Attempting to fix Mom's Computer

The computer I will be attempting to fix is running really slow it is an '02 Compaq Presario from Dell running Windows XP version 2002 service pack 3, Comcast is the service provider.

I downloaded Firefox, Avast, Mallwarebyte's AntiMalware it has no viruses or malware but before I went any further I got a Clickfree Auto backup 250gb - actual 232.7gb.

I used Clickfree on mine and my Mom's computer it took about 5 minutes for my computer and about 2 hours for Mom's. During the backup of my Mom's computer I got a message saying there was not enough resources to continue application.

When I checked the device this is what I found

Other-210.4mb
My computer-1.1gb
Mom's computer-17.7gb
Unused-213.7gb

For reference my Computer that I have had since 2005 has 385 files using 1,142.2mb

Mom's Computer that she got in 2002 has 54,297 files using 18,103.0mb the break down of files is

All Other 37,090 files 10,102.2mb
Artwork and Drawings 10,055 files 199.4mb
Music 1,810 files 5,986.4mb
Photos 2,904 files 948.2mb
Text Documents 2,023 files 36.5mb
Videos 176 files 783.4mb
E-mail 40 files 1.5mb
Spreadsheets 38 files 1.6mb
Presentations 13 files 7.7mb

I pretty much know what to do with everything except some Text Documents and All Other.

All Other contains files like .exe, .dll, .cab, .dat
The text documents have files from 1999

I guess I could grind it out and delete the files I don't need one by one but I would like to know if there are some programs that could do this for me.

While using the computer it will take a long time for applications to load when I check the task manager the CPU Usage is up to 100% and the computer freezes.

Edited by WFR, 12 September 2009 - 04:05 PM.

The computer I will be attempting to fix is running really slow it is an '02 Compaq Presario from Dell running Windows XP version 2002 service pack 3, Comcast is the service provider.

There are a lot of things that can cause the system to run slow. Since you didn't mention doing so:
Have you cleared the cache? Run a defrag?

When I see slow computer and the word Comcast, I think of one thing to ask.
Does your mom's system have ANY Comcast software/programs installed? (Desktop Doctor or the Comcast toolbar?) If she does, UNINSTALL it. The toolbar can be flaky-it's caused system slowness for many others who have installed it.

Another thing that comes to mind is something people rarely consider: security programs. There is no one size fits all when it comes to computer security. It's possible that her antivirus and/or firewall doesn't play nice with her system.
Suites are more prone to do this than stand alone programs. I installed McAfee on one of my computers several years ago-it slowed my system down to slower than a turtle pace.

Unfortunately, this is all I can think of but keep checking this topic and hopefully other people will respond.

Have you used msconfig to see what's running at startup?
Useful instructions here with screenshots

http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/msconfig_xp.html

Don't disable any entries you're not sure of ... ask here first.

Do you know how much ram you have total and how much is being used?