My computer is running very slow.It take's awhile to boot up.I'm not much on technical term's ,so if you have an answer please keep it simple..Thank you.

What sort of equipment is in your computer? Processor, amount of RAM, hard-drive capacity (size), etc.

Does it pause at any point and then start again? If so, what message is on the screen at each point that it pauses?

No..everything just come's up slow..takes a long time to check my e-mail.Dosen't shut down or anything..i have been defraging it often...could it be files i need to dump? It just dosen't respond as quick as it use to....Thank you for responding .

It was built for me by a friend.I have had this for 3or4 years now.I have alot of memory.I defrag it often.I receive no messages or shut downs.Just everything is slowed down.i have cable so i would think it should respond as soon as you hit the key.As i said in my question,i'm not much on technical stuff.Than you for responding to my question.

Defrag

Are you running Windows or Linux?

And this is absolutely not related to programming. I will report your post so a moderator can move it.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in General and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Windows XP

This is a common symptom of a long-term XP box. If there is no hardware problem, the most likely culprit is malware. You say you defrag often, but you don't say how often you perform a virus scan. Your system has probably become so infested with this crud that it now spends all of its time working on software you don't want, need, didn't knowingly install, and provides no useful service. In fact, it is probably compromising your on-line security - significantly. Run one of the many reputable malware scanning packages (hint: any pop-up box that asks if you want to scan for malware probably IS malware). I'd be willing to wager it will return a very long list of items you'll want to remove.

I would recommend running several of the reputable malware scanning packages, because no single one of them can identify all the different forms of malware.

Personally, I'm not comfortable about the cleanliness of a compromised Winbox until I've done a clean reinstall; but then, I'm more than a bit irrational about code being executed on my computer without my express permission.

Which is why I use Slack, but that's another story.

Spybot Search and Destroy, as well as Ad-aware should find most of the crud. I'd run AVG anti-virus just to check you're not infected. Worthwhile emptying temp directories too (C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temp being one to start with). If those programs come up with loads of hits, I'd recommend a format and fresh install; it's the painless way to go.

I'm sure there's more programs out there which will find other bits and bobs, but I've found those three tend to keep most of the crud at bay. Oh, and then install a decent firewall - I used ZoneAlarm. I've heard many opinions on it (both good and bad), so you might want to try another, but I'd definitely get third party one, as opposed to the built-in firewall in windows.

Hope this helps.

I have to agree with all the calls to run a good virus scan and a few malware scans. Spybot Search and Destroy and AdAware were my favorites when I ran Windows. Another is Spyware Blaster which attempts to keep some of the garbage off of your system in the first place.

If none of this seems to do the trick, try downloading something like PC Linux OS. It will run off of your cdrom. Very easy to use and should eliminate most hardware issues as a source of your woes.

Good luck!

as long as you are having seperate disks/partitions for all your data try re-formating your xp partition and re-installing your xp if you can ... generally speaking , there arent any reasons to repair an xp in such a sad state ... scan your data disks/partitions thoroughly and removing uneccessary things in it ...

install only free third-party anti-virus and fire-walling softwares before you do anything(if thats possible) ...

when you have xp re-installed , anti-virus and firewalling softwares up and running again , you should know what to do and how you are going to use it this time ...

btw , during the re-instllation of your xp , why not creating new partition or dropping in a new disk for linux ??

can also try those linux live cd ... worst case is that you only wasted some time(instead of using that for pc games for example) and a few blank cdr ...


[EDIT::] i think i need to strees that :: only use *free* third-party(whatever it means) anti-virus and fire-walling softwares , you can forget about the rest of its kind ...


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