Lagging, freezing, and driving me crazy.

[Chained22]

Lately I've been having lots of issues with my computer lagging severely when I do certain things (such as downloading almost anything, even something as simple as loading a webpage). Things will get really slow, then the computer freezes up. It'll happen a couple times, then my internet connection dies (I'm on dialup). I'm actually having this problem right now as I type this while desperately trying to get on here and post this. I can't log onto any messenger, and it's taking about 10 minutes to just get on most sites. For a while I thought it was a problem with my internet connection, but I don't think that's the case.

Not much has been downloaded to the computer for a while, nothing new installed around the time this started. I've done a virus scan with three different programs, and came up with nothing, so I've pretty much ruled out that possibility. I've reconnected & restarted, and it hasn't helped. I know I haven't defragmented in a while, but that's because the windows default one can run for over a day and not get past 1%. Disc cleanup won't work well either. I've tried to download an alternative program, but with how slow things have been, it just hasn't worked, because all the files seem to be really large, and on dialup, I'll usually get disconnected before it gets too far, (and I don't have anyone else to download something for me at the moment).

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this? I'm on Windows XP Home, and have plenty of memory and HD space free.. I can give more specific details if needed, but I really don't know what you'd need to know, so feel free to ask. I'm just getting frustrated and ready to toss this thing out the window, *lol* so I apologize if I haven't been as specific as needed.

[DigitalJunkie]

I'd suggest you back up your files first before you do anything else! Clean out junk& temp files on your computer, then do a defragment on your hard drive. If all this doesn't help, you may want to reformat & re-install Windows! Don't get lazy, do your computer maintenance once in a while. Download some free programs like Adaware, SpywareBlaster & Spybot Search & Destroy, these will keep your computer free of adwares & spywares that will also slow your computer down.

[simon_says_horrible]

use your Task Manager to find out which program is continuously eating up your CPU and memory.

[tackdaddy]

probally loaded with spyware and make sure you look at what programs are running at startup.

[SanDiegoKid]

What they said... but sassier.

[mfgbypooter]

What they said.
Also, when have you last checked your Windows XP system files?
Go to the Run box on the Start Menu and type in:

sfc /scannow

You may need to have your installation disc handy. Once you have checked the integrity of your OS files, boot into safe mode and defrag your hard drive. If you are still having problems don't forget google is your friend.