I think I posted this in the wrong Forum...sorry

How do we know which post to respond to since you posted the same thing at least 6-7 times?

Is this the proper post you are going to use?
If so, then you have afew issues to resolve. You can just delete the OS's you aren't using, but you probably have to do something with the choices of boot up.

I honestly did not mean to post it so many times. My system crashed 6 times in 3 days. Not sure what actually made it and what didn't. One of your mods closed all of them so after the last crash with no answers....I did exactly that..

I reformatted my hard drive. Had to install Windows 98 and then my XP Upgrade...all legit. I am currently trying to install 8 years of updates from Microsoft.

My problem now is.....start up and operating system is running so sloooooowwwww that I don't know what is going on. I am afraid to load any other security until I get this problem solved.

Currently this is what I have:

Dell Dimension 4100
19GB
16.84GB free space (right now)

OS-XP Pro 2002 version Service Pak 1 with a few updates from MS already loaded.

Now....as I posted in another thread...apparently incorrectly....

FireFox Browser-Broadband connection.

Before the crash on FEB. 18- Commodo Firewall-Avast Anti Spyware- and I don't remember the Malware program system. It crashed when I ran the Avast scan for the first time.

After that-I reinstalled XP, got as far as loading SP2, switched to Sunbelt Firewall, AVG anti spyware, and MBAM malware program. While running the AVG scan...system crashed again.

Now...I am completely freaked out in loading anything which I know I need to keep this computer running safely.
But now I cannot figure out how to solve the obviously slow system which I view as insane because there is nothing on the hard drive.

I have been asking for help in panic mode- each time I tried to post something system would crash. Now....although it is more my speed...it is so slow that I cannot function.

Forgive me my panic attacks please and help me to figure out what in the world is going on here.

I do not like a upgrade on a OS. You should be able to install XP and since it is an upgrade CD, it will ask for the previous version. At this time you give it the 98 cd.

You probably have a lot of missing drivers and board chipset drivers.

Okay...that is exactly what happened. I was shocked to find that I didn't have to load the whole 98 version. It was confusing to me, but I did do exactly that. I thought that maybe that is why the system was running so slow...because I did not load the whole 98...when it asked...I put it in...the 2 seconds later it asked for the XP cd.

So I guess I did it right by default. But it takes roughly 20-30 minutes to restart the computer.....and the response time is in the 2 minute mark.

I am defragmenting the hard drive.....so far it has taken about 2 hours....and I am at only 35%.

I know I sound incredibly stupid....but I have not dealt with the mechanics of a computer since 2000. Back then I was rich so when it crashed...I just trashed it and bought a new one. Now I have been out of work for 5 months and had everything stolen...I was fortunate enough for someone to give me this computer.

Any advice as to why it is running so slow?

Drivers. Thank you for that clue.

Okay..so I went to the Dell site and for this computer they do not list XP as an operating system.

So I went to the Microsoft site....and I have no idea what I am looking for. Went through the xp driver lists....and nothing seems to apply.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Was 98 on this computer before? Probably.
Did this computer already have the upgrade to XP? If so, was it ok?

I suspect this upgrade to XP is the 1st time.

In that case, the computer will not run it effectively. The processor is probably way to slow and the ram (memory) is probably non-existant.
What is the processor speed? Go to start/ and right click on my computer. Choose properties.
How much ram. Ram is indicated in the same area.

Microsoft states the minimum requirements for XP are 300mhz processor and 128mb ram. We know from experiance that that is very low. You will still have issues.

I just worked on my brothers 4 year old Dell XP and the shop only put 256mb in and my brother wondered why it was slow. Add to that all the program update and, it was a dog.

For driver issues (if you have them missing), look in device manager. The easy way is start/ run. Type in devmgmt.msc and hit enter. Scroll down the list and look for ? and !

Thank you so much for your help----

Properties on my computer show-

Intel Pentium lll processor

747 MHz

384 MB of RAM

I have worked with device manager before-I checked it and there are no problems. No ? or !

This computer originally had....Windows NT installed when I got it. Since I had the Windows XP upgrade I installed it immediately. I have had this computer for about 2 years....it was a hand me down. It ran beautifully, never had any problems....until December '08 when I was hit with an insane virus/malware that basically took over the computer. I was never able to fix the problem using your site's help because I could not stay on long enough to get any answers.

At that point I reinstalled XP-on the same partition, apparently stupidly because I was in the hope category of perhaps being able to recover data. It worked fine, no problems, but I was told by a wizard on here that because of my ineptness I would be unable to recovery anything. They were right.

Then this last crash on Feb. 18-I was unable to get help before the system crashed again. I could not fix XP. I tried recovery console and everything else I could think of..no luck. I ended up reinstalling XP again....now it was acting funny, but it was fast. XP would freeze....but I could use the internet just fine. Then I shut it off to see if I could unfreeze XP...and got back into the cycle of crashing.

At that point I gave up. Since the space on my hard drive was severely limited, I could not reinstall XP again...so I did the only thing I could think of....I reformatted the hard drive. I reinstalled XP on this clean drive and although it seems to be just fine, the slowness is crazy. It does seem to make a lot of noise on start up or when I connect to the internet...As if it really has to think hard about performing any task.


I have thoroughly researched both the Dell and Microsoft sites. I don't see anything remotely close to what my issues are. I looked through both sites driver updates and really found nothing. I am still at Service Pak1 as far as installing as I tried to get to 2 and after 6 hours it stalled.


Thank you again for your help!

Quick update. I was getting nervous roaming around the internet with just the Windows firewall as protection. I did install SpywareBlaster and Sunbelt firewall. Prior to that I did run the ATF cleaner.

I had to restart the computer to finish up the install for Sunbelt. 34 minutes it took for my computer to come back online. And as I was trying to finish up the Sunbelt install-it quit and switched over to uninstall???????? I cannot seem to get Sunbelt going....even though it shows as installed on both start up menu and installed programs.

You know what????

Never mind to any of this. Thank you all for your help...but I am so stressed out over all of this, and I hate being made out like I am some kind of swindler because I have 2 posts going. From being blocked from posting before you even asked or answered any questions....to the insults, I am done.

I would hope that next time you do not judge someone before you automatically decide to not help.