My computer lags really bad at times when there are a few programs running. The cursor will just stop going for a few seconds, go, stop, go, etc. Especially when I'm listening to music, it will lag a lot and skip the music really bad, over and over again, any ideas?

Maybe you have viruses. That happened to me a lot when my computer was being ravaged by viruses. I use AVG Anti-Virus software, which has been corrupted itself, so I don't know if it's the greatest but it could be a quick fix for now. www.grisoft.com if you need it. You could also try Running Scandisk, Disk Cleanup, and Disk Defragmenter.

There is a Windows bug caused by an update but this was never fixed so you might have to reboot from time to time. I have a fix from a website but to my mind this leaves question marks about security. Good suggestions given in #1. I would also download Ad-Aware (freebie), update and run that too. Derek.W

If you have a low end P2 it barely meets the requirements to play high quality MP3s. You might want to take a look at what you have running in the background and determine if you need to have all of them running all the time. Even if you have a high end, it's a good idea to limit the programs that are running.

UPDATE: A few things I forgot to mention: I use adaware regulary along with spyware doctor to clean up spyware. I have the Zonealarm security suite which comes up a self-updating virus scanner which I run often. Windows defrag continually restarts even when I run it alone on boot by editing the registry. Also, defrag says I have an error on the disk and that I should run scandisk to correct the problem; however, scandisk also restarts over and over again even when it runs alone on startup (again by editing the registry). My pc is an upper end P2 with 192MB of ram. I've tried using a RAM booster to increase system performance but I've found the more programs I run the worse the problem gets. Furthermore, the RAM booster didn't seem to do much. Finally, in addition to the lagging problem I find that the computer freezes up often and has to be shutdown via the power button on the CPU. Hope this helps a bit so you can help me.

See my #2 here about scandisk/defrag problems. It certainly sounds as if something or other is running in the background: W95/98 165737 Derek.W

From PC Magazine web site re: Spyware Doctor Pros: Informative descriptions of the nature of detected threats. Cons: Poor real-time blocking. Confusing configuration. Sometimes identified itself as a suspect program. Bottom Line: Spyware Doctor's moderately effective scanning is offset by limited effectiveness of real-time blocking and other shortcomings. Review Given the other strong antispyware options on the market today, PC Tools' Spyware Doctor left us underwhelmed. Its OnGuard real-time blocking capability did little to prevent infestation.