Hi,

You might want to check the computer's BIOS.  Some BIOS have an Optimal and
a failsafe setting.
It might be that it got changed to the Failsafe setting.

While in there, check the following also:
1) turn off the main boards virus program. Use something more up to date.
2) try and set the system to recognise the ide devices, rather than
searching for them (auto)
3) set the HDD-0 to the primary Boot device, disabling the others.
4) disable the floppy search (unless needed a lot -booting from floppy)

the above will speed up the inital booting process.

Then with the system itself, maybe a disk cleanup is in order to get rid of
a lot of temporary
files that may of been down loaded while on line.  Afterwards, run scandisk
and then the defragmentor program to speed up hard drive file access.

Having another fan is the system would not hurt, if there is a place to
mount it.  For the most part the DURON systems run pretty well and not as
hot as the Athlons.  Durons run at the 200mhz bus and most athlons run at
the 266 bus.  It could be possible that one of the BIOS settings dealing
with the CPU setup is out of kilter also.  Is it reading the correct Duron
speed on boot up?  If it were a heat problem I would expect BLUES SCREENS
or lockups rather than the system slowing down.

Also, have you checked for virus?  I find more than not when something
works well one day and the nextday it's behavior is different, a virus is
the culprit.  You used to be able to do it on line at www.trendmicro.com,
I'm not sure if they still offer the service.



God Bless America!

Joe Lore
MicroComputerCenter, Inc.
781-933-5530 / [log in to unmask]

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