry changes, have never ruined a pc from doing it. I also tried the suggestion to uninstall the hard drive and then when detected at a restart it would change to DMA. It didn't. So I am going to research further. I think you have hit the nail though on the head. If only I can get it out of PIO mode to DMA. It sounds familiar. In the meantime if you have an easy fix for getting it "unstuck" from PIO mode I'd appreciate all that ... and what you've sent above. What you've stated above is the ANSWER/SOLVED. How do I indicate that here? Jack ":-D

ALSO, I see below I have instant email notifications, as it was set in the past. I am not getting email notifications or I probably would have been back to you the day you posted the above. THANKS AGAIN!

 

FIXED! I used this fix: (MyNote: Not all the instances were there as described below but I deleted the ones I had. I think I had 2 MasterIdDataChecksum and no SlaveIdDataChecksum. Good Luck, Jack "{;-D

P.S. Once I did this I went back to SYSTEM>HARDWARE>

OR... IF THAT DOESN'T WORK TRY THIS RegEdit Option:

Following is the mechanism that has worked for me, please try it at your own risk, it involves making changes to the registry:

1. Open RegEdit
2. Find the following KEY: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
   Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\000x
3. The last four digits will be 0000, 0001, 0002, 0003, and so on.
4. Under each key, delete all occurences of the following values: MasterIdDataChecksum
   SlaveIdDataChecksum
5. Reboot the computer. Windows will now redetect DMA settings.

Then I followed this to make sure it had changed

http://www.onthegosoft.com/dma_setting_nt.htm

 

Glad you got it sorted...