old 'puter is getting very lethargic,. It's 5 0r 6 yrs old now but had a new hard disk, motherboard and processor in a couple of seperate breakdowns a couple of years ago.

Running a AMD athlon 3500+, recording 1 mb RAM (but had it in my mind this should be 2!). Takes an age to start up and runs noticeably slowly (Outlook 2002) is particularly slow.

Have considered replacing but think I will try to make it do until Window & is out and past the initial settling down stage so.....considering reinstalling xp to see if this will breath new life into the machine.

Will backup all data and settings onto my usb hard drive and have original xp cd. But not looking forward to reinstalling all programs and drivers and doing all the windows updates (only have 0.5 mega broadband here.)

First question is do I need to install all teh service pack in order or does SP3 cover everything?

SP3 will do the lot.

If your hardware is ok, it will restore your comp too it former glory.

With those specs it should be fine:thumbup:

Damn you Dave...How do you know so much about computers??

Another gig of RAM wouldn't hurt, especially as it will only be a tenner or so

Another gig of RAM wouldn't hurt, especially as it will only be a tenner or so

That is a good point

Damn you Dave...How do you know so much about computers??

Errrr..........because I do lol

That is a good point

Can't remember for sure but thought I had 2 gb but system System Properties is only reporting 1gb I must open her up and check - maybe a module has failed and that is part of the reason for running so slow

Depending on your needs you can mod the xp install and disable functions you don't need, in other words reduce the number of processes running. A guide here:

Windows XP x86 (32-bit) Service Pack 3 Service Configurations by Black Viper

Found it useful myself but once again I started to wonder why so many geeks love web pages with white and/or blue lettering on black background?

Computers don't run slower with age. Sounds like you have some crapware on your PC. If you don't want to do the whole hog and reformat you could run some spyware scanners on it and just generally remove anything you don't need.

I have an old box with an AMD 3000+ chip and it runs XP fine on 1Gb of ram.

If you do choose to reformat remember to download a firewall and AV software before you do it. So you can protect the machine before you go back on line for updates.

Im in the process of upgrading and reinstalling XP on a mates Desktop. What i do with all my reinstallations now is as soon as i have a fresh install ( no updates ) i image the hard drive using a freeware program called Macrium Reflect. That way if something goes wrong with updates i have a fresh install which can be reimaged in about 2-3 minutes instead of having to go through the windows installation again.

After that i then sit through all the critical updates ( service packs etc ) and then image it for a second time. That way in the future should anything go wrong you can reimage a windows XP installation with all the updates that were applicable up to the date the image was made in no time at all compared to sitting through a fresh installation of windows then all the updates.

Anyway, my purpose of the post was to say that after i had done a fresh install of XP, i then as usual installed an anti virus client, in this case Avira Antivir. Went on line to download windows updates and it came up with two to do first. Windows Genuine Advantage KB892130 and Windows package installer KB898461. No matter what i tried these would not install. Therefor i was unable to install any further updates. After a bit of research on the net i reimaged the drive again using my first image and this time DID NOT install the Anti virus client Went online to windows update site and the two updates previously mentioned downloaded no bother at all. After that i reinstalled the Anti virus client and all other updated are now downloading.

I'm not sure if installing service pack 3 from a disc would take this problem away but i thought i would bring it to your attention in case your going through the windows update route and the same thing happens.

Hope this helps and sory for the longish post.

Computers don't run slower with age. Sounds like you have some crapware on your PC. If you don't want to do the whole hog and reformat you could run some spyware scanners on it and just generally remove anything you don't need.

I have an old box with an AMD 3000+ chip and it runs XP fine on 1Gb of ram.

If you do choose to reformat remember to download a firewall and AV software before you do it. So you can protect the machine before you go back on line for updates.

I am running Bullgaurd Internet Security - auto updated many times a day. Also frequently run Seach & Destroy. Think my problem may be Outlook 2002 which is very slow to open and frequently falls over, but think it is time fot#r a fresh install to clear out the system.

How big is the PST/OST files in Outlook? They fall over when they get too big.

Also, have you run the disk clean up utility?

How big is the PST/OST files in Outlook? They fall over when they get too big.

Also, have you run the disk clean up utility?

PST file is about 1.3GB!! but transfered it to a fresh install of Outlook 2002 on my laptop and it runs fine.

Yes have run disk clean up

Format it......... Nothing like a good format too freshen up you're comp:thumbup:

Format it......... Nothing like a good format too freshen up you're comp:thumbup:

yeah, thats the plan.

I have just finished (I hope) transfering all the importants stuff to my laptop. Will give it a day or two and then blitz the desktop and start afresh

PST file is about 1.3GB!! but transfered it to a fresh install of Outlook 2002 on my laptop and it runs fine.

Yes have run disk clean up

I'd back up that PST ASAP. They usually corrupt over 750mb!

I'd back up that PST ASAP. They usually corrupt over 750mb!

thanks, took a backup the other day when I transfered it to a fresh outlook install on the laptop.

Never say never but having twice had hard disk failures I think I am pretty good at backups now:eek: