Laptop acting funny...

My laptop is acting very funny. i thought is maybe a hard drive going bad so i changed the hard drive and did a fresh install of Windows XP. The problem has not gone away which makes me think this maybe terminal.

The computer runs fine and then all of a sudden will essentially stop responding for a min or so and then it carries onward doing whatever it was supposed to do. It is very annoying and makes the system run super slow.

It is a Sony Vaio, Pentium M 1.73Ghz, w. 1Gig RAM and a 80G/5400rpm Hard Drive. All these specs should have me a decent running laptop, however I don't.

I have installed Speedswitch to force the CPU to run maximum speed when onn AC power and it run Battery optimized when on battery.


Anybody have any suggestions for the unit? Would there be an issue with the CPU? Or is it a terminal problem by this I mean a motherboard issue.

 

What I'd try first crt,alt,delete to bring up task manager and leave it open,use the laptop for surfing ect.but have taskmanager in view at all times i.e browse using only half of the screen.

With any luck during the freeze a process's CPU usage will jump higher,also plug a mouse in to rule out the touchpad.

 

Thanks for the suggestion Rikky about the task manager I will try that. The other one about the touchpad isn't happening as when the computer is somewhat frozen the mouse cursor will still move.

 

Maybe try swapping out the RAM, or at least run a diagnostic on the memory. I like this memory test: http://www.majorgeeks.com/Microsoft_Windows_Memory_Diagnostic_d3955.html It creates a bootable floppy or .ISO image to burn to CD for a bootable disc. Boot to it and press T for the extended tests. Let it run at least 3 or 4 passes. The problem could also be the on board drive controller, in which case, a new motherboard may be the only fix. In this scenario, hopefully you have a good warranty