posted on Mar, 3 2010 @ 09:34 PM
I'm at a loss because I don't know the machine or the distro.
The machine is probably skipping because of lack of resources. As you already mentioned, I'd stuff that machine full of as much RAM as I could
afford. [if you want the OS to see 4G or more, you need to run the 64bit version of whatever distro you use]
All I remember about Mint is that it's derived from Ubuntu. You can try installing a lightweight desktop, like XFCE. You can try turning off
unnecessary things and all bling. Same basic idea as Windows... turn off non-necessary cpu hogs. Use a solid color background, no exploding
graphics, no Compiz, stuff like that.
If you have lots of hd space, carve up some partitions and install something like Xubuntu (I use that on everything from old machines to current
ones). Avoid the KDE desktop.
Let me know how you make out.