I've found this older Toshiba Satellite Pro 6000 Series and done a clean XP Pro install on it. But for about five minutes after the desktop appears it is so SLOOOOOW. It takes upwards of 10 to 15 seconds (usually a lot longer) to register the mouse/keyboard input, so if I click on start I could be sitting there for 20 seconds waiting for it to open. For a full five minutes after the desktop appears the hard drive activity light is a constant solid green, but eventually it stops loading whatever it is loading and allows me to get normal use out of it. I don't have anything major installed on it yet either, just firefox. I mean, I'm only guess it is the RAM causing the slow start up, I presume it is the lack of ram anyway (it has only 111 available to XP - from a 128mb module. The rest must be being used by the on-board 16mb graphics system). I tried defragging too by the way, thinking maybe the clean install left a lot of fragmentation behind, but windows defrag did sweet FA, twice. Seriously. It lied to me too, the analysis said the fragmentation would be practically zero but after a twenty minute defrag the analyses report looked identical to the one before. Anyway I can get one or a couple of 512mb modules that would fit in this computer to the best of my knowledge but they're 144pin SODIMM's and damn are they expensive... So Obviously I don't want to go dumping expensive ram in this then find out the problem wasn't related to ram at all. Any suggestions? I'd appreciate the help.

It looks like you only have 111 MB of RAM (probalby 128 MB minus whatever the onboard video card uses). Windows XP really should have a minimum of 256 MB to run OK, and 512 MB to run well. In your case, more RAM will definitely help the cause! 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

According to the specs below, you have 128mb installed but the maximum RAM capacity for this notebook is 1GB. Upgrade RAM to the maximum size will definitely speed up XP. Make sure you order the right type of RAM. http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware... i_Xp/VistaUser

See response 5 in this for some info about ram compatibilty, and some places where you can find out what will work in your mboard for sure: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... Correction to that: Mushkin www.mushkin.com Once you know which module ID strings work in your mboard, you can get them from anywhere you like that has ram with those ID strings. 512mb total works well for most people's uses in XP. Ultimate Memory Guide How Much Memory Do You Need? etc. http://www.kingston.com/tools/umg/u...

One other comment. Laptops seem to be fussier about RAM than desktops. I suggest you save yourslef much aggrevation and buy brand specific RAM. That is RAM that is known to run in your computer.

Your problem is definitely RAM related. You have two choices...invest in RAM (at least 512MB) or downgrade your operating system to Win98, WinME, Win2K or possibly one of the Linux distros "And that's the fishing line, because Sharkboy said so!"

Thanks for the responses. If a ram upgrade definitely will improve things then that's what I'll go for. I went onto kingston's valueram.com, used that thing's model selector and got to a ram module that is apparently toshiba specific so, I'll get that. Thanks again.