Hi everyone – I hope that this does not make everyone as nuts as it is making me; however, I really am uncertain as to whether I am dealing with a software (OS) or hardware problem. Briefly, these are the issues I am encountering: very slow and often very unstable operation regardless of which application I am using; USB ports fail and then just start working without any intervention; ditto for the DVD/CD drives; system locks up and must be unplugged in order to reboot – Ctrl/Alt/Del does nothing, the system only beeps when this happens; attempts to launch and use more than one application – regardless of ap – at a time results in extremely slow operation and system freeze; error messages regarding lack of memory occur when I attempt to launch any second software while running Photoshop or MS Word.
System specs: Dell XPS 400; 3.2 GHz; 4 GB RAM; OS=Windows XP Pro –Service Pac 2;
Software loaded: MS Office Pro; Adobe Photoshop CS3; Adobe Bridge; No games other than those included with Win XP
Antivirus/Firewall: Norton Internet Security with Virus Protection and Anti-Spam; Spy and Ad Bot; Qurb Anti Spam. I perform regular (twice weekly) updates of all this software.
I have attempted the following in my effort to solve these issues: defragmented the hard drive; Ran Dell Diagnostics from the DOS Setup menu – this did not identify any issues. Uninstalled and then reinstalled the OS and application software. None of these actions made a difference in the system performance.
I will very much appreciate any feedback and/or advice that anyone can offer. This is driving me crazy since I really need my computer for my work as a writer/photographer. I am NOT a computer expert, so, please, understand if I seem a little dense about some things! Thank you.
Oh - I'm posting this to both the software and hardware forums. I hope that this is alright.