(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I have a really old Dell Vostro 1000 running slacko 6.3.0 Frugal install.
Big and complex webpages caused Chrome and Opera (latest versions) to crash - after just seconds.
I tried increasing the save-file size but that didnt help. (would a swap partition help?)

I have also tried full install - but that caused the whole system to crash - very frequently,
I formatted with ext2 and ext4 and lastly ntfs - It seemed the crashes were less frequent with ntfs for whatever reason.
But it still crashed. Guess hdd is kinda funked up.

So now I,m just running slacko from USB flash - and NO crashes in chrome or opera OR system.
Problem solved. Pup rocks !

ntfs.

Maybe needed to defrag the disk.

Falcon boot cd can do that.
Also the Falcon can easily do chkdsk.

https://falconfour.wordpress.com/category/bootcd/

Full v4.61 ISO download:
The url won't work...so just copy and paste and download to browser.

https://mega.nz/#!DBJjjAKL!IU1jMVPpMjdv ... iqi5T6LaEM

:::::::::

" Problem solved. Pup rocks ! "

Good on you mate....happy times with Puppy.

:::::

Specs:

https://www.cnet.com/products/dell-vost ... ies/specs/

Dell Vostro 1000 (Sempron 3500+ 2GHz, 512MB RAM, 60GB HDD, Vista Home Basic) Series

Chris.

When I had Windows XP, Chrome would crash with two tabs open on 512MB RAM. I doubt it's less of a memory hog today.

Hi Limbomusic

Glad Puppy on a usb works for you. Natural inquisitiveness might well make me want to make that old Dell Vostro work better:

1. If you manage to get a Ubuntu or Mint distro booted up on it. No need to install then they have a programme to examine the SMART data on you hard drive. The SMART data is not fool proof but it can reveal hard drives which have faults. If you have a failing hard drive you may be able to pick up another or even an ssd unit for a reasonable price.
2. You only have 512 MB of RAM and that machine can take 2 GB or more (some have got 4GB in them) which is enough for any Linux distro. If you can acquire some sticks that are cheap enough then that is a good improvement.
3. You may be overheating and sometimes the bios lets you examine the CPU temperature or sometimes Puppy shows it up. If it is getting to high you made need to clean up the fan filters, etc.

peterw wrote:...1. If you manage to get a Ubuntu or Mint distro booted up on it. No need to install then they have a programme to examine the SMART data on you hard drive. The SMART data is not fool proof but it can reveal hard drives which have faults. If you have a failing hard drive you may be able to pick up another or even an ssd unit for a reasonable price...

No need to boot into Ubuntu or Mint to get the S.M.A.R.T data. There's a GUI .pet for doing just that:-

GSmartControl-0.8.5.pet

It was compiled in Lucid, but it's worked in every Pup I've ever tried it in. You can use it analyze anything you want to in your HDD. It'll run the short and extended tests, and give you all the info you could need.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With regard to an SSD, you'd be looking at a SATA-1 interface model, I reckon. I can thoroughly recommend the KingSpec SSDS, available through eBay. These are a direct, drop-in replacement for a standard HDD, available in sizes from 60GB anywhere up to 1 TB. There's a selection here:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from= ... acat=58058

I'm currently using a 64GB IDE/PATA KingSpec in a 14 yr-old Dell Inspiron 1100, along with a 2.6 GHz P4 and 1 GB RAM (maxed out). It's made a huge difference, believe me..!


Mike.

Hi Mike

Just to thank you for letting me know about that pet. I did not know that we had a programme for Smart data. Very useful.

Hi, Pete.

peterw wrote:Hi Mike

Just to thank you for letting me know about that pet. I did not know that we had a programme for Smart data. Very useful.

You're very welcome..!

I only discovered it myself during my own early days with Puppy, during an extended 'digging' session on the Forum. At the time, I was still running Ubuntu myself.....but it was already starting to give me major freeze & crash problems, so I wanted to make Pup as fully functional as possible.

Shortly after that, I went all-Puppy.....and haven't looked back since. There's no end of useful small utilities that have been 'Puppyfied'; you've just got to search for 'em, mate!

Enjoy.


Mike.

Sorry, forgot about this post - Thank you so much for all tips/advice !! (that Gsmart-pet is good to have)
The Dell Vostro 1000 is now working like a charm- I changed the hdd and its been problem-free ever since.

Setup is tahrpup6.0.5 full install with swap partition.
A wonderful evening is wished upon ya