XP update slow down

I installed the sp2 update to my windows xp system and experienced a major
slowdown in the whole system. I have tried cleaning everything out and
defraging but the system still runs slow both starting up and running.

My dad had the same problem on a brand new Dell Inspiron 1150 after
installing SP2. He got this machine in mid-August. This machine had a 2.6Ghz
Celeron processor (not a Mobile processor.)

An apparent fix, posted by someone a Dell forum, was to roll back the
processor driver. It worked for my dad and restored his machine speed. Here
are the steps:

- Right click on the My Computer Icon and Select properties,
[alternatively double-click on System icon form the control panel folder (in
classic mode.)]
- Select Hardware and click on Device Manager
- Open the processor section and double-click on the processor
- click on the driver tab
- click on "roll back driver" ... and finish the process.

What happened is that SP2 installed a new driver called intelppm.sys that
seems to have a problem. This process restored a driver called processr.sys
that was previously installed. SP2 also slips a newer version of
processr.sys but I have not tried installing that on my dad's machine. I
have installed SP2 on 6 machines. Prior to the upgrade all the machines had
the processr.sys driver and after the upgrade it was a mix between the two
new drivers. However only the one with the Celeron processor had a problem.

I have been trying to get both Dell and MS to acknowledge the problem and
give an official recommended fix but for now both companies refuse to
listen. It has been a "support from hell" experience with both companies
pointing fingers at each other and not helping their customers in anyway fix
the problem or even post a KB about the issue.

-Russ

I forgot to add that the slowdown took the machine from a 2.6Ghz machine to
something close to a 300Mhz machine (and the system even reported it as
such!) His boot time was over 5 minutes before we rolled the driver back.

-Russ

....and in case MS reads these news groups... here is the processor that had
the problem:

[I generated this after we rolled the river back if that matters.]
************************************************** ***********
Intel(R) Processor Frequency ID Utility
Version: 7.1.20040716
Time Stamp: 2004/09/08 23:08:26
Number of processors in system: 1
Current processor: #1
Processor Name: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.60GHz
Type: 0
Family: F
Model: 2
Stepping: 9
Revision: 21
L1 Trace Cache: 12 Kµops
L1 Data Cache: 8 KB
L2 Cache: 128 KB
Packaging: FC-PGA2
MMX(TM): Yes
SIMD: Yes
SIMD2: Yes
SIMD3: No
NetBurst(TM) Microarchitecture: Yes
Expected Processor Frequency: 2.60 GHz
Reported Processor Frequency: 2.60 GHz
Expected System Bus Frequency: 400 MHz
Reported System Bus Frequency: 400 MHz
************************************************** ***********

Russ Sonnenschein wrote:

> My dad had the same problem on a brand new Dell Inspiron 1150 after
> installing SP2. He got this machine in mid-August. This machine had a 2.6Ghz
> Celeron processor (not a Mobile processor.)
>
> An apparent fix, posted by someone a Dell forum, was to roll back the
> processor driver. It worked for my dad and restored his machine speed. Here
> are the steps:
> (snip)
>
> I have been trying to get both Dell and MS to acknowledge the problem and
> give an official recommended fix but for now both companies refuse to
> listen. It has been a "support from hell" experience with both companies
> pointing fingers at each other and not helping their customers in anyway fix
> the problem or even post a KB about the issue.
Hi

From the quote below, it looks like Dell is aware of the problem,
and they suggest an alternative way to fix the problem than to
rollback the driver.

From
http://forum.aumha.org/viewtopic.php?t=7447

<quote>

Addendum courtesy of Robear, 8/28:

Quote:
'My Dell Support Contact' writes:

<paste>
We were able to reproduce the problem. So far
we have only tested our methodology and not the driver rollback.

What we did on two different platforms- 1150 and 2650 (older, no longer
shipping)-was to update to sp2. at this point we have the slow proc
speed. It is stepping down to sub 800mhz. Different speeds on each
system. They obviously have diff chipsets though both are intel. We
changed the power scheme on each system from portable/laptop to always
on. Then shut down and reset bios defaults.

To reset bios defaults, enter bios and hit alt+f. This of course
requires resetting the system time in bios.

Now both systems had Dell quickset uninstalled. If you want to keep
quickset, then open quickset and change the power options before
resetting bios defaults. If that doesn't work, uninstall quickset and do
the power schemes and bios defaults. Then reinstall quickset either from
support.dell.com (latest version) or from the tools and applications cd.

After resetting bios defaults and rebooting twice, the issue should be
resolved. All this assumes the latest bios rev from support.dell.com.
You can try without updating bios and post your results on a case by
case basis.

I don't think we want to support or recommend rolling back drivers and
continuing through the usigned driver notification, but if it works for
you, then do whacha like. Hope this helps.
</paste>

</quote>


--
torgeir, Microsoft MVP Scripting and WMI, Porsgrunn Norway
Administration scripting examples and an ONLINE version of
the 1328 page Scripting Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scr...r/default.mspx

That appears to be a different problem. The machines boots fine, just
slowly, and the microcode version is 21 which should be newer than the
versions that had a problem in that post.

-Russ

Russ Sonnenschein wrote:

> That appears to be a different problem. The machines boots fine
> fine, just slowly, and the microcode version is 21 which should
> be newer than the versions that had a problem in that post.
Hi

I am 99.9% sure it is the same issue, you can disregard the rest of
the Web page about the microcode part, that is about a Intel Prescott
CPU issue that is not relevant for Dell Inspiron models 1150 and 2650
that have Northwoods (I don't really know why Robear have pasted that
quote in, it is not relevant to the rest of the posts).

As I read the quote, the computers boot fine as well after the SP2
installation, but with a very slow CPU speed just as you experienced
(sub 800mhz). And it is also mentioning driver rollback, as you did.


--
torgeir, Microsoft MVP Scripting and WMI, Porsgrunn Norway
Administration scripting examples and an ONLINE version of
the 1328 page Scripting Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scr...r/default.mspx

Thanks.

<MICROSOFT_DELL FLAME = "on" SUPPORT='pathetic">

It would be nice to know the exact setting in the bios that they claim
resetting fixes the problem because it may point to a bug in intelppm.sys
rather than a bad bios setting and the problem will then likely reoccur in
the future. Also, resetting all the bios settings may blow away other
important settings. From my reading both solutions only really attempt to
fix the symptoms and Dell or MS should provide the defacto solution rather
than saying "...then do which like....". Someone from Dell and/or MS needs
to understand the root cause and figure out the right solution. :-(

It is also pretty sad that if this advice is true, and if it did come from
Dell, why Dell does not post this on their own forum and have their own KB
article on the topic is beyond me.

<\MICROSOFT_DELL>

-Russ

"Russ Sonnenschein" <> wrote in message news:<AsZ0d.18666$. com>...
> An apparent fix, posted by someone a Dell forum, was to roll back the
> processor driver. It worked for my dad and restored his machine speed.
> -Russ

Thank you very much. This worked on my Dell Inspiron 1150.
Now I can finally use my computer again with good performance.
- Eric