I am checking out a Pentium 3 laptop that is running Windows XP Home after a clean build. It is 800 Mhz and 256MB Ram, and 20GB HD. The odd issue is that it boots up fine without any error messages and is quick to get to desktop. But when launching applications at times it does not respond to the applications you double clicked to LAUNCH. You can start taskmgr and watch the CPU single core activity that rests around 3% activity at idle and when you double click the application you see a surge in activity for about 3 seconds and then back to 3% idle and applications dont launch. Applications that are a part of the normal windows clean build such as Internet Explorer etc sometimes launch and sometimes do this strange bahavior. I am thinking its a hardware issue, but I ran Memtest86 on this and it passes after quite a length of time for the Pentium3 to go through all the tests. Any suggestions on where to look next or other test utilities to run to figure out what is the culprit of this odd behavior. Most people would probably just junk this old Pentium3 laptop, but it bugs me that I havent been able to determine the exact cause even if the cause is a main board issue which I am unsure of. If a main board issue I would expect the failure results to be more catastrophic. I also look in the event log and its clean no error messages, so windows doesnt even know that its misbehaving. I also checked into the CPU temp and its running normal warm temp of about 100 degrees F as for these old P3's were known to run warm idle and this does run as quite the lapwarmer even with all fans running when applications take. That is what is also odd is that sometimes IE will launch and run without any problems and other times no response, yet in taskmgr you can see it recognised the mouse click and was attempting to start, but never successfully launched and never errored out and never posted an error to event log. Also tried a usb mouse instead of the touchpad etc that is integrated to laptop and same results with external USB mouse.

If there was a utility that can baby sit the applications to watch how they launch, maybe this error can be detected, but I dont know of any such apps? I really expected the RAM to be the culprit, but it passed Memtest86 which is very thorough.What's a "Clean build"? would that be a Clean Install?As a test try highlighting the icon & pushing 'enter' on the keyboard, perhaps your double clicking finger isn't up to par.
XP has adjustments for this in the control panel>mouse.Clean Build is clean install direct from OEM XP CD. And yes my clicks are quick..lolI guess my question is does anyone know of any software that can run on this system to diagnose flakey hardware problems? I have already used Memtest86 and it passed 2 passes that took quite a while to run since the computer is not a speed demon P3. I am thinking that if there was a utility that exercised and monitored sections of the system, maybe it would be able to pin point it. I ran passmark benchmark utility on it and the only feature that couldnt run was the video because the GPU is an old S3 chipset that doesnt support 3D rendering etc. It ran the benchmark with no signs of issues. Also to note, since the original post, I completely formatted the hard drive and reinstalled a clean installation all over again, just to rule out software related issues. The XP CD is clean and not scratched as well, so I know there is no corruption software wise and its hardware related.If you installed all the Windows Updates & an anti-virus, it will, indeed, run a lot slower. My Pentium II-333 w/540MB runs far slower now than it did 7-8 years ago when it had 256MB. I can only attribute it to all the Services/Processes that are running.Finally found problem. Cracked it open and looked around and " Corrosion on motherboard". It appears that this system took a swim at some point in its past or got wet somehow on its UNDERSIDE. I am going to remove the white oxodized lead between leads and see if it behaves after that. Amazed that it worked at all!!! The oxodized lead probably acted like a bunch of 50k resistors bridging signals on address lines etc. Time to use a tooth BRUSH to clean off oxides and throw the lead infested toothbrush away.That's a good find Dave have you proved it to be the problem?Quote from: Fed on January 11, 2011, 09:41:35 PM

That's a good find Dave have you proved it to be the problem?

...You would think that it would pull a signal up or down, or always cross talk between address and data lines etc...