slow pc & low memory warnings

[novicesurfer]

Hi,

Lately my pc has been running very slow at times and issuing low memory warnings. My c: drive has 3.54 GB of free memory, or 37% of total.

I have run anti spyware + virus checker and tried to defrag, but got message - 'defrag not required'. This evening ms ran an auto check of some sort and warned C: drive not consistent, or something similar. After check it automatically restarted.

Can anybody help?

Cheers
Alan

[Miz]

Have you scanned for and removed spyware and viruses recently? Those, especially spyware, are the first things to suspect when a system starts slowing down.

For spyware: Windows AntiSpyware, Spybot, Ad-Aware and Ewido.

If you don't have an up-to-date antivirus program installed or your AV program says nothing's wrong, to get a second opinion (a good idea if you suspect a virus infection) free online scans are available at Bit Defender, Panda and Housecall.

Check out this article on Prefetch, too.