You want to know something, most of the time this is caused because your using a OEM system say from Dell/HP/Compaq ...etc. It can also be caused by internet access and common usage.

I found running Windows XP on a P4 system without any crap its really fast.

In short, I rebuild my two system every six months to keep them in top order. If I was you I'd keep a copy of everything like art and stuff on a USB Hard drive, like what I do.

What to try something?

Oh no, I'm the guy to the right, which provides technical support to my family and friends (which some of the problems are quite painful).

Heh, my computer is a 5 year old OEM box. I wish I can build my own system every half year, but I just don't have the funds to do that :(. Running duel-core Athlon64 with a gigabyte of RAM here, and backing up to CDs and floppy disks every other month.

Ah well, it runs very quickly after I stuck the latest Ubuntu (64-bit) on it. I'm a Linux guy. :P

I don't mean buy a new system every half a year, what I do is back everything up, format the system then start again.

I know a few people how say they want to do the same thing, funny thing is when I show them a rebuilt system there shocked to no end, why? it's there old system but running much better.

Still I'm getting sick of it.

As for me I tried Ubuntu 8.10 however I didn't have a video with good drivers so I ended up with going back to Windows.

Ah, I see... that would mean I'm rebuilding my system around every year. But only if I'm jumping distributions, switching filesystems, or recovering from a virus (That last one is fortunately extremely rare).

I'm pretty sure nearly all of the modern video cards are supported under Ubuntu 8.10... what kind of video card are you using? (Probably an ATI card if I may be so bold?)

*Oops: double post*

Yep its an ATI chipset something like 1550 I think, I'm at my mums place babysitting (She lives on a farm where it takes an hour to locate the closets shop. I have access to a mobile internet so at least I'm not cut off.)

What happened, after installing a driver update so I could run Second Life the system crash. I have spent a week trying to have Ubuntu run the game, however this wasn't to be. So I moved back to MS sadly.

I'm going to wait until I can buy a nice video card and then give Linux another try. Anyhow I trid and it didn't work so I went back to where I was before.

OK, Funny story. I use to work for almost free in a computer repair shop when I was board (at the time it was most of the time) anyway the story goes. A man walked into the shop with a computer which had a big dent in the stop of the tower and the guys hand was banged. Here is what was said:

Client: "Ooo I think my DVD driver is stuffed"
Shop owner: "Really what happened?"
Client: "I think a gulf club landed on the top of it"
Shop owner: "Really, so what happened to your hand?"
Client: "I broke it while swinging my gulf club"

That's all I can remember from that, I was shone the tower which had the dent in it. Wish I had a photo of it, you can see why the drive didn't work. And yes this was an Australian, that is where I live and where it happened.

Ah, I see... that would mean I'm rebuilding my system around every year. But only if I'm jumping distributions, switching filesystems, or recovering from a virus (That last one is fortunately extremely rare).

I'm pretty sure nearly all of the modern video cards are supported under Ubuntu 8.10... what kind of video card are you using? (Probably an ATI card if I may be so bold?)