About a month ago I downloaded and installed (no CD) MS XP-Pro’s Service Pack 2. Ever since I have had almost endless problems and am currently about to toss my SYSTEM out the window! If anyone can help I will be very grateful.

Problems: System is extremely slow – slow –slow: all applications, all situations and apparently not connected with any consistent pattern. It can take between 3-5 minutes to launch MS Word or most other programs.

System hangs at various intervals, again with no apparent pattern

Keyboard stops working and then starts working again without my doing anything other than hitting some keys – sometimes this can take up to 3 minutes before any response

I can TYPE faster than system can keep up and I do not type that fast!

System takes forever – upwards of 7-10 minutes to shut down – again, without regard to what is open at time or whether I close apps prior to attempting to shut down.

System Specs: Dell Dimension 8200; Pentium 4 -512MB RAM; OS: Windows XP – Pro with Service Pack 2; Software installed: Norton Internet Security (run active and updated 2x week);  Photoshop CS2; MS Office Pro; Coral Print Office; no added games. 2 external hard drives; 2 printers (only one kept active and connected); Scanner and Broadband (Cable) Modem.  

I have taken the following STEPS without success: I run adware detector in background and an active scan 1/day; Everest Home indicates that I have 1758MB of virtual MEMORY with only 33% in use – however, I keep getting “out of memory” messages – without a pattern to when they crop up; Prior to installing the service pack I had reformatted by hard drive and had prepared for installation as told by Microsoft techs.

I have been told so many conflicting things from so many people at Microsoft, Dell and other sites: I need more RAM – I have enough RAM (that is one person says I need RAM and another says no); I need to allocate more virtual memory – I did and it made no difference; I need to reformat and reinstall all software – I did this prior to the installation and it has made no difference, I am reluctant to do this again because of the time involved and not knowing if it will help. So, any good advice will be very welcome! Thank you.


So did you remove service pack 2 and is now on service pack 1 or are you still using service pack 2? There are many people who ahve trouble if they download and run service pack 2, from what I hear service pack 2 that came with XP the newer ones, no one seems to have problems... I suggest keep service pack1 unless you reall need service pack2. Service pack 2 only gives you a firewall, and some extra security thingyI have had the "fear of God" as it were drilled into me by the folks at Microsoft about the "crucial need" to keep Service Pack 2 that I have not removed it, but I have been sorely tempted. I suppose the worst that could happen is that removing it makes no difference. Does anyone know if this is really as crucial as MS says?WinXP-SP2 is not the problem.  I think it might be Norton Internet Security.  Uninstall it and see what happens.  BTW, P4-512MB RAM is more than enough for anything EXCEPT serious gaming.