Slowdowns and long boot up time

[cloudl]

Specs if it matters
Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop
1.5 ghz
512 MB RAM
128 MB ATI Mobility Radeon X300
Windows XP Service Pack 2

Recently, my laptop will start getting these random
slowdowns/stutterings. It is characterized by the mouse cursor acting
jumpy or actual slowdown when I'm watching a video or playing a game.
After a couple of minutes pass, the slowdowns seem to be gone. However,
sometimes they do return later on an arbitrary notice. The slowdowns
seem to occur most of the time when I open a program such as Windows
Media Player, Winamp, Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0, or playing a game such
as Guild Wars. As I mentioned before, the slowdowns will cease after
some time is spent with the program opened. In addition, start up seems
to take a bit longer than it used to be.

I have used spybot, ad aware, McAfee virus scan, disk defragment, and
disk space clean up. I have also used registry mechanic and other
optimizing programs, but the problem is still prevailent. I doubt that
it's my laptop temperature as it never really gets all that hot.

Any suggestions?

 

[Guest]

I've had the same problem but my pc isn't a laptop, it's a desktop, so I
don't know if that matters, so wait for a pro to tell you it's safe for a
laptop. I was advised to flush my DNS cache and my pc zooms right along now.
It was the only thing that helped.

Start > Run > cmd > ok

When prompted, type: ipconfig /flushdns

make sure there's a space between the g in ipconfig and the /.

I hope this fixes your problem.

Denise

 

[Guest]

More memory wouldn't hurt, either.
Mack

 

[Shadow Cloud]

I suppose it doesn't, but keep in mind my laptop used to be much faster
before all of this occured.

 

[Guest]

Another idea might be to right-click on My Computer and go into Properties,
then select the Advanced tab. Then go to to Performance Settings and place
the dot in the "Adjust for Best Performance" and click apply, then OK.

That might help...
Mack

 

[Shadow Cloud]

Anyone has any other suggestions? I have posted this same topic on 5
different forums and none of them have been helpful....

 

[Shadow Cloud]

A bit refreshing to know that I am not the only one with these problems.

 

[Shadow Cloud]

Cook, I have finally solve my problem. Have a look at this thread of
mine on another forum and maybe it will help you solve your own problem
too.
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt-2000-xp/461671-solved-slowdowns-long-boot-up.html#post3560939