PC Problem

Racing machinery needs substantial pre-heating maybe?. S.M.

Because it is old and slow.

This isn't really much to go on.

Try to download

"advanced windows care"

It is for free. Run it on your PC. Open only the programs you need.

Keep us informed. Tks.

Ur pc might be slow due to less RAM. U can try one option. Go to system in control panel and increase the virtual memory where in a part of Ur darddisk will b used as memory by doing this u can increase speed. Apart from this u can go to add programs and see which are the software not used for long time & u can uninstall them.by doing this Ur freeing up Ur pc memory to perform efficiently and fast. Hope this solves Ur prob.

A virus, to many apps in start menu, bad registry files, not enough RAM, hard disc problems, personal settings set for appearance not for performance,

I see this all the time on old PCs with WinXP that have been upgraded to SP3.

All of the machines I have "repaired" started life with XP and 512MB RAM. They worked fine UNTIL SP3 was installed. XP SP3 requires at least 1GB of RAM or it will run horribly slow, swapping files out to virtual HDD memory. Add more RAM until you have at least 1GB.

IF you already have XP SP3 and 1GB, then the problem is usually an anti-virus program like Norton or Mcafee. I have un-installed dozens of these resource pigs and replaced them with AVG or AVAST freeware. ALL of the slow computers went back to their normally quick boot/operation/shutdown speeds after one or both of these changes.

The other option, and the one I now prefer, is to dump MS completely and use one of the Linux distributions (like Ubuntu or Mint). A Linux OS will usually run faster on older PCs and can extend their useful life several more years.

Why am I suggesting Linux?

This PC is a 2002, P4 @ 1.5GHz, 1GB RAM, 40GB HDD, Ubuntu 10.04, used every day, runs 24/7/365, rebooted 2-4 times a YEAR for updates, crashed only once since my first Linux OS install in 2008 (my fault not Linux).

Prior to 2008, this PC ran WinXp, crashed (froze, locked-up, BSoD) several times a week, and would ALWAYS crash if left running more than 24 hours. I really DID like WinXP, but this kind of unstable performance just became unacceptable.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck with your PC.

Awesome answer mjb.

If you don't think it is a software issue I would simply reformat (assuming your computer was once not so slow).

Wipe everything off (backup necessary files), and start all over. Doesn't take too much time, aside from backing up your files.

Stop, master clear, reset. Slick it and start over.

I run XP SP3 and beyond on an AMD 900MHz, 128Mb RAM, 20Gb HDD, and ATI Rage AGP2X 8Mb.

Works like a champ, but I keep it clean.