Slow Computer With Mind of it's Own?

Question

We got our computer in 2001. Emachines Model T2482, 254mbRAM (Emachines lied said 256mb), 80gb hd, 10/100mb broadband w/ aol


So here's the story: Our computer has always been slow but we got used to it and it became normal to us. In August our warranty was about to wear out. We thought we would take it down to Best Buy (where our warranty was from) and it would come back the speed of lightning- everything fixed. Abouta month later we got it back and it was slow as crap. They told us we had to have Norton and SpySweeper on it. We payed 100 smackers for it. Spy sweeper doesn't work, it freezes up. Norton does. Also it has a mind of it's own. I't likes to shut off the mouses PS/2 port and make the cursor dart all over the screen. We shut it down about once or twice a day because it freezes up. What is wrong. Norton says we don't have a virus. MS employees and other people PLEASE HELP!

AMD Anthlon XP 2400+
Dell Optiplex GX110s at school are way faster
I've always thought the PS/2 port was going bad

Answer 1

first off your computer was good for 2001 but they are advancing so fast that yours is all but obsolete. As long as you keep your digital media to the average 80gb should be fine but your memory is a critical issue open IE and run a scan at http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/ that will tell you what type of memory you can have and how much and how much Crucial will sell it to for (although you can buy it elsewhere for less, microcenter.com, compusa.com)
Secondly is your Norton up to date? Regardless consensus is that it's a resource hog why not try a free anti-virus,firewall and anti-spyware See below for links to the ones I use
Note: Be sure to Update the program first and then scan

Answer 2

There are plenty of free spyware and antivirus programs out there that you can download. There a couple of things which could be slowing down your computer. One is spyware. I suggest going to download.com and download Ad Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy. Its best to have more than one spyware removal program because they both have different registry. so what one doesn't get the other will. Another thing that could slow it down is your start up. These are the programs that start up and run in the background when you start your computer. These can used up a lot of Ram. here is how to clean it up if you got XP. First go Start

Answer 3

You're PC does not have enough ram. It's Barley keeping alive EPICALLY when Norton and Spy Sweeper are taking up SO MUCH CPU Speed. 512Mb of ram is only like $30 and it will make your computer run SO MUCH faster. You're Internet problem too! Also, download the google Web Accelerator. It gives your computer Internet speed an extra boost. Total I've used it for 2 months (and I'm on my computer all the time) it's saved me 10 hours total wait time.

Answer 4

Goto www.trendmicro.com Click on 'Free Tools'
Trend micro is a free online virus scanner. It will sometimes find viruses that some times Norton can't fix.
Also do a Disk Clean up\Disk Dragmenter. Both are listed under the System Tools.
Start
Programs
Accessories
System Tools

Answer 5

I would get MORE RAM. Memory is pretty much a commodity item. 256 is a BARE minimum for Xp - upgrade to AT LEAST 512, but really, go on up to 1 Gig. It shouldn't be that much more. That will probably help a lot. Norton is a resource hog - I personally hate it and will never load it on a computer.

Answer 6

Our old computer did the exact same thing, they seem to get a personality after a while, don't they... Your PC is probably on it's last legs, I'd start saving up for a new one. A few months after these problems got unbearable on our own, the HDD crashed.

Answer 7

RUN YOUR MAINTENANCE WIZARD AND DE FRAG YOUR HARD DRIVE. YOU SHOULD ADD MORE RAM MEMORY TOO