I've had this problem before and I found something fairly simple I think that sorted the problem. When I start up my computer it seems fine for a moment then when I go to open any program e.g. internet explorer the hourglass appears for about 2 seconds then the computer just does nothing as if it doesn't recognise I've pressed to open a program. To get round it I press ctrl alt del loads of times so it would open up loads of task managers this kind of "forces" the computer into action and there I have the Internet explorer open as I wanted in the first place which loads up along with task manager. I then close task managers and continue as normal. And before long the program I am using for example IE freezes and if I try to do anything else I'm back to square one where it's as if the computer does not recognise that Ive clicked to open something. It's as if the processor has a huge lag time and if I open loads of programs it kinda kicks it into action. This happened before but it has since come back because I wiped my computer the other week and obviously whatever I changed before I wiped it is now back to its orginal but just can't seem to remember what the hell I have to do, it's really annoying. Thanks for any help.

Hi and welcome to D-A-L

if you press Ctrl, Alt, Delete and bring up the task manager how many processes have you got running?

Sorry about the delay in replying. I have 26 processes running. Including this internet explorer I'm in now. My system should be able to cope with reasonable pressure anyway its 1.8ghz processor with 768mb ddr ram windows xp. thanks

Update your antivirus scanner, your spyware scanner(s) & make sure windows is up-to-date with patches, hot fixes etc.

Do a full system scan for both spyware and virus definitions.

I have slightly more r.a.m. than you have 69 processes running and don't ever seem to suffer from lagging.

I do however get the feeling your swap/page file might be incorretly set.

Usually can cause lags and hangs.

Could you advise me on what to set the page file at. If it helps as i said before I have 768mb ram, and I have an intel celeron 1.8ghz processor and windows xp home. With regards to windows updates etc I'm fully up to date, always am and I use avg for virus protection and I use adaware from lavasoft for spyware as well as spybot search and destroy

right click my computer from desktop, select adavanced tab, then to the right of performance click the settings tab, then click advanced tab, then at bottom it says Virtual memory, click change tab.

You will see a list of partitions on your hard disk displayed, you may have 1, usually c drive.

Click on it, then click system managed size, then ok, then apply and reboot.

Go back and check your system has a page/swap file, if not come back and we will make sure it's corrected.

If you wish to do it custom sized then initial size try 768 initial size and 1180 under maximum.