User made the following reply via PM:
Thank you for your reply. I heard recently too that my system memory is insufficient, not even 512mb Embarrassed, i am pretty annoyed about this. I think they should let me trade it in for a better one and i will add the money to it. I also though about uninstalling vista and buying an xp disk but am not sure if it would be compatible with this system.
You asked if i backed up and reinstalled the backup after reformatting, no i dont back anything off my laptop up atall, as i have 2 external hardrives, one which is 320 gb, and also back up important stuff to dvds. When i have reformated i reinstall the programs that i use again, which is very few because i dont want to slow it down even more and also i barely have any vista ready applications, but hundreds of xp stuff which is annoying.
AS for the virus issue, i have used a few different ones including norton internet security, but since unistalled due to it slowing my system down further, also tried mcafee, kapersky, avg, and panda, and i check for updates for which ever i am using at any time on a daily basis and no viruses have ever been found but has been some spyware which has always been eradicated upon detection.
Thanks again for your input
(My reply follows now:)
I dont think that your speed reduction is caused Vista, but, as for Antivirus:
Make sure that avast! is the only Antivirus scanner on your computer. Once you have done that, go into avast (by finding it in the Start menu, or right clicking the avast icon in your system tray, and selecting "Start Avast Antivirus")
Once in Avast, Select Menu from the top left hand side, and select "Schedule Boot-time scan"
In "Areas to Scan" select All Local Disks, and select "Scan Archive Files"
Check Advanced options, and change the first action to "Move Infected Files to Chest"
On the second default action (for system files) select Ignore or move for System files.
Select Schedule, and allow Avast to restart your computer. This scan may take a while (Ill take a guess at 1-3 hours)
Why do I recommend this?
It is possible that, through your external drives, you might have contracted a virus.