trying to fix my grandfathers computer need help

my grandpa has a laptop that is giving him trouble i had it running perfectly but being an ibm employee in like 1990's or earlier he thinks he knows modern computers so he messed with it now its when i start it up for him it takes for ever to let me click an account to log into and then takes almost 5 minutes to load the account fully after fully loading it laggs uncontrolably to thew point where it is useless to try anything on and hes convinced it the software so i need to know is there anything i can do to try fixing this

 

My first step is to try a system restore:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/System-Restore-frequently-asked-questions

 

Good idea. It shouldn't hurt anything to do... and without knowing exactly what he did to it, it would be hard to diagnose and fix.

 

Manufacturer and Model number would help a lot to tell us the system specifications-- (usually on a tag on the bottom of the unit). Also what Operating System is he using?

 

well id have to look at the thing for hardware specs but its running xp pro sp3 i think or sp2 i cant remember which

 

g'day red death68
the first thing i generally do is run the error check function to see if that helps .if not i then look in to other solutions.

 

ok ty for all the suggestions guys ill have to check these next time im at his house to fix it