Kay here's the setup:
Custom built about 3yrs ago
XPpro (all updates and hotfixes installed)
A7N8X Deluxe rev1.4 (all bios and chipset drvrs current)
AMD 1.4 (never O/C'd)
512MB pc2100DDR
80gb Maxtor (Primary boot, and program files drive)
20gb W.D. (Backups drive, MP3s, photos and what-not's)
Plextor 16/10/40
Delta DVDrom
GeForce3 (never O/C'd)

Now here's the deal,
I've been using CloneCD for burning backups for all my
music for a long long time. Used-to-be I could burn a
full audio disc in 5min or so with the Plexy maxed out at
16x. In fact when the burn would start the buffers would
drain in seconds. Now it takes me well over 10, sometimes
15 min and the buffers never use up more than 97%. Used-
to-be I could burn a disc with Clone and listen to MP3s
with Musicmatch all at the same time no prob and still
get a good burn in 5 min. Now if I even THINK about
launching Musicmatch while Clone is running the machine
lags reeeeal bad, and Musicmatch playback is choppy and
unlistenable. For that matter if I try to open ANYTHING
while I have a burn going on (even a Word doc) it takes
at least a minute or so to get the program fully launched
and in full display. CloneCD is not the only burn ute.
that has problems, Roxio6 is slow too.

This never used to happen, when I say never I mean I
started noticing a slow-down about a month or so ago. I
make a habbit of defragging once a month on a need-it-or-
not basis (just defragged last week), I also run SpyBot
religiously. Have plenty of room on my HDD's (the 80G'r
has 60G's free-space). I don't have any unnecissary
garbage launching at startup. In fact MSCONFIG/startup is
down to less than six items starting. Systray has, at
most; NortonA/V, ZoneAlarm, Immersion, and the necissary
MSN dial-up apps running at any one time. I've
ran "chkdisk /r" from XP's startup disc to no affect. The
only other clues I can give you are some warnings in the
event log; event= warning, source= cdrom. Error
properties say, "An error was detected on device/
DeviceCdRom0/ during a paging operation".

I need your help! Why is this happening suddenly? Is
there something I can do other than reformat? I have a
Dial-up connection (not by choice mind you) and I'm
really not looking forward to D/Ld'ing all the patches,
drivers and updates.

ANY help, I mean ANNNNYYYY help is much appreciated.

hey just so you know im not a computer guy but something like that did happen to me about a year or so, what i found out was that I had a usb connection for my MP3 player plugged in without my mp3 player actually connected, basically it slowed way down anytime i tried to do certain things and the computer was looking for my MP3 player slowing it down dramatically, if you have anything like that installed or hooked up, even if they arent currently running, check that out, i just uninstalled the MP3 player software until i could figure it out. Hope i helped

Similar to the other caller, I don't have deep knowledge either. I do not download music or burn CDs. I have old machine Windows 98, RAM 120 and processor 750. I do know 'streaming' audio/video music/photos take up lots of space. Try enclosed tips. Best wishes. Common reasons for computer slow-down.

I. To evaluate system resources go to . . . START – PROGRAMS – ACCESSORIES - SYSTEM TOOLS – here you’ll find Drive Space / System Information. RAM less than 120MB is outdated. New machines in 2004 will have ten times more! Go to SCHEDULED TASKS and set up routine maintenance agenda. Perform SCAN DISK and DISK DEFRAGMENT monthly. (SCAN DISK first).

II. FYI . . . Music and photo files use lot of memory. Avoid “streaming” audio/video, WEB-Shots DESKTOP. These tax computer resources.

III. Empty RECYCLE BIN.

IV. Delete Temporary Internet files: Right-click Internet Explorer Icon and choose PROPERTIES. On GENERAL tab go to TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES and choose DELETE FILES &/or DELETE COOKIES.

V. Delete “Temp” files from DOS. Follow instructions EXACTLY;
1. Go to START - choose PROGRAMS – choose MS-DOS
2. At C:\WINDOWS> type . . . cd\windows\temp press ENTER
3. At C:\WINDOWS\temp> type. . . dir *.tmp (note space between ‘dir’ & asterisk)
(note period after asterisk)
(a list of temp files appears here)
press ENTER

4. At C:\WINDOWS\temp> type . . . del *.tmp (note space between ‘dir’ & asterisk)
(note period after asterisk)
press ENTER
5. At C:\WINDOWS\temp> type . . . exit

VI. Go to WINDOWS UPDATE. These are free Windows updates. They can be lengthy to install. Many updates pertain to virus protection.

VII. Use Virus protection such as Norton or McAfee and complement it with free virus patch “STINGER” from McAfee http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

VIII. Use FireWall protection, especially Road Runner users! There are some free programs or go to Norton or McAfee.

IX. MISCELLANEOUS: There are many free SpyWare , Pop-up Stopper, SpamWare software programs available. I use Lava-Soft, “Ad-Ware”, their basic program is free for home use which eliminates “data-miner” cookies.