Underpowered for XP Pro SP3?

Friend has an old IBM Thinkpad. P3-700 mhz, 256 MB. It can take another 256 MB of memory for a total of 512. Someone installed XP Pro SP3 on it. The computer is very, very slow. I've just started to look at it, but I am thinking this computer is vastly underpowered to be handling XP Pro, at least SP3. They have tried to install Skype and some other software on it and their chief complaint is that is virtually grinds to a halt. Can this computer adequately handle XP Pro or should it really be using Windows 2000?

That does sound like it's struggling, and with spec like that I suspect the hard drive is pretty small, the 2 factors that come into play are hard drive space, and ram, too little of either will make a system struggle, and thats with a minimum install, I used to help mates with systems just like that, I had more memory on my phone and bigger storage than they're PC did lol, I loved winding them up over that But as to this system the ram (or lack of) will certainly have an effect on performance, and try to do anything intensive, forget it, the system will lock up for 10 minutes until it catches up again. Now add to that the amount of free hard drive space, many suggest only filling a drive say 60% or there abouts, as it needs space to swap files around when you do tasks, so find out how big the hard drive is (I'd be surprised if it reached 10gig) and how much spare space it has, if it's too full, add that with the ram and it's double trouble, and no matter what OS you load, the drive still needs free space, or it seriously affects performance, so yes 2k may be a better choice for this system, but check out space and the hard drive before trying, then go from there is my suggestion.

Hi RussF92767 In additions to 8210GUY's usual excellent advice, some information from my own set up may be helpful…… It hope it is anyway…. I have a somewhat similar machine that is in daily use, its a Compaq laptop approximately 11 years old running Win XP Pro on 448MB of Ram with a P3. 800Mhz processor. Its a relatively old piece of kit (some would say,,,,,,,,but others might think its quite modern!,) It's even got, luxury of luxury, a USB port….just the one, though!) However the laptops' performance is excellent, and with a PCMCIA wireless adapter card and with a set of basic but useful software applications it really is a very competent machine that does sterling work for the work that I do. It runs MSO Office 2003, Skype. VLPlayer for CD/DVD's, simple image manipulation applications, (but I wouldn't try installing Photoshop!) antivirus, antispyware, Acronis (for disc images) Nero for CD/DVD burning etc and a few other useful applications. I would add though that the machine is set up correctly….. and configured appropriately with software installed appropriate for its age. For the sort of routine tasks including researching on the Internet, replying to forum enquiries/questions, e-mailing, use of Skype and Yahoo Messenger also with watching of DVD's and use of the sort of software listed above, the performance in terms of responsiveness, speed and usefulness to me, differs surprisingly little from that of some modern multi core 4GB RAM laptops that run the latest versions of software. The important words there are "for me" ………………Needless to say I'm not a gamer!,( well not on this machine anyway!) nor to I need the latest versions of software, …..used within its limitations it does a fine job. If your usage of your IBM Thinkpad P3, 700Mhz is in any way similar to mine then set up correctly and with a boost to 512MB of RAM then it should do the job just fine! My data sheets indicate that the Thinkpad concerned is a bit more modern computer than mine! Good luck with it, and don't forget that a reformat and fresh load of Windows will work wonders……. and stay away from system resource hungry software…… look at stuff with a light footprint, but that will still do the job for you and check for applications/processes very carefully that want to load themselves at startup….there is rarely a need for anything to load at startup, other than your security products. Regards paws