Unnatural lag when on 99% of upper progress bar

[MHFive]

Hello everyone! I'm new to this forum and decided to register after a problem with AP almost made me go crazy.

I was going to make a full format and XP SP3 Install on a really old machine. It has a Celeron CPU, 192 MB of RAM and a 20 GB HD. Also has no internet connection, so i decided to burn a DVD with AutoPatcher and some pre-downloaded updates. I've used AutoPatcher before on my old ass brick Notebook so i figured out it would be perfect for it.

All fine and dandy. HD Cleared, XP Reinstalled, Now to run AutoPatcher.

After a while i noticed a large lag when the upper progress bar reached 99%. "oh well, it's an old machine...", I thought to myself: "The estimated time of 3 hours seems accurate enough."

To my surprise, after 3 hours, the estimated time counter was at "2h30m" and the progress bar was around 20%.

I came to the conclusion that i was selecting way too many updates at once to be installed, so i exited AP and restarted it only to select a few Critical Updates.
Nope. Still had the lag.

So i decided to copy the DVD files to the computer and restart it, in case anything was pendent from last installation.
No good. Still had that awful 99% lag.

What striked me the most was that most of the time of the lag, there was little to no CPU usage, plenty of RAM available, and the Disk Activity LED was barely blinking.

I really hope anyone out there has any hint of what could be happening here. Sadly, i forgot to take a log and a HWInfo summary of the system. I may be able to get it tomorrow.

I really can't tell why that's happening. Thanks in advance.

[TheAPGuy]

First things first... that poor poor machine. Really 192mb of ram? While it is slightly higher then windows official recommended level, it is widely agreed upon that windows XP's publicly recommended level is 512mb. Since at 512mb you can actually load programs without it thrashing the HD. You say there was plenty of ram available but, I am pretty sure it was just placing everything into virtual ram and thrashing the crap out of your HD. Now, this all won't happen if you have a specially crafted minimum install of XP. You could get away with 256mb. Less then that and I think and you would still be thrashing the HD though.

If 192mb is the computers limits, then perhaps a Linux install would be significantly better choice? It would absolutely offer better speeds for sure. I could even recommend a puppy Linux install since I have grown significantly fond of the OS and its incredibly small footprint. 100mb standard size(it can get larger after extra package installs). I use this on super old computers.

Anyways back on topic.

The estimate number is based on adding up all the values stored in each apm. They typically say 2 mins per install by default. Do NOT take that as an actual estimate. At one time we were timing the installs and changing the default value. We no longer do that as there are way to many different speeds out there now. On the fastest machine out there it could take 1 hour to install all the updates and yours for example could take all day(not that I am saying it will). I would take it out since its not accurate except in general, for most people, it seems most installs do install in under 2 minutes so generally the estimate is only slightly over the the actual install time.

The hanging or freezing has been experience before and it happens on certain updates. Its actually the updates that are hanging up. APUP just sits there waiting for the silly update to close out so APUP can move on to the next one. All I can say is if you wait long enough they will end themselves. If I remember right, I read the updates that freeze were related to IE updates. What you could do is:

1. Install critical updates only, for the first apup run making sure to un-check IE updates(yes it would be a ton of reading). Restart.
2. Run APUP again. If there are more critical that are not IE updates do the same as above... otherwise at this time you may try the IE updates. Restart.
3. Then you can install other updates/installs

edit: as a side note... make sure you have updated XP to SP3 before trying to install the updates from APUP.

[MHFive]

First things first... that poor poor machine. Really 192mb of ram? While it is slightly higher then windows official recommended level, it is widely agreed upon that windows XP's publicly recommended level is 512mb. Since at 512mb you can actually load programs without it thrashing the HD. You say there was plenty of ram available but, I am pretty sure it was just placing everything into virtual ram and thrashing the crap out of your HD. Now, this all won't happen if you have a specially crafted minimum install of XP. You could get away with 256mb. Less then that and I think and you would still be thrashing the HD though.

If 192mb is the computers limits, then perhaps a Linux install would be significantly better choice? It would absolutely offer better speeds for sure. I could even recommend a puppy Linux install since I have grown significantly fond of the OS and its incredibly small footprint. 100mb standard size(it can get larger after extra package installs). I use this on super old computers.

Anyways back on topic.

The estimate number is based on adding up all the values stored in each apm. They typically say 2 mins per install by default. Do NOT take that as an actual estimate. At one time we were timing the installs and changing the default value. We no longer do that as there are way to many different speeds out there now. On the fastest machine out there it could take 1 hour to install all the updates and yours for example could take all day(not that I am saying it will). I would take it out since its not accurate except in general, for most people, it seems most installs do install in under 2 minutes so generally the estimate is only slightly over the the actual install time.

The hanging or freezing has been experience before and it happens on certain updates. Its actually the updates that are hanging up. APUP just sits there waiting for the silly update to close out so APUP can move on to the next one. All I can say is if you wait long enough they will end themselves. If I remember right, I read the updates that freeze were related to IE updates. What you could do is:

1. Install critical updates only, for the first apup run making sure to un-check IE updates(yes it would be a ton of reading). Restart.
2. Run APUP again. If there are more critical that are not IE updates do the same as above... otherwise at this time you may try the IE updates. Restart.
3. Then you can install other updates/installs

edit: as a side note... make sure you have updated XP to SP3 before trying to install the updates from APUP.

LOL yeah i know. I gasped when i saw the sticker on the side of that ancient piece of circuits. It said "64 MB of RAM" and i was like "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!?". I actually was relieved when i popped up HWInfo and it actually had 192MB of RAM (Must've been upgraded).

After i got it up and running, it had XP already on it, and it seemed to run well, so i decided that a format + XP SP3 clean install could be possible. Well, it was, but now i think Puppy Linux is actually a better choice, even if the PC's owners never really used Linux...

I actually tried selecting only ONE critical upgrade after restarting the machine, but it still had the lag. Sad.

I've researched somewhat into the subject and learned AP has some command line options. Could these help speed up the process a little?

Anyway, thanks for the fast response. Your piece of software is one of the niftiest things available for those gamers who are still attached to windows and don't want to download all those updates every time they format.

Now i`m gonna go get Puppy Linux and test it on this horrible piece of junk. Patience is a virtue.

[TheAPGuy]

There are many kinds of 'micro' Linux distributions however I find puppy to be rather pleasant. Its a great to stick it in ANY computer using a usb stick or even a live CD which it can actively live on(saving data on the non-finalized cd). I use a puppy usb to recover things from computers who's OS has gone to shit before I attempt a repair or wipe it. There are two flavors or branches of puppies... old and new. They both get the same updates its just that 'old' works on all computers due to using an older kernel and new uses the latest kernels and can work better on newer computers. You will have to sniff around to find the one you like best there are many versions.

Ok... so yes AP has some command line options you can use but, none of them will speed things up except in the verify department. That is the step before you can install things. Which if your using such an old computer could speed up getting to the install point immensely.

Ohh lord... I hope you copied that CD to the HD before trying to use AP. If you didn't... I weep for you. Do it now to save your sanity.

The command line option you can use is /fast. You can also use /help to ask AP what command line options it accepts.

[MHFive]

There are many kinds of 'micro' Linux distributions however I find puppy to be rather pleasant. Its a great to stick it in ANY computer using a usb stick or even a live CD which it can actively live on(saving data on the non-finalized cd). I use a puppy usb to recover things from computers who's OS has gone to shit before I attempt a repair or wipe it. There are two flavors or branches of puppies... old and new. They both get the same updates its just that 'old' works on all computers due to using an older kernel and new uses the latest kernels and can work better on newer computers. You will have to sniff around to find the one you like best there are many versions.

Ok... so yes AP has some command line options you can use but, none of them will speed things up except in the verify department. That is the step before you can install things. Which if your using such an old computer could speed up getting to the install point immensely.

Ohh lord... I hope you copied that CD to the HD before trying to use AP. If you didn't... I weep for you. Do it now to save your sanity.

The command line option you can use is /fast. You can also use /help to ask AP what command line options it accepts.

Thanks for the response. Your tips have been really helpful to me.

I actually took a peek at the top distros for old computers at DistroWatch and Puppy Linux is the top dog (No pun intended) so i downloaded the latest version and burned a DVD (I had no CDs at the time), tested it on my local computer, tested on the ancient hardware, installed on the main HD and it worked like a charm. A bit slow but beggars can't be choosers.

I actually tried to choose all the "Make it faster" options on AP to try it one last time but no luck. At this point i said "Fuck it!" and popped my Puppy Linux Disc in. It`s actually useful to find there's extra options, but a way to select them inside the GUI would be cool too.

And yes, i actually copied AP to the HD first. It seemed the first obvious thing to speed up the rather tedious process it was gonna be.

Right now, Puppy Linux is running somewhat well on that chunk of aged rusty metal. I did somewhat of a big mistake and accidentally deleted the Window Manager. No biggie, though, i just reinstalled it and it worked wonders afterwards.

Thanks for the fast answers and the tips. This is one of the most helpful forums i've ever visited. Thank you, Mr. Tech Guy.

[TheAPGuy]

NP glad I could be help. So you say the puppy is working a bit slow for you? Do you mean the actually getting to the GUI is slow or its slow in general? It should be faster over all then XP could possibly be at least from my experience... then again I have not updated my puppy in 5 years.