My computer is running EXTREMELY slow. I have come to the assumption that my Norton Internet Security software is the cause of it. Coinsidentially, this problem started just after I installed this software. I have tried any and all other solutions to speed up my comp. including defrag, adware/spyware remover, registry cleaner, msconfig, closing all other programs running in the background, etc. and none seem to work. To stop rambling and get to my question, is it possible to remove the whole Internet security suite and just keep the simple anti virus part of the software? Or if there is any other suggestions anybody may have, I'm all ears.

Not sure about the latest version, but NIS used to give you the option of what you wanted to remove when you used add/remove programs to remove NIS. If you feel that NIS has slowed your system down, it is usually the antivirus that is the cause. From the specifications that you listed for your computer the best solution would be to add more ram.

With all due respect to the capt, remove Norton. It is a known resource hog and you can do better. Sometimes I think I understand everything, then I regain consciousness

Also, if he should want to keep it around to run a scheduled or manual scan he could just turn off "Realtime protection". It should be somewhere in the config menu, the exact location depends on your version.