[Milkyway665544]

I own a rather old PC with Win98 installed. Yet it runs fine enough.
But when I leave it alone for awhile (more than say 30 minutes, for example when downloading somerthing), and then try to work on it again, everything slows down to a crawl. When I click something, it takes ages to load. If I try for several minutes, sometimes it gets a little bit better. And sometimes it gets worse to a point where anything won't go anymore. The harddrive light still flashes from time to time but nothing happens.
I played around a bit with the power management options to see if the PC goes in some kind of energy saving mode. But without success.
What is the problem? And can I do something about it? Please help!

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I'd start by thoroughly dusting off the CPU cooler surfaces. Heat from dust buildup can cause a machine to slow down and act funny. If that doesn't do it, then go for the software.

[Tyger]

I'd start by thoroughly dusting off the CPU cooler surfaces. Heat from dust buildup can cause a machine to slow down and act funny. If that doesn't do it, then go for the software.

[dsenette]

also try this : http://www.memtest86.com/

[dagger]

Hi Milkyway,

Maybe you need to run a diskcleanup and defragment. Run scan disk in safe mode and then defrag. Since the HD lights are on, its possible that its trying to read fragmented files and thats slowing down your applications as well. Also run updated scans for nasties.
check this out
http://www3.telus.ne...mar/slowcom.htm

[Milkyway665544]

the defrag did it!
took all night, but now it's much better.
thank you guys!