Slowness?

I'm not really sure how to describe this other than the computer is responding really slow to everything all of a sudden. Even the simplest tasks such as launching internet explorer or opening a folder seem to use all the processing power the computer has, and takes much longer than it should. I ran a virus scan that because of the my problem took longer than 12 hours to complete, and 0 infected files were found. The problem started yesterday morning, the computer froze during a game and I was forced to manually shut it down and reboot, and it hasn't been running like normal since. I've rebooted several times, and it still runs very very slow. I'll list my information as I know it below. If anyone could help or point me in the direction of someone who could I'd very much appreciate it.

Computer: Compaq Presario 3000 (Notebook)
Processor: Pentium 4 2.80Ghz
448mb RAM
Running Windows XP (Home Edition I believe)
I also have SP2 but it's been installed 7-9 days now and I didn't have this problem until the computer locked up yesterday.
Anything else you need to know just ask me. Thanks.

 

Did you update your virus definitons before running the scan? Be sure they are updated.

Also, you can check to see whats eating up all the processor power. Alt-Ctrl-Delete to bring up the task manager window. Then click the "processes" tab. Look at all the entries under CPU and find the ones that have a value greater than zero, write them down. Next, try opening a program or something that opens slowly. Then write down the entries that have a high CPU value.

Post these high CPU processes here and we can look into it.

 

I think it's better now. Before I went to class I shut down the computer and took out the battery to make sure it was powered all the way down. After about 2 hours of classes I came back and booted it back up, and it is running fine now. I don't think my processor was running at full capacity for the past 24-30 hours. When I right clicked "My Computer" and read the information and it read
"Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80 Ghz
521Mhz, 448MB of RAM"

and now it's reading

"Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80
Ghz 2.80Ghz, 448MB of RAM"

So I think I'm all set, but if you would still like answers to your questions: The Virus definitions are updated
The programs eating up the CPU were whatever program I was actually using, EXAMPLE: If I was running Internet Explorer it was using more than 50 and the taskmanager was using the rest of the memory. Thanks for the reply, sorry it if I wasted your time at all.

 

Its all good. Im glad its working now.