o yeah it also gets choppy and cuts in and out if im like listening to a song i got downloaded and like am searchin the internet for example

What? Leaving XP to deal with the page file is your best option. The only reason you would manually change this is if your peak performance is close to the maximum available RAM+Pagefile. If Veriac is telling you a larger pagefile is optimal, then why do MS not make the automatic size larger?

Firstly, what are you doing with your PC which requires the use of more than 1GB virtual memory? Unless you are rendering or processing complex graphics whilst you are playing on FoD, then you are unlikely to use more than 350MB at a push. Creating a larger pagefile under these circumstances is going to create more disk and processor activity, thus slowing your PC down further.

Secondly, how much RAM do you have? Running XP on less than 256MB can cause problems, and most people would benefit from 384MB. If you have 128MB, especially with a slow processor and HD, then your only solution is to upgrade your memory - and possibly your processor. How fast is your CPU?

Thirdly, make sure that you have enough free disk space. If you only have less than 500MB you may notice that the PC slows down a lot due to pagefile fragmentation. 10% of your HD and at least 500MB of free space would be my advice. Oh, and doesn't MS recommmend 2.5 times the RAM if you have to manually set the pagefile, not 2.5 times the suggested size?

Page File settings:


Go to "Start", "Settings", "Control Panel", "System", "Advanced" tab, in the "Performance" section select "Settings", "Advanced" tab, in the "Virtual Memory" section select "Change". Change the values to:

- Initial size (MB): 1.5 x the amount of RAM in your system
- Maximum size (MB): 3.0 x the amount of RAM in your system (PF Size Limit = 4095 MB)

Then select "Set" and "OK" and reboot.

Windows XP by default is set to use only a Dynamic Page File that can resize during normal system operation, consuming resources and causing file fragmentation. A properly configured Page File will not resize (increase) so long as the Initial size is set large enough. Allowing the Page File to resize for rare unforeseen memory intensive situations will prevent "Out of Memory" error messages from occurring. Any resizing will reset to the default Initial size upon reboot and will not cause any permanent fragmentation of the Page File. If you experience frequent resizing of the Page File, a permanent solution is to add more RAM to your system. It is a good idea to have at least 1 GB to 2 GB of RAM in a PC today. A simple test to determine if you need more RAM is to use you PC for a whole day without rebooting, then look at the Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Delete), Performance tab. If the "Commit Charge - Peak" is ever higher then the "Physical Memory - Total" your system could benefit from adding more RAM. When you change the amount of RAM in your system, you have to adjust the Page File size.

Moving the Page File to a separate physical Harddrive (not partition) from the boot partition will increase Page File performance. However, if you remove the paging file from the boot partition, Windows cannot create a dump file (Memory.dmp) in which to write debugging information in the event that a kernel mode Stop Error message occurs. The optimal solution is to create one paging file that is stored on the boot partition, and then create a second paging file on a separate physical Harddrive (not partition) Windows will use the pagefile on the less frequently used partition over the pagefile on the heavily used boot partition. Windows uses an internal algorithm to determine which page file to use for virtual memory management

Go to Start, Run, type "services.msc" and press enter. Left-click on the status bar twice to filter all the started service to the top. Double left-click on the Service Name you wish to change. Change the "Startup Type" to either Manual or Automatic, then select "Apply" and "OK", repeat for all of the following:

The following is a list of Services that you can Disable on most systems for increased performance:

 Alerter
 Distributed Link Tracking Client
 Help and Support - (If you use Windows Help and Support leave this enabled)
 Indexing Service
 IPSEC Services
 Messenger - (Shoot the Messenger and installing SP2 will disable this)
 Portable Media Serial Number
 Remote Registry Service
 Secondary Logon
 SSDP Discovery Service - (Unplug n' Pray will disable this)
 Telnet
 Upload Manager
 Wireless Zero Configuration - (If you are on a wireless network leave this enabled)

The following is a list of Services that should always be set to Automatic:

 Automatic Updates - (Required by Windows Updates)
 Background Intelligent Transfer Service - (Required by Windows Updates)
 COM+ Event System - (Required by BootVis and other Applications)
 Cryptographic Services - (Required to confirm the signature of Windows system files, Protected Root Services and Key Services)
 DCOM Server Process Launcher - (Required by Disk Defragmenter)
 DHCP Client - (Required for Cable/DSL connections and Routers)
 DNS Client - (Improves Internet Performance)
 Event Log - (Required by Windows and cannot be Stopped)
 Logical Disk Manager - (Required to manage and update your Harddrives)
 Network Connections - (Required by Network Connections)
 Plug and Play - (Required by your System Hardware, Never Disable This!)
 Print Spooler - (Required by Printers)
 Protected Storage - (Required to protected sensitive data and to prevent access by unauthorized services, processes, or users.)
 Remote Procedure Call (RPC) - (Required by Windows, Never Disable This!)
 Security Accounts Manager - (Required to store security information for local user accounts)
 Security Center - (Notifies you of you Firewall and AntiVirus Status)
 Shell Hardware Detection - (Required by the AutoPlay feature)
 System Event Notification - (Required by various Applications)
 System Restore Service - (Required by the System Restore feature)
 Task Scheduler - (Required by the Windows Prefetcher, BootVis and Norton AV, Never Disable This!)
 Themes - (Required by the new look of Windows XP)
 Windows Audio - (Required for Sound)
 Windows Management Instrumentation - (Required by Windows, Never Disable This!)

Notes - Windows Updates can enable services that you have previously disabled. Check which services are running after a future Windows Update is completed. If applications stop working after using this guide it is usually due to being to aggressive with disabling services. Enable the services you disabled one at a time until the application works. In the future leave this service on automatic.

yeah i think he gotit
 
lol veriac

thats good exmple but u ever asked urself if he knows how to do all that 

Having said all the above....

By far the simplest way to solve the issue you have with sound is to simply disable the onboard sound (it shares resources with the CPU, so is always gonna be a pain in the....)

Then go to your nearest shop, and buy a cheap Soundblaster Sound card. I beleive the current cost of these is around £10 GBP and install it.

The newly installed card will not be trying to share resources with the CPU, thus eliminating problem entirely.

lol thats better :p :)

lmao ver

what a bunch of nerds

ok beppe to answer ur ? here it is  before i changed the virtual memory it read as follows 
:initial 1140
max 2280
ive been told to take the initial and  2.5 times what is recommended which is 1137 so thats where i changed to 2842 i can fix if not rite  ok veraic and a few tell me to 1.5 times the initail with ram which is 768. so times that by 1.5 uget 1152initial and max size of 2304 so if i need to set to that i will np on that end and as far as cpu speed 2.5g  surely thats fast enough and hard drive space its a 69.9 total  with 57.8 free   so there is no problem there   lol lots and lots of room and as for ur ? (Oh, and doesn't MS recommmend 2.5 times the RAM if you have to manually set the pagefile, not 2.5 times the suggested size?)  i got the 2.5 suggestion out of a comp book ( hacking windows xp) in which its states as foolows ( you will want to modify the custom values so that the initial and max sizes r the same. ) which it staes take ur recommended size which for me is 1137 and x by 2.5 getttin 2842 again this can be changed np  and if it recommeneds 2.5 times ram it should be set as 1920is what ur saying , my problem is eevry1 has different suggestions i just dont see how this helps my sound problem  but what do i no  i may just do like veraic said and by a new sound card and disable the onboard    ty i will be posting back ty every1    have nice day

ok veraic so far ive chnaged iniital 1152  and max to 2304 
andall the services have been changed only lik 5 that were changed thats all ive done so far will check back ty

The most useful thing Veriac said about RAM and pagefiles was:

A simple test to determine if you need more RAM is to use you PC for a whole day without rebooting, then look at the Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Delete), Performance tab. If the "Commit Charge - Peak" is ever higher then the "Physical Memory - Total" your system could benefit from adding more RAM.

From what you said, you have a fast enough processor, enough HD space and 512MB of memory. IF you do the above you'll probably notice that your peak commit charge is less than your total physical memory, so you are probably not using much of the allocated page file anyway. IF THIS IS TRUE there is no need to change it from computer managed, but if you do then set the minimum to the XP suggested pagefile size, and the maximum will be safe at 2.5 times the RAM. Whatever you do here it's not going to help you if you already have enough RAM.

Freeing resourses and not running other programs is a good test of your system capabilities, but also run spyware and antivirus checks with the latest definitions to make sure that other things are not tying your PC down. Make sure that you are running SP2 and use Windows Update to ensure the latest security patches are installed (if you only have a modem, get SP2 on CD). A friend ignored advice on security and was complaining about slowness - on inspection I found Blaster and other stuff which forced her to reinstall her PC (or rather get me to reinstall it X-().

Onboard sound can be a problem I guess. I have experienced it with slower machines and with onboard graphics not running games they should be able to handle. Veriac's idea of a seperate sound card is a good suggestion, but try to find a store which will take it back if it is not the solution. It may be worth trying searching for new sound card drivers before you do this. Run Windows Update to see if there are any MS suggested updates, and if not search for latest drivers from you MB manufacturer.

ok beppe i reset everything to factory settins     memory is 768 not 512 so im doin pretty good there i believe my main problem is just the onboard sound is crap so im gonna go  get new 1 soon   ive downloaded latest driver for it all the windows updates r current  i check every other day so im good there checked again just now im up to date system is completely clean  ive got microsoft spware  that runs everyday  nothin ever is detected also run spybot every 3 days nover ne thing on it also have adware se program that detected nothing as of 1 hour ago sytems clean    i have mcfee internet security and virus  its very well protected  i cant even freakin sneeze without it askin me to approve first ;\  lol  im just gonna have to get sound card it seems o well i checked best buy website  cheapest i saw was 29.99 so not to bad      again ty for every1 help and time  really appreciate it ill let u no soon if i ever get a new card wifes bein tite on my money lol xmas and all :p 

Good luck mate.

And Vlad... yeah, Veriac does actually know about this stuff, he doesn't just cut and paste.

Ooops, misread your post Vlad. It's easier to post minimal and technical stuff, if the reader doesn't get it but is interested in listening, then they will ask.

i didnt questioned veriac qnowledge  i know , his very good at them :)

my god veriac. know so mutch about computers it incredible