Computer Lagging

[blkout]

Hi guys/girls,

I know very little about computers. I have an Athlon 2800 CPU, 1gb memory, 120gb hd, 30gb hd (primary), I am also running windows xp pro. I recently installed the 120gb hd and 512mb of ram (total 1gb now).

My computer is EXTREMELY SLOW on start up, shut down, and using any kind of programs, whether it be opening internet explorer, word....I am really frustrated as I thought it would speed up due to the memory being increased from 512mb to 1bg and the additional hd. Can anyone give me some ideas on what the problem might be?

P.S. I have done a full virus and spyware scan and it has not changed.

Thanks in advance!

[rrjljrw]

Is your primary 30gb hdd getting too full? That can cause slowdowns. Have you tested your hdd to see if it's possibly got some bad spots? Try running defrag. If it errors out, that's a good indication that there might be some physical damage. Scandisk can sometimes mark damaged sectors, and sometimes not. Also, check out www.tweakxp.com. There's some fairly safe tweaks that you can do yourself without totally messing up the settings.

[dcc]

What motherboard are you using, and what was you installed RAM, and what RAM did you add? Have you tried uninstalling the new RAM and hdd to see if the speed returns to normal? If it does try installing on item at a time to see what is causing your problem.