x200 - Windows XP - Very slow in normal day-to-day usage

[phillr]

Hello,

My manager got a brand new x200 laptop about 1.5 years ago. We put Windows XP on it. It has 1.5 GB of RAM.

Not alot of software is on it. Just Office 2003 (back then, recently upgraded to Office 2010). Our office uses Symantec Endpoint Protection.

Since the time of purchase, the laptop has been very sluggish. Opening Outlook (2003 and 2010) takes a few minutes. Opening folders in Windows Explorer has noticeable lag time. Even right-clicking the Start Menu takes almost a minute before the sub-menu appears.

Any ideas why? Thanks for any advice or help!

[someotherguy]

The #1 cause for slow performance on PCs (in my experience) is anti-virus software, endpoint protection software, and encryption software.  As an experiment, try uninstalling these things and see if performance improves.  You can re-install them again later after your experiment is over.

other things to try:

1.  run chkdsk

2.  run defrag

3.  run HDD diagnostics to see if you have a failing HDD

[ColonelONeill]

Also give CCleaner a go before defragging. Maybe it's accumulated a lot of junk files over time.

[symthomas]

In addition to the suggestions above, make sure you are running a current version of Symantec Endpoint Protection. The latest SEP 11 version is 11.0.7101.1056, and the latest SEP 12.1 is 12.1.1000.157. Visit Fileconnect with your valid serial number to get the newest build.