Slow performance

[evermore]

Hi, i'm really at the end of my tether with the newly
bought computer with Windows XP installed and i was hoping
someone could help me out. The computer is terribly slow
opening and closing programes, connecting and downloading
are also slow. i know you are all going to say i need more
RAM! or to reduce the priority of processes but i'm not
certain it is that simple. The amount of RAM should have
been sufficient as the problem started after a couple of
days and i can't imagine we downloaded so much within a
short space of time.

however i did remove some of the larger programs such as
music downloaders but this made no difference. I checked
the status of the priority performances and nothing seems
to be visibly draining the source, however on the PF usage
meter i am registering a considerable amount of memory
being used, but i am clueless as to what it is or wether
one thing is draining the source.

I'm not sure if this is important but we have messenger in
the tray which immediately starts up when connecting,
possibly suggesting the computer has been set up to do too
many things at once?. Also the Local area network icon
shows it is unplugged even when connected to the internet,
could this be highlighting an underlying problem?

i'd appreciate any feedback
Thankyou

 

[Unknown]

Why not tell us how much RAM you have, disk size, and processor?.