If you are getting messages about problems with the hard drive, I would
suggest starting over and using your hard drive makers utility disk as the
first step.  I'd go ahead and use the utility that writes zeros to the whole
drive, first, and then I'd run the utility that does a thorough scan, for
good measure.

Don't have your computer connected to the internet (cable or ADSL modems)
when installing WinXP, unless you run through a router.  You have a catch22
situation where the freshly installed OS is vulnerable to attack, but you
need to download the update to fix this.  Enable WinXPs firewall or install
a third party firewall before you go online to get the WinXP updates.

Is your 8mb graphics a separate card or integrated into the motherboard?  If
it uses the system's main memory, it will seem sluggish, even in a 2D
environment, compared to dedicated card with its own video memory.
Otherwise, a 8mb video card would only seem slow if you play 3D games.
128mb of ram is a bit low for WinXP (kind of like Win98 on 64mb, roughly)
which compounds the problem of using 8mb of this for video memory, if you
have integrated graphics.

Firewall software (and/or a router), up to date virus definitions, and up to
date OS patches are the primary ingredients in keeping your system virus
free.

John Sproule

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Barratt" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2004 10:51 AM
Subject: [PCBUILD] PC Slowdown - Please Help


> 850 MHZ Athalon
> 128 Ram
> 20GB HD
> 8mb Graphics
>
> Ive had problems recently with what i think are virusses. It has been
slowing down and error messages pop up and shut down programs. Norton finds
virusses but often cant deal with them.
>
> Last night i formatted the HD and moved from Win ME to XP. I still have
the following problems -
>
> -HD problems on start up recognising BAD areas of the drive. You press F1
and it carries on.
> -Generally very slow with a poor frame rate especially on the net (despite
broadband) and when moving windows around.
> -One or two error messages on start up.
>
> 1.The 8mb Graphics card is terrible. Is it this that is slowing it down or
maybe the HD or virusses?
> 2.Do i need to replace Graphics/ HD?
> 3.What is the best way of detecting and stopping future viruses?

              The NOSPIN Group is now offering Free PC Tech
                     support at our newest website:
                          http://freepctech.com