I keep an older laptop running XP/SP3 as an emergency backup. Rarely used but regularly turned on to get program updates, etc. Lately, system response has become outrageously slow for no apparent reason. Norton 360 and Spybot scans consistently come up clean. More than adequate RAM and plenty of room on the hard drive. No new programs installed in the last year or so. Any insights on what the problem might be and/or fixes would be deeply appreciated. Thanks1 person needs an answerI do too

Have you tried using e.g. Process Explorer to determine what Process is consuming the most CPU? What process, and how much CPU, is at the top when you sort the CPU column in descending order and observe Process Explorer while the problem is occurring?