Slow PC - Help!

[challam]

I have an 18 month old Pentium 4 PC (2.4 Intel, 256mb DDR, 40GB hard drive) and it has a tendancy to run slowly, particularly on start up (at least 5-7 minutes before i can access any programs after switching it on). It also periodically freezes/does not respond when a couple of programs are open at the same time. I have used the 'free up space on hard drive' icon on the XP control panel and i have also 'defragged' it, but this doesn't seem to remedy it. According to the 'C' drive properties, i have 31.7GB of free space. I have Norton anti virus & the checks reveal that there is nothing untoward on the system. Any ideas or help would be very much appreciated.

[cupra]

Have you done a search for spyware/trojans etc.? Download Adaware, Spybot etc... and remove anything dodgy looking!

[shiznit]

Best advice????, buy an Apple Mac. Sorry it's short and sweet, but it is the best thing to do.

[Tweed]

A friend of mine had a similar problem, and it turned out to be the hard drive (Maxtor). After a format and a low-level format, didn't resolve the problem. I went to Maxtor's website, and downloaded a drive diagnostics utility which failed the drive. A new drive solved the problem.

[peanut]

first off, go to start, run, type msconfig, then click the startup tab. pay attention to the programs that are checked then uncheck them all and click ok. The computer will restart. check the box that pops up for the system configuration utility. see if that helps you. If it does help, go back to the msconfig and startup and check the boxes you need ( these will be programs you want to run at startup) such as your internet security programs and antivirus and maybe weather. if you find a program that wont work properly go back and check that box too. the boxes for norton are urlstck, sndmon, ccregvfy, ccapp. The problem with programs freezing up may be the fault of the program its self if it freezes on the same program every time.