Just recently my computer started acting very slow. It now takes about 20 minutes to start up to the login screen. Clicking on the login name takes about 30 seconds to accomplish, followed by about another 20 minutes of windows starting up. The mouse performs at normal speeds but everything else is extremely slow. I've tried removing all extra hard drives/devices but that didn't help. The CPU is properly cooled and I have replaced the video card (AGP) in hopes of fixing this problem, but no luck. (needed a new card anyways since the other was dying out) This all started one day when I turned on my computer and recieved a 1-3-2 beep code at startup. After playing around with it, it starts up and gets through POST just fine but after that it's crap. I even tried a Live XP cd but it did the same thing. Any suggestions?

Look here for bios beep codes: http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beep...

See this: http://www.dellcommunity.com/suppor... I assume you haven't touched or changed the ram. Remove the AC power to the computer and try re-seating your ram modules, or better still... See response 2 in this - try cleaning the contacts on the ram modules. http://www.computing.net/hardware/w...

I already fixed the beep code but I'll try cleaning the ram.

No luck with cleaning the RAM. After cleaning the module and the motherboard slots I tried a different module, in all 4 slots and each time it was the same thing. It gets past POST fine and then gets extremely slow.

disconnect the cdrom[s] and try it. i've cure some that way

Take a look and make sure your hard drive is in a mode other than PIO. http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devic... If it is in PIO mode, try re-setting it. If it won't re-set, Windows has detected the hard drive is producing too many data errors and has inserted entries in your Registry forcing it into PIO mode. I could tell you how to get rid of those entries and the drive will be able to run in it's faster mode again, but if whatever problem the hard drive or it's connection had has not been fixed, it will just be forced into PIO mode again in a short time. Make sure the data cable connectors are plugged in all the way, that there is no gap between each of the data cable connectors and the cable, and that the data cable is not damaged or ripped at the edges of the cable near each connector - if in doubt try another data cable. In most cases you should be using an 80 wire data cable. If that doesn't help, or in any case, your hard drive may be starting to fail. Check your hard drive. See the latter part of response 1 in this: http://www.computing.net/windows95/...