Computer running slow

Hi,

I'm using a HP Pavillion that is about 6 years old.
Windows ME
Intel Pentium IIIE, 858 MHz
128 MB (PC100 SDRAM)
28609 MB partition (16054 MB free)


A few weeks ago I noticed that when I was playing Space Invaders it started running choppy.

I play a few games but they are simple and don't require a lot of memory. They're 70s arcade games; centipede, pacman, space invaders, etc.

I downloaded a couple of them awhile ago and the rest are on a disk.

Also, I've been having problems with java games running slow. Again, these are simple games; solitaire, breakout, things like that.

Now the cursor is starting to get hung up sometimes. When I move it it moves and stops and then moves again.

The yellow light under the green light on the tower has been flickering sometimes too.

I had this problem a long time ago but don't remember how I fixed it. Like I said, it started again a few weeks ago. It's like something is running in the background. I'm not sure. I hope I'm explaining it adequately.

I have a cable modem. I always use a firewall, I've ran scan disk, defragmented, ran 2 different virus scanners, ran adaware.

I downloaded Mozilla Firefox a few weeks ago. I was having problems with Opera. I downloaded Opera 9 about a month ago. I re-installed Opera 8 and was having problems with java so I re-installed Opera 9 and deleted Firefox.

I don't think I've downloaded anything else recently.

One of the virus scanners found 2 trojans and it deleted them, but they might have caused some damage and I don't know how or where to check.

Also, for the past few weeks the computer likes to reboot whenever it feels like it. I'm not doing anything in particular when this happens. It happens about once every 2-3 days. I can be surfing, clicking on a program, pretty much anything. It just reboots without warning.

That's all I can think of for now. I can post a hijack log if anyone needs it.

Thanks for any advice..
Greg

 

I recommend that you follow the instructions that apply to your machine. This covers most software tweaks so if you are not satisfied after, consider a hardware upgrade, or at least following the instructions in the Overclocking Guide