hi, I have Compaq Presario C700 with hard disk 80 GB and RAM of size 504 MB. It was working fine but recently started performing very slow. It takes many seconds to get a response. I am connecting the notepad with Tata USB modem for connecting the net. The system gets heat up as well. Please, advice me the things I should do to check the poor performance issue. Many Thanks, Harris

jjharris, slow performance can be caused by several things. A common ailment is a file called 'index.dat'. It gets read every time and can take quite a while if it’s too bloated. It's like a log file and keeps a record of every site you visit on the web. Empty, it's 32K, but it can grow HUGE. It's a protected file and can't be deleted by normal methods. CCleaner (free @: http://www.ccleaner.com/) can get rid of it when it’s ticked (not to worry, it gets rebuilt EMPTY on the next boot.). May not be your deal at all, but won't hurt anything to try. HTH. Ed in Texas.

Most Virus and Spyware scans are likely to work better in Windows Safe-Mode. http://support.microsoft.com/defaul... Computer Speed and Performance May Decrease When you open, then close programs, programs may not free up RAM memory. That is called "Memory Leak". Restarting computer will clear out its RAM memory. ------------------------------------ http://support.microsoft.com/defaul... Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/defaul... How to Defragment Your Disk Drive Volumes in Windows XP

"The system gets heat up as well." Not really familiar with your system, but many go into protection mode as temps reach TJ max. This slows/shuts down the cpu to prevent it from self-destruction. Checking to make sure your fans are functioning properly may be another consideration. It's the trees moving that makes the wind blow