Help Diagnosing a Slow Down

[imported_mostlyprudent]

One of my older systems (3 years) has become painfully sluggish. I have two other systems that run almost an identical hardware and software configuration that are plugging along fine. The slow down is most noticable when loading programs. I have checked the various processes, monitoring system resources and cleaned up the OS and other software. I am beginning to think it is a hDD or CPU problem.

Any suggestions as to how I can track this down?

 

[Billb2]

Defrag?

 

[imported_mostlyprudent]

Tried that. When I say slow I mean Outlook took nearly three minutes to load this morning.

 

[robisbell]

almost identical is not a good comparison, would need exact make and model number of all major components in the system in question.

 

[thetxstang]

Does the Task Manager indicate one or more processes are hogging teh CPU?

EDIT: Never mind. I overlooked your comment stating you had already checked this.

 

[potato28]

What are the OS's in question? If they're both XP, just back up as much as possible and start a format. Sometimes XP will just start getting slow because of registry build-up or other reasons.