I recently just upgraded my laptop's hard drive from 30 gigs to 160 gigs. While doing that I also upgraded the ram to 2 gigs. At first the laptop was fine but then out of nowhere it started to slow down. So I ran my norton about every hour and made sure everything was updated. But still it did nothing. So I got to thinking, just before this happened I did go over the original 30 gig mark, right now I am using 40 gigs. I was wondering if my cpu cant handle anything over 30 gigs? Do I need a new cpu or is there anything other that I can do?

The CPU could care less about how much hard drive space is used. Did you install any new programs? Any new Microsoft updates or any other changes since the slowdown? Did it slow down immediately after the hard drive and memory upgrade or did it take a while for the problem to show up?

If it did run fine then assume software error first. Most likely tasks are using resources or drivers are causing problems. In some cases leaving wireless on with strong encryption is using a lot of resources. Junk transmissions most of it. The best thing to start with is running perfom on a remote computer or locally to see what is using resources. See also taskman and see programs and apps such as systernals to see what is really going on. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10

Try switching Norton Off, it's a resource hog. There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.

Dont do what he said ^