 healthy notebook computer running slow Hi, I'm having issues with my laptop operating system running absurdly slow. I've had the laptop about two years, it's always been relatively slow, but lately it's been much slower--to the point where it's extremely difficult to use. One major change I've made lately is to install Kaspersky Internet Security which I know is much larger than my previous internet security software. I thought maybe this could be the problem but even after stopping the program (not uninstalling it), the computer ran slow.
Some info:
Operating System: XP home
Processor: AMD Turion
HD space: 95GB with 24% free space
MFT is 50% in use. It's in two fragments but I've run a couple of boot time defrags that haven't succeeded in eliminating the excess fragment. I don't know if this could be the issue?
CPU usage is around 10%--I'm honestly not sure what this means and if its good or bad.
PF usage is 354MB. Again, I found this on the taskbar and don't know what it means.
I have about 33 processes running in the background at rest. This seemed excessive to me but I'm not really sure if it is or not. I managed to identify all of the largest ones--Kaspersky, windows explorer, and a few others I think are related to windows. Not sure about the rest.
I've run multiple disk scans (no problems), my HD is defragmented (aside from the excess MFT fragment), I've done a boot time defrag, and Kaspersky assures me there are no viruses. I turn Kaspersky off and the computer still runs slow. I'm not sure what the problem is and I don't know enough about computers to do any diagnostics above and beyond those basic ones I just mentioned.
Anyone have an idea what else I might do to make my system run faster? Thanks for the help! | 
Login 
Windows NT/2000/XP 
