Everything on my computer is sooooo slowwww

[aces67]

I mean you can't do anything on my computer without waiting forever. The internet is slow and so are all the applications and games on the computer.

It's a 3 year old Compaq with a 2.80 GHz processor with 256 MB ram and it has 61.38 MB ram free.
It has Windows XP.
What's the problem?? I've ran Norton Antivirus and Ewido neither found any viruses or that sort of thing. Dh wants me to put in the shop but I don't think it's worth it. You can buy another PC just like it for $398.00. I don't see the point in sinking money into for a professional.

What could be causing this??

Thanks

[soybean]

Did that computer come with CDs containing the original software, including Windows, that was installed on the computer?  Have you ever formatted, i.e. erased, the hard drive and done a fresh installation of the original software, including Windows?

Do you have any spyware removal tools installed, and are you using them?  Was the slowness a gradually worsening problem or did it happen rather sudden?  If a sudden change, what happened just before the slowdown?  

Where are you getting the "61.38 MB ram free" info?  You mentioned games.  What games are you talking about?  

Do you ever run Disk Cleanup?  Do you ever defragment the hard drive?

[aces67]

My husband reformatted it about a month ago b/c at that time it kept locking up on me. This has been a gradual problem. I've run Spybot and Adaware they found nothing. I also ran Norton Anti virus, Ewido and Microsoft Malicious software tool.. they all found nothing.

The 61.38 MB RAm that is free is coming from the system information.
My husband did disk defragment and clean up after he reformatted.

[GX1_Man]

Only 256 RAM and Norton is a bad combo, especially with all of the standard XP eye candy and unneeded services.

I suspect it has always been slower than it needs to be. Adding another 256 RAM and ditching Norton would be where I would start. Removal instructions are on the Symantec site. You can't just do it with Add and Remove Programs.  

[soybean]

Here's a test you might try; it relates to the "eye candy" GX1_Man mentioned.  Right on My Computer and select Properties.  Select the Advanced tab, click on the Settings button under Performance, click on the circle for "Adjust for best performance" and then click on Apply and OK.  You should notice a difference in performance.

[HDL_CinC_Dragon]

well the first thing i recommend is that you get at the very least an additional 256 megs of RAM and depending on what games your talking about you might just want to shoot for a gig.... another option to look at is possible adware, spyware, malware in general. Goto download.com and search for "ad aware". Its a great program and gets rid of adware quite nicely. The next program to get would be SpyBot search and destroy. also a great program for that kind of stuff. Also try defragmenting your hard drive. I know you said you said you already ran Norton but thats mainly for viruses not adware and spyware. Give thsoe programs a try and see if that helps at all...