You do not mention what the computer is or if in fact you are basically happy with the performance. If it is a PII or PIII then it might be time for a new machine. If it is a P4 perhaps even a few tweaks might work wonders.

Was the new hard drive a replacement or just added as a slave to increase storage capacity? If it is a replacement then you started out squeaky clean less than a year ago. If it is additional storage then perhaps original drive has never been wiped and everything re-installed you might be amazed at the speed increase if that was done.

Before that drastic action there are things you can try if you are basically happy with the computer. You would not want to spend big bucks upgrading because everything in it would be useless in a new machine except perhaps the hard drive. Memory is a cheap upgrade, providing the motherboard can handle it moving up to 1 or 2 gigs of RAM might make a big difference.

Check the number of items in the startup for unnecessary things starting. Click Start/Run and type msconfig, hit enter. Click the Startup tab and see what is there. DO NOT stop anything unless you know what it is driving, stopping the wrong things stops the computer!

A disk clean up with something like Ccleaner followed by a defrag can work wonders.

The computer is a Gateway, and yes, I'm satisfied with it, except it seems to be responding much more slowly. I use Firefox for a browser, and it is continually giving me page load errors. Maybe that's not the computer's fault! The hard drive replaced the old one, and I have plenty of capacity. I'd wait till the new Windows OS is out before I'd think of replacing it, tho. Thanks.

Give us the model number so we can Google and see what is inside, then more concrete suggestions can be provided perhaps. It should be on the front of the tower.

Or click Start, click Control panel, click System and tell us the info there including operating system, processor and amount of RAM (memory)

Please consider downloading and running Belarc. It will publish an extremely complete report on your system and software.

I can understand your "happiness" with your current system as I continued to use a P2 Win98OE until Spring of 2007. Until then I accomplished all my learning and hands on experience with systems here at work, Win2000 and XP, along with servicing systems of others. Of course my readings on the Internet and publications were very beneficial.

It finally became time to let "old faihful" go and enter the 21st century. The learning curve was becoming too great as well as the software resource demand for the old system. I do on occasion miss the simplicity of the old system, but I have no regrets.

In my opinion, which means nothing, I wouldn't put any money into a 7 year old system. I would recommend waiting for the full W7 release and purchase a new system of your choice.

DA

DA, I am on the old Windows 98SE right now. Both the XP and Vista are sitting here online with DSL, and I am hooked to dial up on this old 98. I love this machine and no plans to get rid of it, until it finally dies on its own, and even then, might just repair it, unless it is motherboard or something major. I havent found much of anything, that the other two can do, and only have IE5.5 plus Firefox on this one. :-)

Cat old friend, I know what I forgot and you are politely reminding me. My old system was showing signs of being tired, perhaps failing.

Other than what I previously mentioned, and not knowing if the original poster has or wants a second system, my thoughts are it might be time to upgrade.

DA

the price of computers has come down so much that it makes it hard for me to suggest to people to try to update an old system. Add to that it is hard to get the old parts sometimes and the old parts are often more expensive.
Now if all you wanted to do was add a little more memory RAM to it sure go for it that is a good cheap way to boost an old pc and I do recommend that, and since you have already added the new hard drive you might just want to do a memory upgrade, that would probably be all you need to do till you are ready to get that new one.
I agree I was going to suggest running belarc but DA beat me to it. It will tell you exactly what is on the pc and exactly what kind of memory you need and how much you can add.
As for it getting slow the things I would do are first open up the case and clean it out, dust bunnies are the worst thing for a pc, they clog things up and cause heat problems which can kill a pc, run some good well recommended programs to help clear out the clutter on your pc, eliminate any of the old programs you no longer need or use, run defrag when your drive needs it, and look at your start menu for items you can eliminate from startup.
here are some guides
Help! My computer is slow!
Belarc
Cleaning the computer and its components

waiting for windows 7 would be my choice also if the pc is able to hang on.

I have several old PII's still kicking around here.
They only get used for basic stuff, but they work fine.

Check out the link below for tips on speeding up your computer.

Pooh Bear

Here is a link that might be useful: Why is my computer running so slow?

Our Guys reported the system is seven years old. XP was originally released September 2002.

If the system is XP perhaps an argument, however small, could be made for continuing to use the system with upgrades as a "solitary" system. If the system is Win98/ME/2000 using the system as is as a "second" system without any monies invested is the only logical way to go.

My thought is that of RC, the cost for a new system could closely parallel that which would be necessary to upgrade the system in question, particularly if OG is not computer savvy and has to pay for installation labor.

DA

I'm running XP home edition service pack 3. Processor is a celeron 2.0GHz ram is 128 MB I think the model # is 0029277322.

Well only 128 megs of RAM will not create a speedy computer. If you could up that to 512 or even 1 gig you would see a tremendous increase in performance. You would need to check that the motherboard can handle a gigabyte of RAM before spending any money of course.

Run Belarc please as I certain you have more than 128MB of RAM.

Now with the knowledge of the system being XP updated to SP3, and the 2.0 GHz processor I think with the appropriate RAM, including the possibility of maybe adding RAM, I see no reason not to retain this system.

The RAM though is as far as I would go with investing in the system.

DA

I agree especially since it is a celeron processor, add the ram if you want to and do the clean ups inside and out, and you will see a noticeable difference. I personally would not do much more than that on a system running a celeron, you just can not get a whole lot more out of one of them.

I just checked, and RAM is expandable to 512 mb. That means I can add a lot more ram - am I right? Thanks.

What did Belarc report as to RAM, slots, etc.?

Make and model number sure would help too.

DA

as we mentioned belarc will tell you exactly how many slots are on the pc for ram and will tell if there are any open slots and what is in each slot so that you can determine what ram to get, and the distinct type of ram you need.
I have to say 512 is still very low ram in today's standards, you might see a little improvement of course going from what you have now to 512 but knowing that you can not expand past that is your answer to the original question, to run much more than the operating system you have with sp3 and security programs and your usual programs you just don't have the ability to add the ram you would need to further grow that along with it being a celeron, is very limiting. Use it as is with your added ram for as long as you like but I sure would not be adding any additional programs to it and if you can eliminate any from it or change to ones that are less bloated and memory hogs that will help too.
what antivirus programs are you running on it?

definitely follow my links I gave you before and clean it out inside and out, go through your start up menu and whittle it down as much as possible and clean out excess baggage programs.

512 meg of RAM will help, but as Ravencajun said, that's pretty low by today's standards. If you can get the RAM cheaply enough, I'd add it, but that's a stop gap answer. My laptop has 1.5 gig of RAM and I'd prefer it had 2-3 gig. The desktop upstairs has 3 gig and sometimes that's not enough.

I think if I were in your shoes, I'd add the ram, then start watching for sales and replace it when Windows 7 comes out.

I just printed out BeLarc Advisor. I have 510 megabytes usable installed memory. 8 kilobyte primary memory cache 128 kilobyte secondary memory cache. Is that good?

What did it say about slots? It would report something like this (this is my Vista system report):

Slot 'A0' has 1024 MB
Slot 'A1' is Empty
Slot 'A2' has 1024 MB
Slot 'A3' is Empty

Again, brand and model?

DA

My PC is a Gateway E-2000 4000792. Slot J6G1 has 256 MB Slot J6G2 has 256 MB No empty slots.

Well it appears you can go as high as 2GB of memory. The choice would be 1GB (2x512MB) or 2GB (2x1024MB).

Check the link below. If you plan on keeping the system for a while and the additional $36.00, if purchased from Crucial, is in your budget I would go with the 2GB. You can never have enough RAM.

DA

Here is a link that might be useful: Crucial.

DDR PC2700

there are some options at newegg too, I usually buy from newegg because it is always cheaper and they have excellent products. Of course you would want to make sure you get memory for the type of pc you have desktop rather than laptop.

the info for your pc listed at crucial does say you can mix modules so you can leave one that you have and add a 1gig stick to that would give you 1256. That would mean you only replace one of the slots.