Well I've been having a problem with windows opening slowly, and programs taking for ever to load. I have Windows Task Manager open and it sometimes I'll be opening an internet window and it will take my full processor power to do it. Even now as im typing it spikes to full load and back down to 50%. The only programs I'm running are Avant Browser with three tabs open, Outlook Today, Outlook Express, Winamp 5, and Trillian. This is nothing I used to be able to run 5-6 tabs in Avant browser, WinAmp, Photoshop, and all and it would bog down a little but not like it is now. I guess I'm wondering why is it doing this? What is wrong with my computer?

Spec's:
AMD 1800+@2Ghz (10x200)
768 MB DDR 333 (oc from pc2100)
GeForce 2 MX400 64MB
rest are in my sig

control alt delet......Processes
you can see what is useing your resources.

Also run msconfig and see which programs are starting when your computer starts.

whens the last time you ran Ad-aware?

all those suggestions plus do you have Norton System Works installed? That tends to slow startup as well as opposed to just Norton AV.

indexing service?

Before you do anything else, CTRL+ALT+DEL and find out which process is using your CPU resources.

Well this isnt when my computer is starting up. That happens just fine, its when im running that it slows down. Scape I'll try running spy-bot, havent in awhile. Just finished defragging and still having problems, also ran a virus search to see if there where any viri slowing me down, but nothing.

Godfoot: I dont have Norton System Works, though I do have Norton Anti Virus.

cool, because I was gonna say that other than AV, there are better products out there than the rest of System Works that use fewer resources. At least for my current rig.

Well I think I had a combonation of problems. First thing I did was run spy-bot and it found a few things about 70 or so. Second I found that Avant browser was quite the little system resource whore. It was constantly using 30-50% of my CPU process. So I unistalled that and with spy-bot im operating close to normal again. It still slows down but that is only under heavy load. So thanks for the input guys.

If you want a fast browser, I too have uninstalled Avant Browser and am using Mozilla Firebird now.
It is even faster than Avant browser was and also has more customization options with themes and extensions.

See I left Mosilla becuase the plugins where not working for some reason. I downloaded the flash plugin but it didnt work. So I got tired of opening up iexplorer to see a flash movie or view a flash site properly.

Flash plugin works for me - when you were installing it did you click OTHER at the bottom of the screen and install it in the PLUGINS folder under MOZILLA???

Ok im back on Mozilla Firebird and i got the flash plugin to work finally. Just requires effort on my part.

The newest version of Avant is not a system hog at all.... I opened all the bookmarks in one of my folders (24) + this tab and the CPU moved to 02 for about 2-3 seconds and the memory went up 300k.