BleepingComputer.com: sluggish computer

I use a compaq presario 1670 laptop with windows 98. I also use comcast cable as my internet service which is supposed to be the "fastest" available in my area. It just seems to me that my computer is running slow and sluggish. I use AVG anti virus protection. Is there anything I can do to "speed" up my system?
Thanks

Can you be a little more specific about what you mean by slow and sluggish? Are you talking about your internet connexion, or how fast applications launch and work? Does your computer take a long time to boot?

Secondly, when was the last time you cleaned out your hard drive, then ran scandisk and defragged? What spyware applications do you run?

There can be many causes for sluggishness; by providing a little more information, perhaps we can determine what these are.

Regards,
John

Hey mar4,

You said you run AVG antivirus, hope you also run some thing against spyware!..if not its likely that ur system is infected. Some other basic things would be as John mentioned, if you havent cleaned out the junk in a while, ur running low on disk space, a badly fragmented drive which can cause general sluggishness as well as slow boot and shutdown. You can also see if there are too many items starting up...also insufficient memory.
Here are a couple of links you could check out
http://www.putergeek.com/scandisk_defrag/
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/slowcom.htm

After running scandisk and defrag you should clean your system with the following if you are not already using them.

Download & install CCleaner from here: http://www.ccleaner.com/
1. Run CCleaner using it's default setting's by clicking on "Run Cleaner".
2. A popup box will open advising the process will permanently delete files from your system.
3. Click "OK" and it will scan and clean your system.

Download & scan with Ad-Aware SE 1.06: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/
Setup & Configuration instructions: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/ind...showtutorial=48

Download & scan with Spybot S&D 1.4: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
Setup & Configuration instructions: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/using-spybot-to-remove-spyware/

After scanning run Spybot in Advanced Mode, click on Tools and scroll down to System Startup to see what programs are loading when Windows starts.

Many applications install themselves to run at startup but are not required for the program to work. Disabling them can save system resources and improve overall performance. If your not sure what they are or if they are required then search the Startup Database:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/

You also may want to run one or both of these online Virus scans:
Panda ActiveScan: http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan.htm
Trend Micro Housecall: http://housecall60.trendmicro.com/en/start_corp.asp?id=scan