Windows XP hangs when opening programs.

This thing runs great for its age and hardware its running a P4 1.7ghz 512mb of (Intels mistake ram) Well this PC runs great but when you try to opening things like if you right click on my computer and select Properties it don't open right away you can open "my computer and it opens right away and you can open other things and it opens them fine then like 5mins later the Properties window opens up and its like that for other things also. It had no anti virus so i removed afew viruses and have it clean but it is still having this problem. any clue? BTW the mistake ram is the failure that intel made to try and make faster ram then what was out at the time.

P4 1.7ghz
Intel mother board
4x 128MB pc800
windows XP sp3

 

have ya tried opening task manager and watching what processes go 'nom nom nom' on your resources when you open a properties dialog?

 

Well i seem to have got it sorted out. turns out a virus slipped past my eye while i was looking around. Now its clean and running like new even tho i think its junk someone wants this thing running right lol. Now i have another problem. When i tell it to restart or shut down it hangs at the blue screen where it says "Saving settings" and it won't shut down or restart. I have to hold the power button or hit the reset for it to do anything

 

sounds like you may still have malware or and unfinished cleanup.

 

Thats what i thought but its clean and nothing unfinished. It just won't shut itself off or restart on its own.