Asus Hi-grade Ultinote AS8400 / L8400C-e problems

hey there,

I have an Asus Hi-Grade Ultinote AS8400/L8400C-e laptop.

Its stats are as follows:

P3 1Ghz
192Mb RAM
Windows ME
external Logitech mouse
PCI internal modem and combined audio

I am having a lot of problems with the system, mainly temporary lock ups and total freezes that lead to me having to shut down the system. I thought that the problem could be resolved by formatting the hard-drive and reinstalling windows - but the problem remains. I am also getting very bad internet (using AOL 9) performance - im having to write this very quickly as im worried the PC will lock up or internet explorer will crash.

Can anyone help me out here?

Ive noticed that the performance of the PC is slow too, and it gets quite hot too which isn’t good. After a reboot when the PC has crashed, I have noticed that the IDE devices are sometimes not detected, or it takes a very long time for them to get detected. Could it be a heat problem? Or does it look like this could be a hard disk or even a mobo error.

Regards Jonathan