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It sounds to me like it may be System Restore doing its thing. If you have it enabled, right click on "My Computer," select "Properties," click on the "System Restore" tab, then check "Turn off System Restore."
I don't know why your hard drive is underperforming. I would recommend ensuring that it is plugged into an ATA133 IDE connector, but since it is only ATA100, I doubt very much that it would make a difference. The motherboard (along with, to a lesser extent, the power supply) is the foundation of any system, and without a strong foundation, the whole system crumbles. Thus, the motherboard is the last component that I will skimp on when building a new system. In other words, you may want to think about getting a new one (I recommend Gigabyte, which is essentially the king of motherboards manufacturers right now; they have the best for both AMD and Intel).
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Yes, System restore. I always forget about checking that since it is one of the first things I turn off when I set up XP on my system. Good call.
Also make sure device manager has both IDE controlers set to "DMA if available" otherwise it will be stuck in PIO mode.
I'm sure you run windows update regularly but I would go run it again to do its scan to see if it finds anything that will help, look in the optional components section of windows update after the scan too, you may find something you want in there.
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Thanks!
System restore WAS on. I didn't know to turn that off. I just disabled it. Hopefully that will resolve the problem. It is an intermittent thing, and I have never found a pattern to it.
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I check Windows update regularly. I have everything installed except the .Net framework(thanks for security holes, Microsoft!) , Messenger 4.7 (blech!), and the Euro conversion patch. (Euros? We don' need no stinkin' Euros!)
I did not realize that 20 processes was a low number. Is that good?
Thanks,
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About those wireless mice:
They do or at least some of them take a nap during inactivity to conserve battery power. There will be a pause before the cursor will move again. The Microsoft wireless eats batteries so I have six NiMH on duty; two in the mouse and four charged and ready to go. When they die, it's instant with no warning. I won't buy another wireless. The mouse has farther to fall or fly when my wrist over-reacts like a kneejerk. Mice need to be kept on a short leash.
About motherboards:
Considering that the following site has done few tests lately including the Intel 865's and others with the 800Mhz FSB but....
Gigabyte is still the king on the Intel side HERE.
This one is still in the box and I can't give my opinion yet. Availability is good with the second version. There were some bios quirks with the first version. The price has dropped well under $200 at some locations. It's dual everything and I wonder about the necessity of some of it but dual bios and dual channeling the DDR memory is ok. The rumor at Tom's Hardware indicates the next version of the Intel E7205 chipset will quad channel the memory. Maybe RDRAM can be buried once and for all.