Where to start?

[ScottInTexas]

I am trying to figure out where to start troubleshooting my system. The general prognosis is that it is SLOW. I think there are conflicting software registry entries and programs may be fighting for memory.

System:
Chaintech Mainboard
AMD Duron Processor
512MB RAM
6GB C drive with 2.9 free
6GB D drive with 1.6 free

Can someone point me in the right direction? I do have quite a bit of experience programming, but since the 8088 days I have lost track of the hardware. Even the OS are so different and changing so fast I have a hard time keeping up with them. For example the registry entries are confusing and make it difficult to determine conflicts.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Scott

 

[egale]

First thing to do is to run an anti virus scan and a spyware scan. If you are familiar with Adaware and Spybot, they are two good free programs that will scan for spyware.

Next, run msconfig and see what is being executed at startup. Remove everything that is not essential. If you have full time antivirus running, turn it off. You can manually scan anything you download or try to install. Full time antivirus will bring your system to a halt.

After that, it may be harder to figure out. If your os has not been reinstalled in a long time, it may be easier to reformat and start fresh.

 

[Matthias99]

You can also drop a faster processor in your motherboard (such as a Barton XP 2500+). The Duron chips have practically no cache, which makes them slow down immensely when several programs are competing for resources. However, I strongly suspect spy/adware, or a virus.

 

[ScottInTexas]

Thanks both of you for your response. I did run msconfig. I will go through and uncheck several items. In some cases, such as AIM, there are two entries. One of them is checked and the other is not. Where is the file that is used to build this list? I tried to edit and delete the second entries but there is no way. In one case there is an entry with no text, just a line with a check box.

I have had a virus in the past, so I started using McGaffee anti virus. I guess I'll try to set it so it only checks incoming email etc. I'll also try the spyware.

Thanks again,

Scott