Serious Computer Slowdown

[AmericanPsycho]

Athlon tbird 1.2g
512mb pc133 mem
Shuttleboard mobo
Geforce4 4200
Maxtor 80gig hd


Ok, I am far from a computer wiz, but i built this computer about 1.5 years ago and its been running great ever since, until now. All of a sudden I am getting incredible slowdown on almost everything. I cant even load up a game of CS because its sooo choppy, and any movies i try to play are all like slideshows. Netscape seems to run ok as long as i dont have much more than that open, but even starting up Kazaa almost locks up my computer. The thing is I cant think of anything at all I did for this to happen. I didnt change any hardware or alter any drivers or anything. I have a memory manager program installed that is showing all my memory is still there (i think), so I dont think a stick went bad. I am guessing it might be some virus? Ive defragged, chkdsked, scandisked, and everything else I can think of but still no change. I am at the point where I am going to reformat the thing if I cant get it fixed. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Budman]

Kazaa


That's the best way to get a trojan & an virus,I just had to format a system where the user was using it & just like you the system got slower & slower.

I suggest you format your hd and stay away from Kazaa.

 

[AmericanPsycho]

Is there a good place to go for a format how-to guide? Ive done it before but everytime I goof something up and want to make sure that if I do format it goes smoothly.

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: AmericanPsycho
Is there a good place to go for a format how-to guide? Ive done it before but everytime I goof something up and want to make sure that if I do format it goes smoothly.

What OS are you running ?

I assume XP,if it's XP just boot off the cd and install from there,you can format from the OS setup.

 

[Kevstir]

If its xp u have try a system restore iv used this many times and i must say microsofty got this progy right

Kevstir

 

[AmericanPsycho]

yeah its XP, and I guess thats what I have to do. thx for the help!

 

[Markfw]

Actually, I like to format and freshly update everything once in a while, as that works best.