I hope someone can help me out here! My computer seems to run way too slow! Sometimes it seems to take a minute or longer just to log onto my user account from the main screen! Then it might take another half minute to load a program or function from double-clicking an icon. Even opening "My Computer" might take 20 or 30 seconds! This is driving me crazy! It runs MUCH slower than my 266 Mhz Windows 98 laptop! I have lots of system resources, always over 80%. It's the family computer, an E Machine, and we have 4 user accounts and a guest account. Any ideas or suggestions? I'm sure it's not made to be this slow... Thanks in advance!

Hi mikelebone, I think 30secs to load a programe with only 128Mb of RAM isn't to bad.;) Upgrade your RAM to at least the recommended 256Mb and you should notice a huge difference in performance. Hope this helps you ~Tongawonga~

I don't know about your particular model, but E machines are notorious for having poor onboard graphics cards, and they use system memory, as does the modem. Getting a new graphics card can sometimes make a big boost in performance.

You said you have 4 user accounts. Do these users log off when they have finished or are their sessions still active? If they dont log off and have open programs then it is going to slow your system down. Like Tongawonga says, an extra 128mb (or more)or RAM will make life easier as well. It wouldn't hurt to run a defrag and check for viruses and Trojans either.

Also to say, you should get more RAM. XP uses all of, at least, 128 to run properly, and works better. It slows things down if you have programs starting and running in the background during Startup. Also when you open programs, things are slower if they have to take RAM away from XP. You should have enough RAM (above 128) for each program you run at the same time.