System in need of an Upgrade

[AFurryReptile]

I am looking for a good way to boost my computer's performance, for as cheap as possible. I think that adding another gig of RAM should help quite a bit, but I'm not sure if it will solve a problem that I've been having.

The computer seems to lock up briefly, just several seconds, every once and a while, for no apparent reason. This is deadly when playing a game, but it also can happen when simply scrolling the mouse accross the desktop. Will more memory fix this, or could it be something else?

Also, would upgrading my motherboard increase performance significantly?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Conky]

I would recommend a fresh install of Windows XP although a repair install might do the trick.

I recently went through a similar situation with a friends computer and a repair install fixed the type of temporary lockups and nonsense he was experiencing. Perhaps it was malware, perhaps just a bloated registry, whatever the cause it's running like it should now. Maybe someone else has a better suggestion but a repair install worked this time.

 

[blackhawk]

check task manager(alt-ctl-del) and see if you're using a page file(not enough sys ram so storing/accessing from hard drive), if so then more ram will help

fresh install always seems to help as well by getting rid of junk

you could try a system cleaner & defrag also first