Computer sluggish after couple of hours

My computer has begun to run quite sluggishly after 3 or 4 hours of use. I've noticed my system resources are sometimes as low as 35%. I'm running ME with 256 MB Ram, 1.2 Mhz processor, 30 Gig Harddrive. I daily clean out my Temp folders in Windows (both Temp and Internet Temp) and don't store cookies. I use AdAware every couple of days to clean up any garbage my kids might have picked up in their webserving. I check my msconfig every week or so to be sure nothing is booting up that isn't necessary. The only thing running is Scan Registry, System Tray,Mcafee,Zone Alarm and my Corel Diary. I run scandisk and defrag every week to clean up my system. As far as the programs I am running, I regularly use Lotus Approach and usually have a couple of those DB's open at the same time. I also usually have some Excel or Word documents open and of course always my Outlook Express. This sluggish problem is fairly new - within the last couple of months. It can take sometimes 30 seconds to open Approach or even Word and then the cursor is flashy for about 10 seconds before I can start using it. Is there anything else I can do to speed up my computer or am I going to have to upgrade ? Thanks so much for any help or advice you can give me.

 

Hi cone
Dont mind me if you already know all this
You might post a log from hijackthis,, it has within it a separate
startup list that can be made but thats not necessary,
anyway the normal log will show us startups to.. link is in my signature,,
Heres a scrap Ive copied mostly about resources,,
It describes of course limiting things that start with windows
but goes into quit a bit more detail, namely
things like word ,office products/ Lotus are best minimized if your going to use them again later , and how and why program's leak resources, necessitating a restart several times a day.

Even with everything trimmed and fallowing recommendations we still usually have to restart several times a day,, on win 9x, me

Here's some homework on system resources.
Resource Leaks, Part One
Crashes can sometimes be traced to sloppy programs that "leak" memory.
http://www.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/11.htm
Resource Leaks, Part Two
Fred tests a dozen memory optimizers and finds some surprises.
http://www.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/12.htm
Resource Leaks, Part Three
Five Steps That May Plug Your Leaks, Once And For All.
http://www.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/13.htm

Lonny

 

Thanks so much. I've done some searching myself on the web and with everything I've read I guess I'm beginning to realize that ME is not the most shining example of windows OSs. I might have to bite the bullet and move up to XP. In the meantime, I really appreciate all the info and advice !

 

>> programs leak resources

I improved '98 and 'ME stability using run-in-background memory managers. For my laptop (Win98, 96MB) I have been using MemTraxIII for a couple of years. For My desktop (WinME, 384MB), I use RamBooster since last year (the other one kept crashing).

There are several free programs available that do a decent job containing memory waste. In my experience, it's true that some cause problems if left on, but I do have a reasonably positive experienced with the two above, one for very little memoory, the other for a slightly beefier system.