Gnome's comments seem about right. Xp window decorations shouldn't be significant with graphic cards like that though. Looking at the processes also, there doesn't seem to be a lot of junk running either. Certain things might cause slowness such as windows updates or a virus scan.... Looking at the processes it doesn't look like you are using AVG 8 but if you are I have had some customers with problems like you have. There's a thread here http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=90568&perpage=6&pagenumber=4 follow my entries on this and subsequent pages also for links to manual cleanup instructions. Are system temperatures OK? You can usually check in the bios. Or open the side for a visual inspection that nothing is choked with dust. Instructions here for dust cleanup: http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=131491 Another very occasional problem I have had is where (for some reason) the intel IDE driver for the disk reverts to a low performance mode (such as PIO mode). You can check this on the device manager by clicking on the IDE Controller entry, then right click>Properties>Advanced settings> on the Primary and then secondary channel entries. Check that the 'current transfer' is at DMA mode 5 or better for one (the disk), the other (CD) will be mode 2 or 3 probably. If not and especially if one says 'PIO mode' then right click and uninstall the channel and controller entries, then right click any entry and 'Scan for hardware changes' which will automatically reinstall the drivers. Restart. Could just be a virus or spyware in which case the solution could be a scan of the C:\Windows folder with Avira and a scan with Spybot and/or the cleanup process in the link above.
rodmike9, If you haven't found it yet, the XP eye candy can be turned off by right clicking on your desktop and clicking "Properties". This brings up the Display Properties. Since you provided a screen shot, you probably already know how to get here. Click the "Appearance" tab and under 'Windows and buttons' choose Windows Classic style. It's pretty boring looking after having the candy, but, you'll get used to it in a day or so. I'd also be curious if excel is making your system seem slow. BTW, you show 15% cpu usage. That's pretty good. What % do you hit during heavy use? If it doesn't get much higher, then I'd suspect your system is fine, but the video processing is making the system seem slow. I had a recurring problem that any time I would open Adobe Acrobat or Reader and close it down, it didn't fully unload. The system would go in a bog! I had to end the process to get back some responsivness. Hope this helps. Good luck, Mark
Thanks for the comments. I made some adjustments here and have definitely noticed some improvement in the performance of my system. my next step is to replace the Radeon video card thanks again guys for the feedback
wow, that is an awesome pic! I got a quad array and a new computer to start my trading. What kind of monitors are those? bought my stuff from http://www.multiplexpc.com