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T23 too slow to be usable

T20-T23 Series and T30. NOT for T25-Retro.
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mattbiernat
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T23 too slow to be usable

#1 Post by mattbiernat » Wed Jul 11, 2012 10:40 pm

Hi guys,
I have a t23 in a very good condition. It has 256RAM but it seems that now flash, most browsers and even Skype have become quite memory hungry. So at this point the machine has become as slow as a pig. I believe the major bottleneck is RAM and video card which is only 16mb. I am not going to pay $50-60 for another RAM module, especially that with 16mb video card things wouldn't become much faster.
So what can I do with this laptop?

ajkula66
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Re: T23 too slow to be usable

#2 Post by ajkula66 » Wed Jul 11, 2012 10:53 pm

You can find 1GB of RAM for a lot less than $50-60...which would be the value of an average T23 nowadays...
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

rkawakami
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Re: T23 too slow to be usable

#3 Post by rkawakami » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:19 pm

A quick peek on eBay for 512MB PC133 modules says that some can be had for $15 shipped using Buy-It-Now. So for $30, less if you get lucky on auctions or find a pair like this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/300740305034 ($25), you can max out the memory at 1GB. That should improve your system's speed a little bit but as you note, video will still be a significant bottleneck.

Some things which you can do to speed things up without spending any $$$:

- defrag the hard drive
- consider changing browsers
- consider changing antivirus program
- examine what processes are running in the background and terminate those you don't need

Despite the T23 being one of my favorite systems, I actually haven't been using one for several months. Both home and work systems are now being covered by A31p. It wasn't anything to do with the speed or responsiveness; I simply needed the extra screen real estate (UXGA vs. SXGA+) for an application I've been using.
Ray Kawakami
X22 X24 X31 X41 X41T X60 X60s X61 X61s X200 X200s X300 X301 Z60m Z61t Z61p 560 560Z 600 600E 600X T21 T22 T23 T41 T60p T410 T420 T520 W500 W520 R50 A21p A22p A31 A31p
NOTE: All links to PC-Doctor software hosted by me are dead. Files removed 8/28/12 by manufacturer's demand.

mattbiernat
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Re: T23 too slow to be usable

#4 Post by mattbiernat » Fri Jul 13, 2012 7:19 pm

I am actually running a very custom set up on this thinkpad.
- no antivirus
- lots of services terminated
- chrome browser
My total RAM usage is 120mb.

ac12
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Re: T23 too slow to be usable

#5 Post by ac12 » Sat Jul 14, 2012 12:17 am

With less than 512MB of RAM, I got tired of waiting while the drive thrashed the swap file. So I maxed my T23 w 1G of RAM.
Not great compared to newer faster machines, but quite usable (for me).

And yes I notice that the stuff running on various web sites just pig down the response on the older computers like the T23. There are times I've seen the CPU up at 100% while displaying some web pages.
My G40 with 2GB of RAM and 2.2GHz CPU also hits 100% CPU on some web pages.

Skype is just barely usable on my T23. I have a low resolution webcam, which helps reduce the video processing load on the CPU.

Some of the things I also did was:
- Shut down the all the dang autoupdates (Windows, Goggle and any other).
You can't control when they run, and they usually run when you start up, right when you want to use your computer. And they pig down these older computers.
I manually run updates, so I control WHEN they run.
- Do not run too many things at the same time, or you will not use up the RAM, and start swapping the page file.
- Use Task Manager to find what is using memory and remove/shut those programs down, if possible. Or find alternative programs that don't use as much memory.

And trying to do a Windows update with less than 512MB is PAINFULLY SLOW.
The drive just thrashes the page file.

gud luk

mib404
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Re: T23 too slow to be usable

#6 Post by mib404 » Sat Jul 14, 2012 6:54 am

Flash ads/content makes the CPU to run at 100%. T23 has only 16MB of video memory, that is not enough to play Flash ads/content from websites.
IBM Thinkpad T20/T23 , Lenovo Thinkpad T61/W500/W520

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