Windows XP / PC sudden slow down?

L

Lol

Can anyone help tith the following problem:

I am running Windows XP Pro Ver2002 SP2 on a 3 year old Dell Dimension
DIM4550 PC with 1 gig RAM. The PC has been running fine all this
time. The PC has Symantec Internet Security installed which is up to
date - anti-virus and spyware checks are made daily and all incoming e-
mails are scanned. I have 120gig gard drive, of which around 80gig is
free.

A few days ago I tried to boot up the PC, but instead of going through
the usual start-up procedure I heard the PC start, and after one or
two seconds, stop again. It then restarted but the monitor remained
black - no input at all from the PC.

I tried unplugging everything from the PC, reconnecting all leads and
switching on again, but no success.
I then opened up the PC and, to my embarresment, found large amounts
of dust inside. I very carefully removed this with a vacuum cleaner
(taking care not to touch any components). I them removed the two
512kb memory chips, made sure the slots were clear of dust and
replaced them.

On rebooting thereafter Windows started up, albeit very slowly and I
managed to get as far as the desk top. The boot up process took
around 60 mins and the bottom menu bar (including the Start button)
was not displayed. As the boot-up process compIeted an error message
was displayed: "Application launcher - Unable to load configuration".
I can now run applications, but with agonising slowness (explorer can
take 20mins to open).

I managed to run Exporer and from this run a scan disk (at next reboot
- this took all night!) and ran File Cleanup to remove temp files
etc. This appears to have made little difference.

On restarting Windows this afternoon (to get the exact wording of the
error message above) the system took another hour or so to launch, but
this time displayed the bottom menu bar and start button. System is
still dead slow however.

Does anyone have any bright ideas?

Lol
 
T

TOAO

Do you hear any noises from the hard drive ? Oh by the way , No offense but
Symantec sucks , I wouldn't use it if it was given to me free
 
N

nicenswift

Do you hear any noises from the hard drive ? Oh by the way , No offense but
Symantec sucks , I wouldn't use it if it was given to me free














- Show quoted text -

As said above my experience of Symantec AV is that it has a massve
affect on performance, have you thought of uninstalling it and
installing another AV, I use CA Etrust and it has very little affect
on performance.

There are a few tips on improving performance on this site and also
links to free AV software.

Performance Guides

http://swift-tips.blogspot.com/2007/04/windows-xp-is-running-slower-than-usual.html
http://swift-tips.blogspot.com/2007/04/windows-xp-is-running-slower-than-usual_16.html

Free AV Links

http://swift-tips.blogspot.com/2007/03/guide-to-finding-free-help-to-common.html

Hope thay help.
 

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