I have a laptop that has 512 memory ram and 80 gb and every time i use it is very slow it has windows xp sp2?

Pc registry Errors cause pc slow down or pc errors.

Clean your Registry can make your computer faster

http://clean-computer-registry.com/

If your virus/spyware free, there are a couple things you can do get your computer working faster. If you using your computer for normal stuff and not gaming. You don't always need more RAM you just need to perform a few maintenance task.

First, if you haven't cleaned your registry in a while. This is necessary. Your registry holds all the information regarding updates, installs, un-installs etc. Each one of those events produces a key. That key needs your PC's resources and free space. So, if you clean your registry, you make more resources available for speed. Do a registry scan if you got more than 20 errors you should clean it.

http://www.delete-computer-history.com/what-is-the...

2. Clear your Windows cache files, this is your temporary file. It can grow up to a large volume and stop your computer from using RAM properly. In a sense slow it down by preventing it from using free space.Here is how:

1. Quit Internet Explorer, Firefox, or any other web browser

2. Click Start, click "Control Panel", and then double-click "Internet Options".

3. On the General tab, click "Delete Files" under Temporary Internet Files.

4. In the Delete Files dialog box, click to select the "Delete all offline content" check box , and then click OK.

5. Click OK.

3. Manage your startups. Your excess CPU usage is due to too many programs running in the background. You can cut these to barebones by alter your msconfig. Here is how:

1. Open your Start menu.

2. Click Run

3. In the command screen type "msconfig.exe"

4. In the "system configuration utility",click either "service" or "startup" tab

5. Uncheck all programs that your are no longer using.

6. Click "OK"

What turbo360 said is extremely good and important.

But what everyone else has missed is your chip speed. Sounds like your chip speed is old and slow. You didn't mention what your chip is. You want at least 1.4 GHz for any decent web surfing. I used to use even a 400mHz and it worked, but when I got the 1.4GHz laptop, it zooms compared to the 400. Also had 700MHz, but still, getting over the 1 GHz range is important. And closer to 2 GHz is much better.

the 512 M ram is low, but it's workable. I've upgraded RAM before, and really haven't noticed much improvement.

As Turbo 360 said, it's important to keep your computer fixed up. Like a car, it needs periodic maintenance. Goto MajorGeeks.com and you can download free cleaning software.

I use Eusing Registry cleaner. Also Auslogics Drive Defrag is excellent. Like your bedroom, you need to clean up and rearrange stuff on your harddrive, so the computer can find stuff easier and quicker. YOu only have to clean these once monthly.

If you haven't been doing any maintenance on your laptop computer since you bought it, then you'll need to start doing so. This involves clearing up your temporary internet files, cookies, history,etc from your browser. Also, performing a disc cleanup, removing unecessary startup programs, defragmenting your hard drive etc. needs to be performed by you or an experienced user.

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PS: A lot of stuff on your hard drive such as videos, music, pictures etc, will fill up your hard drive. So, I'll also recommend that you check the free space available on your hard drive in other to make sure you have enough space remaining for your computer to run efficiently. Upgrading your memory to 1GB is not a bad idea either because the more your laptop's memory the faster your computer's responsiveness. Goodluck!

Sounds like the drive is thrashing due to not enough RAM or possible other applications taking up the processor resources, like viruses and such. 512 MB of RAM should be plenty to run XP so look for unwanted processes running. Run a virus scan or adware/spyware scanner to clean up your system. Perhaps you virtual memory setting are not correct. Go to Start | Help and Support and search for virtual memory and help will tell you how to set your paging file configuration. Your fan will run constantly if your processor is being over worked.

Using XP, your computer shouldn't be doing this. At all. I would suspect you have some damaged, old, or defective hardware causing the problem. If a fresh Windows install acts like this, something is wrong on the hardware end.

Your Lappy is a little short on memory. Twice the amount you have installed would make a big difference however.

Depending on how old your computer is it might not be worth spending too much money on. The hard drive could be failing and would explain it being slow.

If you haven't already, try running a defrag on your hard drive.

Step 1 - Download Xubuntu ( http://www.xubuntu.org/ ).

Step 2 - Burn it to a CD and install it.

Step 3 - Enjoy

Seriously, XP is not only ancient by today's standards, it's also the least secure OS out there. If you're not running anti-virus and anti-spyware protection 24/7, you'll have a virus within 10 or 20 minutes of the first time you connect to the internet. With older hardware, Linux is the only way to go.

it is simple process to optimize your speed just follow the below 23 procedure after that surely your system high speed.

http://4tech.info/os-tweaks/27-steps-to-make-your-...