my computer has a 933 mhz pentium3 and it has 133mhz 256mb memory its not impressive but it was built for movie and internet usage, its also got T1 internet a 10gig WD Caviar, 200mhz front side bus, so it should do movie and internet just fine. But it lags alot i mean the mouse and or movie completely stops moving for 2-15 seconds and sometimes does it repeatedly. I know for sure its not a virus or spyware cuz its done this since xp was installed fresh a week ago, i have sp2 installed, but i did some testing and when i close explorer in task manager the lag goes completely away. So do you guys have any ideas.

Try using Firefox.

Before posting try google. Backup. Use anti virus software.

Post MFG and Model number, Motherboard ID if possible. You'll get more info.

In the mean tiime, add another 256mb ram if possible.

May not help, but worth a try.

Something looks wrong with Processor-FSB and Ram.

Go to crucial.com & run Memory scan. See what 's recommended for your system.

There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.

"major pc lag for no reason"

Obviously there's a reason...you just don't know what it is yet.

to start with, 256MB isn't a lot of RAM for XP. It may not be the cause of the lag, but adding at least another 256MB would definitely increase overall performance.

I don't get the comment about "200mhz front side bus". The P3 933MHz CPU runs at 133MHz FSB although it *may* be referred to as 266MHz FSB. If it's running at 200MHz FSB, it would mean the CPU frequency is set at 100MHz & the CPU would be running at 700MHz instead of 933MHz.

What video card are you running?

"i did some testing and when i close explorer in task manager the lag goes completely away"

Normally if you "end process" explorer.exe in Task Manager, you will lose the desktop icons, start menu, taskbar, etc, & will be forced to reboot (I just tried it to confirm)...if this isn't happening, my guess is you have some sort of infection.

I have closed explorer on many of my other computers, it doesnt force a reboot, but yes it does get rid of the whole desktop, i open what i need first then i close explorer, and then it runs smooth, i was thinking it was maybe video card lag also, cuz its the onboard 4mb intel video, with 24-bit colors(impresssive not), sorry i got the bus wrong, and the the motherboard is hard to comeby on the web, its agateway board, but theres no case so no number exept one on the board, (ISEA03302082) (AA A19243-206) (4000622) i'm not sure which one is the right one for model, i know its a intel and its off of a 98/99 gateway pc.

and also as i have said, this lag was happening before the network card was even installed, so it is not a virus or anything of that sort.

After the re-install of WinXP did you install the MBoard chipset drivers, the other hardware drivers, the latest DirectX, necessary codecs, etc.?

Besides the other things mentioned, a 10 GB hdd doesn't leave alot of room for the swap file if you have a lot of data, etc. stored. How much room is left on the hdd ?

"I have closed explorer on many of my other computers, it doesnt force a reboot, but yes it does get rid of the whole desktop"

Sorry, I left out a word when I wrote that, it should have been "YOU will be forced to reboot".

You *may* be able to get the model number of the board from the BIOS ID string. It's displayed at the lower left of the screen during POST. It may be hidden by the Gateway splash screen though. There's probably a key that closes the splash screen...maybe Tab or Esc?

kx5m2g may have hit on something with the 10GB HDD & swap file

http://www.theeldergeek.com/paging_...

BTW, you definitely need a better video card.

well i always keep 15% free minumum but right now i have 1.3gb free actually, but this problem was here at the fresh install when there was 7gb free, and i installed all the driver right away. i seriously think its hardware, maybe video but i lost all of my agp cards all i have is pci or pci-express so im stuck, im getting a new pc in a week(never put a cup on a laptop) and i have been surfing the web all day and watched a movie without explorer open. it hasnt lagged since i closed it.

You can quit explorer in the task manager and then go to file-upper left corner-new task-type explorer.exe-enter and it will restart explorer.
You do not need to reboot.

i purposely closed explorer, i went in task manager and i closed it because whenever explorer is open it cause the lag, explorer itself is the lag, when i close it the pc is like 5 times faster and no lag, its been like that from the beginning.

Are you talking about explorer or IE explorer? 2 different things. If you close explorer you have no desktop or anything else.Explorer runs the o/s.
Are you running IE6 or IE7? IE7 is problematic.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...

i close explorer, i am using the computer with no desktop, because the lag is that bad, and really annoying. when i close explorer the lag dissappears completely, i mean it doesnt even run slow it fast when its closed, butwhen explorer is open, its hard to even move my mouse to icons because it lags that much. I am thinking it may just be a bad install or a major incompatibility, should i just install windows 98 or 2000??

oh and it came with IE6 but after a week i put in IE7 for an update.

You don't say if it is a Dell, Gateway, etc. That is important. when you post always describe what machine it is. It may be a proprietary machine. I would run a system repair if it is not a proprietary machine. Did the problem occur after installing IE7? If so, go back to IE6.

i have already stated that it is a gateway motherboard no longer in its gateway case so no model numbers, and i have also said that this problem showed up forever. ever since i installed windows, even on the first boot to the desktop. and it was a fresh install, i did a slow ntfs format and installed windows xp, and tada slowness.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...

Why are you running NFTS on a 10GB HDD? I kinda doubt you're gonna be working with files over 4GB? FAT32 would have been the way top go.

system repair, ya duh, i didnt try that yet, now i feel dumb, i used to do that but i havent used xp with problems in so long. i'll try that later and let u know how it goes

gateway mobo. Did you install the mobo drivers?

Try running chkdsk. In task manager, click File, then New Task, type cmd and press enter. Then in the black box (console), type chkdsk and press enter.

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