HAve you done the spyware search? Some one not too long ago, had a lot that bogged down his system. Norton, usually stays up to date with current deffinitions.

Spybot, MS AntiSpyware, and Adaware (all up to date) confirm zero spyware existence. Tweaknow Regclean and RegCleaner also ensure me that nothing bogs the registry. It's actually doing fine now (that's what I meant with "erratic" but it still pisses me off that I need to reconfigure my Firefox.

Reinstall windoze? I did that when mine crapped out, its worked decently ever since.

Other than that I can't help you, I'm no gates.

Hmm, any anonymous processes running in the background and using up a lot of space?

Fix:

Restart Computer
After post, boot to dos
Format C:

Works everytime


annnyway... Computers get bogged down if you have too much info going through your main drive (if you have two), with too little space on the c:. What is the size of your hdd? And now much is used?

run task amanger and sort by first CPU, VM size, then memory usage, record the top 10 offenders in each category, and see if there is anything suspicious. dont worry about the 'svchost.exe' process or the 'system', 'explorer.exe' or 'system idle processes' processes.

it might be an idea to check what the Virtual memory page file size is.

Run MSCONFIG and get rid of useless startup services and applications. This won't help you with the Firefox situation, but it'll get rid of most background programs slowing you down.

I had some similar problems with a relative's computer. The short of it there was a trojan eating up memory and doing God knows doing what else. Sure, I had the latest Ad-Aware and free online virus scan done. Found out that it was too new for the scanner (hey, it's free ) and it actually hid itself from Ad-Aware! Old fashioned detective work in the Registry looking under the Run and RunServices keys found obscure programs being run. A simple Google and I found they were trojans. Deleted them and restarted. Suddenly Ad-Aware found dozens of issues with the 'puter!

The programs that are used to find these scummy programs are quite well known and are now being targetted and circumvented which is quite easy to do.

As for the above 'puter? It still had many more issues which would only yield to some heavy Registry editing. After two days straight I hacked the registry so much Windoze wouldn't start up! No problem though as there was nothing to save and I did it to learn. I certainly did learn! A reinstall solved everything.

_____________
Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
Server community website & forum: EarendilsPlace.net (server rules)

it'd be really something if system idle process made it to the top 10 offenders list. . .

Drive C has 2.68GB free space. But I decide to format and reinstall. I'm currently backing up my por... I mean essential files Why won't Windows Backup allow you to backup into a magnetic tape, but not cds?? this hacking my folders and files into 700 mb pieces have taken me all day.

Anybody knows how I can save all emails archived in my Outlook Express?

Hmm. There should be a "save" option in the file menu that would let you save your email messages. Either that, or some kind of export function.

I know this is a bit late, but have you tried updating your virus definitions manually?

Either that, or boot up into safe mode, try running LiveUpdate/AdAware/etc and see if that helps. I would only reformat as a last resort.

I think that you can also backup your .PST and .OST files in order to preserve your inbox, but it has been ages since I have used Outlook. Outlook... *shakes head* Bleh!

See if under the File button, you have an export funtion. Some mail programs do. But not all.