Slow Computer, Fine Specs, newly formatted

[Anythingwill]

Ok, so here's my problem, it's a little like jinxjack's.
I recently got a shuttle computer from a friend who was getting rid of it, so i formatted the hard drive reinstalling windows and right off the bat it was really slow, it was rediculous.
In fact, a computer i have with lower specs and lots of programs on it is running faster.
The specs of the computer from my friend is shown exactly like this in system information

Intel(R)
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40 GHz
2.40 GHz, 736 MB of RAM
(and yes it did have 2.40 GHz twice if that's somehow significant)
It's XP Pro 2002 with SP2

My older computer that's running faster is
Intel Pentium III processor
602 MHz
128 MB of RAM
and it's XP Pro 2002 without SP2.

I also have another computer that's similar to my friends and of course it's running faster than my older one as my friends should.
Any ideas on what's going on and how to fix it??

[saint_hades]

Hi,
Did your friend have Limewire and does it(the computer) have a antivirus and spyware.
Because viruses can really mess up your computer and Limewire is a very know programme for giving out viruses(so nice of it).

[Anythingwill]

I actually don't know if it did, but i reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows, should that not have gotten rid of any viruses?
Right now it doesn't have any programs other than a few that are installed with windows.

[saint_hades]

As I know from experience (my family's computer had 32 viruses when we finally got a better antivirus), but even after scanning it and removing the viruses+ spywere, it still runs really slow.
If you have enough money maybe bye a new hard drive. Or even a new computer, the Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40 GHz, is old or is that just the Pentium D.

Or just ask your friend why there just giving it to you. If I was them I would sell it and get money.

[Anythingwill]

Well i'll try a different hard drive incase that's the problem, i've got an extra one, but i have to reinstall windows on it, so it'll be a while before i can post what happens.
I'll reinstall windows on the hard drive on a different (faster) computer, so if anyone has any other ideas in that time then post them and i'll try them as well.
My friend did give it to me because it wasn't working, and he upgraded to a better computer. When i took it apart, though, I found out it was just a faulty video card. So i just took it out and plugged the monitor into the built in video card. He had no need for the computer, and he sort of owed me anyways, so he just gave it to me.

[patio]

Did you re-install the MBoard drivers ? ?
What brand/size is this HDD ? ?
Have you ran MemTest on the RAM ? ?
Are all devices listed properly in Device Manager with no Yellow !'s ? ?

[Anythingwill]

Have you ever heard of an old cord making your computer run slowly, because the one that was in there was yellow, i replaced it with a different one, and now the computer seems to be running faster.
Is it just luck, or the problem fixed?

and thank you for the reminder patio, i made that exact same mistake of not re-installing drivers last time i did this, you may have even been the one to tell me last time too
it may not have been the computer problem, but it explains why i couldn't get internet on it again

[Anythingwill]

EDIT: No i was right the first time, I can't seem to find the drivers, it's a  Shuttle FS51 v2.
Could someone point me in the right direction. I'm obviously doing something wrong

[patio]

http://eu.shuttle.com/archive/en/ss51g_faq.htm

[Anythingwill]

Thank you again patio.
My last motherboard drivers download was all in one package, but it looks like this isn't, so i'm assuming i download
AGP driver for all operating systems (6118kB)
VGA SIS Driver v2.07 for Win2000/XP (17144kB)
LAN Driver for all operating systems (SS51G/FS51, 2585kB)
USB2.0 Driver for 2000/XP (7147kB)
Audio Driver Realtek/Avance Logic ALC650 Download Page
VGA AGP Driver for SiS651 Chipset

[Anythingwill]

Ok so my computer's better now, but it's still not perfect, as i've found out. For the normal running of windows it works fine, but it slows down once it starts actually doing anything. The MemTest says to leave it for 20 minutes, and i figured that meant it would be at 100% by that point, but after 7 hours it only got to 67%, it had no errors at that point, but i had to stop it so i could actually use the computer. My DVD drive isn't even fast wnough to play a CD well enough a DVD. When i was running microsoft office i was running other things as well, so that's not really a fair test, but that was slow as well, and that's all the programs i have on it right now.

I'm running MemTest again and letting it get to 100% this time to see if it picks up any errors, but any other ideas for the mean time?

[patio]

You ran MemTest long enough...it cycles back to the beginning and starts over by itself...if you had no errors reported in that time the memory is fine.

[Anythingwill]

Oh, Doesn't after it's gotten to 100 just keep going like 101%, 102%, ect.
I don't remember now, but i had run it again before your post, patio, and somehow i knew that it had completely gone through the RAM.
Anyways, yeah, 0 errors, so if it's not the RAM, then what's going on with it?

[patio]

The next step would be to test the HDD...
DLoad and run the free diagnostics from the drive manuf. site.

[Anythingwill]

Ok, did that, both the SMART test and the enhanced test came back as PASS...