[resolved] Runnnnninnnng realllllly slooooooow

It sounds like your hardware may no longer be up to the task.

What are the specs of your machine? CPU, RAM, HD??

You might find performance better if you move to Windows 2000 instead. It's not as pretty as XP, but a heck of a lot better than the 9x/ME os's.

:EDIT:

Do a 'ctrl-alt-del' and check the CPU usage when starting a program. You might have your virus scanner scanning 'everything', or another program could be hogging CPU time.

Upgrading from ME may be your whole issue.
You also may at the border of recommened memory, installing another stick may help with your speed.

I have only seen once so far a spyware program conflicting and it was AOL's spyware program and Spywre Guard that conflicted.

Stopping any unneccesary running processess may help also

Why not just reinstall XP as it was before and don't run automatic updates. You were happy for 3 months, be happy again.

I can see not chosing to install SP2 but I strongly suggest you install SP1 for the stability of the O.S.
You are also more vulnerable to attacks without the updates :sayyes:

I've had very little success with going from one OS to another via upgrading. If your install CD is a full version then your best bet is to start from scratch. XP is also a resource hog and a machine built for Me probably isn't up to snuff for XP.

OK, how do I check if I'm running too many processes, how do I check if my system is up to running XP? Keep the instructions simple and don't assume I fully understand what I'm doing.

The other thing I notice when I try to open a program the hard drive sounds like it's having to read War and Peace again.

Click Start >Run and type in msconfig
When the system utility configuration box opens click the startup tab. There is where everything that runs at start up is listed. If you are unsure of the processes post them here we will look them over for you.

If your hard drive is making more noise than a heavy metal band I would suggest doing a diagnostic check on it.
Do you know what kind of hard drive it is? Make/model?

Use Belarc Advisor to find out what your specs are. It builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, including Microsoft Hotfixes, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server. Please do not post the info in here as it some times will list your XP key code and we dont want that posted all over the interent for someone to steal off ya

Increased my memory, everything now up to speed, thread can now be closed.

thanks

emjayh does not require any more assistance and has asked to have this thread closed. If you need it re-opened plz pm a moderator