hoobs

I find it isn't how many processes are running that makes the difference, but which process is causing my system to run at a snail's pace. It is usually the virus checker or antispyware that gives me most problems, so I have to pause the active scanning sometimes. However, the build I am running now has only 256k RAM with Windows XP SP2 Home. It is surprising how stable the system is with virtually no crashes. Often it is my higher end systems that give me problems.

36, Windows XP SP2

Your ISP should be able to see if anything is going on their end. Try pinging their server if your ISP is one that does not block pinging. I presume because you've installed Ubuntu that you are reasonably experienced. If your installation was from a burned disk, it may be worth checking that there is no corruption in your files. I believe you can have this checked, but I have never done this so perhaps someone else out there can advise.

I have seen problems due to mixing brands of RAM. Sometimes the system works better with just one stick, than using mixed brands, and I mean the system can run faster too. Sometimes you get away with mixing sometimes you don't. Memory problems are often hard to track down so I never mix; in the old days memory was expensive so we all tried mixing because we had to strip memory out of defunct systems to keep the costs down.

Strip it down and rebuild with just a floppy drive and an old PCI graphics card. Are you seeing anything of the BIOS? Use a Windows 98 bootdisk or a DOS system disk and see where you go from there. Perhaps the BIOS is somehow locked into onboard video if your motherboard has this.