slow desktop

[hazonline]

my desktop computer seems to be running extremely slow; starting up th pc is really slow and i was wondering if theres anything i could do about it such as formatting the pc and reinstalling windows? my computer is:

Compaq
Presario
AMD Sempron(tm) Processor
3100+
1.81 Ghz, 192 MB of RAM

is this processor supposed to be slow or is there something wrong with my desktop? at the moment there arent any system errors that make the conputer slow, it just takes a long time to start up.

[Whyzman]

Welcome tohttp://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif Forums!

Which operating system are you using? I would first suggest that you run an on-line scan at www.trendmicro.com (http://www.trendmicro.com) Following that you would want to run a program called AdAware (remove what it finds) and follow that with a program called Spybot Search & Destroy (fix what it finds). Then download HiJackThis and follow the directions to paste the scan details in this thread. Please do not attempt to fix anything HiJackThis finds until the gurus here can have a look and make recommendations...

www.lavasoft.com (http://www.lavasoft.com)
http://www.safer-networking.org/
http://downloads.subratam.org/hijackthis.zip

[yello]

Once you clean out the spyware infections, also clean the HDD with a disk cleanup and defragment to improve performance. If you have lots of temp files and stuff and the drive is cluttered, it can reduce file access time and cause slowdown. Are u running XP? Adding more RAM will help also limit the number of programs loading at boot. ( Wait for the HJT experts to help you clean ur spyware first)