very slow PC

[F083153WM]

I have a 6 year old dell PC. It's running with XP, Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.00 GHz,
processor speed 1.95 GHz, RAM 256.
I have AOL and it's anti virus software on it.
It has become so slow that my wife won't even sign on it anymore.
I don't know if I have a virus (which I shouldn't because I have the anti virus software)
or if the PC is too old and not enough memory or what is wrong,
any suggestions would be appreciated !!

[Frank Wallis]

Which Anti-Virus are you using?

First of all I would suggest you to go for a PC scan, just scan your drives with the anti-Virus and just check the results.

[F083153WM]

Which Anti-Virus are you using?

First of all I would suggest you to go for a PC scan, just scan your drives with the anti-Virus and just check the results.

I have McAfee and the scans run regularly and never find anything worng

[F083153WM]

I have McAfee and do run scans regularly, they never found anything wrong

[Frank Wallis]

I have McAfee and do run scans regularly, they never found anything wrong

Ok,is the "Virus Definition" of your McAfee updated or not?

[caperjack]

256 meg ram isn't anywhere near enough ,add at least another 512 meg ,aol needs more for sure .

[Bob_180_Bob]

Your PC is old but for a few $ you can get it up to speed. Start by buying (at least) a 512meg stick of memory but 1gig would be better and not that much dearer.

If you can save any files you want to keep, Do a fresh install of XP, including a disk format during the instalation. If you dont wnat to go that far then :-

Then do a full online checkup by using these sites :-

On-line Virus Scan

Go to all of these sites and do an online virus scan.

housecall.trendmicro.com

security.symantec.com

us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp

Check Malware

Go to http://www.besttechie.net/tools/mbam-setup.exe
and download and run Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.

Then:-
Repair Windows XP from your XP CD…..

1. Re-start PC with XP CD in drive (Have your serial number handy)
2. As your PC starts press “F12” for boot menu (Or what your PC may ask for)
3. Scroll to and select “boot from CD.”
4. At prompt “Press any key to boot from CD” Press “Any key”
5. In the Windows XP Setup window, Press “Enter” to set up windows XP, (Don’t worry, this is a repair only, not a fresh install.)
6. At next window, Press “F8” to accept license agreement
7. Wait until windows displays your current version of XP and asks “To repair the selected windows XP installation press R”
8. Press “R”
9. Enter serial number when prompted.
10. Wait for files to be copied (PC will indicate 39 mins, it will take a lot less.)
11. When asked to adjust Regional language options, click “Next” as it is still set.
12. PC will re-boot.
13. If you have AVG Free, copy serial number to a file as you will lose it on repair. After repair a window will pop up asking how you want to treat AVG, Click repair and when prompted enter serial number.
14. Check to see if problem still exists.

[Drycola]

Sometimes the antivirus itself might slow down the computer, you may try uninstalling it and see if that's help.