Slow computer; I set up for my granddaughter.

[screenplaywriter]

Hello

I have an
Intel Celeron 902MHZ with Windows XP Vers. 2002 Service Pack 2 and 304 MB Ram
Anti-Virus ESET NOD 32

I had an older computer that I had updated a year and a half ago. The computer worked fine after it came back from the tech.  I only used it for Internet purposes. I later disconnected the computer and it sat packed up for a year.

My grandaughter needed a computer for schoolwork and browsing, facebook etc., so I set it up and connected the internet.

The problem is the computer seems to be running to many processes. I checked under task manager and found , when idle it shows anywhere from 17% to 29% usage. If I move the mouse it jumps from 35% yo 100%. I'm assuming this is why the internet pages are slow to load.

I've checked the internet connection, speed and made sure no files were hanging around. I have run a defrag and done a checkdisk.

It loads programs quickly and seems to handle most functions efficiently, however I don't know how to get rid of this usage issue. Nothing was added as it sat for a year. I know it should have more RAM but it ran a year ago without problems and I thought it would be sufficient for her to use as a first computer.

Can anybody help?

[Allan]

1) I suggest you scan the system with both your anti virus app AND with MalwareBytes
2) Which specific process is spiking?

[patio]

Intel Celeron 902MHZ with Windows XP Vers. 2002 Service Pack 2 and 304 MB Ram

Have you considered adding more RAM ? ?

[Linux711]

You definitely need to add more RAM. I think from the age of the system, the max is probably 512MB, but you should add at least that much. Firefox uses about three hundred MB just to browse the net and so it is probably consuming all the RAM and lagging because of the pagefile.

[screenplaywriter]

Thank you for your interest, all.

Allan;
I ran both system checks you requested and they came up clean. The processes that are spiking, are as follows.
egui.exe
explorer.exe
taskmgr.exe
ekrn.exe
RTWlan.exe
SYSTEM
Services.exe

Patio;
I agree, I should. Why would it have changed over one year? As I said the computer wasn't a rocket bu for internet navigation it was fine.

Linux711;
Same thing. I agree, but as I asked Patio, why would it not work as before? Being it was only a year ago. I know because I'm looking at the receipt from the tech. Strange.

[jason2074]

Could you be more specific as to where or what tasks is slow or slowing down your PC aside from the processes? While adding memory would help out your system, have you tried shifting to another free protection/antivirus software also?

[Allan]

Do you have the latest version of ESET installed? If not, I'd start by upgrading it since two or the process that are spiking belong to Eset. Also, check to see if Eset is set to run full scans in the background on a regular basis. If it is, you can disable that and have it scan only on demand.

[screenplaywriter]

Hello

Jason2074;
I haven't tried a different anti- virus. Can you recommend one? The only real slow down I see is in internet explorer. As far as running normal software, I am able to open multible programs including Microsoft Office, and their is no lag.

Allan;
I thought I had the latest version, but I am going to check that now. I will go ahead and turn off the auto background scan. Let y6ou know soon.

Thanks everybody.

[patio]

IE slowdown may be the connection...run SpeedTest...

[kyle_engineer]

I would side with Allen and say turn auto scan off if it's on. I know that on this old piece (933MHz CPU with 388-ish RAM) leaving avast on all the time slows things a lot (although avast tends to be a bit of a RAM hog). I also find IE to be pretty slow personally, I'm not sure why, but it's always slower for me... Generally I stick to Firefox and it works well for me.

So I'd definitely figure out slimming down your anti-virus software and getting more RAM for sure. I'm sure the RAM's super cheap probably. Beyond that... idk, get a new machine.

[jason2074]

The only real slow down I see is in internet explorer.

How slow? Opening and loading pages and other websites being accessed? You could start by clearing first your cache or temp files.
Download Ccleaner http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download/standard
Install then run the program. If you wanna keep previously or frequent sites on browsers, uncheck History. Click Analyze and Run Cleaner.
Another way also is to run IE without addons here -> Troubleshooting and Internet Explorer’s (No Add-ons)  Mode
Reset Internet Explorer is option to take when your having a slow browsing experience. While on IE, click on Tools, Internet options,
Advanced tab and click Reset... hit Apply. You could also use another browser like Google Chrome http://www.google.com/chrome?hl=en