Wow, you seem to have a matrix of hardware that might have potential problems.
For starters, check your available system Ram. I know you said you have 512 MB, but what i mean is the amount of Ram physically AVAILABLE. If you have plenty of RAM left, try the oldest trick in the book. Unplug device by device until you can pinpoint a culprit or "naughty" device. If you do not wish to do that, or have already tried it, my next suggestion would be (even though this is a FAAAR shot) to install Linux. If you can get by OK with linux, it May suggest the problem might be related to Windows or one of its drivers.
So to put things in breif, try the following:
 
1.) Check the amount of Free (available) RAm
2.) Unplug device by device to locate / identify what may be causing a problem
3.) Install Linux to see if similar problems persist (if they do it might be hardware related, if not they might be windows or driver related).
 
good luck

HEY!!!
i think i found the problem
 
look for this program-katmouse
then set the priority to "low"
ehheheh
 
i think that was the problem.
but still i dont think it was that 100% of the time.
 
<[just added]>--
this program was a big problem, but other programs slow down as well if i change priority
<[just added]>--
 
(i set some useless programs i use to low priority to gain speed)
 
and why would it cause system wide slowdown?
thats a BIG mystery to me.

HEY!, as to the question of ram, i have NEVER experienced slowdowns
with 256 megs and since i now have double that and use the same programs i seriously DOUBT that windows is sucking a full 512 at all times
plus i run o&o clevercache PRO.
windows and all my programs normally never use over 180megs.
in fact i have done this before with NO slowdown
1 burn a cd at 40x
2 play quake3 at hi-res and 4xaniso on 2x AA
3 listen to mp3 via FOObar
 
its not a question of potential system performance
a new 1700 system like mine SHOULD be able to do this too
especially with ddr.
before i could do this somewhat well with sdr, but it was overclocked.
and i didnt burn cds.
 
i didnt start having this problem either until i reinstalled windows
maybe im missing some important file or something, but how would i know
p.s. i dont have a windows cd, just cab files on my h-d
its what i was given.
 
I still wonder why UT has so much swapping tho esp since there is no reason at all for it.
there is more than enough available ram.
and its worked fine before.
 
ive also heard from vortex2 websites that my mobo chipset causes a lot of problems and following their info i have tried to get a vortex2 to work in my system. sorta did get it working, but i uninstalled it and reinstalled windows.
 
i swear this problem is like some sort of driver conflict or bad irq sharing
or something similar, at least thats what it seems like.
or since i did a reinstall maybe an old program is missing a file and is slowing my pc. or a hidden program is running in the background
but ive tried to check for all this stuff too.
also i used to have virtual pc before and uninstalled it but it still seems to popup in wierd places.(not the program but remnants of it)
 
ack this is giving me a headache

It could be bad irq sharing or hardware, but from past experiences with Microsoft they tend to write really REALLY crappy code sometimes, so it could be MS Windows.
Have you tried to reformat and startclean all over?

i have 120 gigs of stuff on my system.
i dont really want to lose it all.
also i have stuff in my overnet list that hasnt fully downloaded yet.
 
the problem seems to appear with changing apps priority
*sometimes*

I c, I totally understand your position on not formatting. I would be hesitant to format as well If I had a situation like yours.
 
Have you considered trying Windows XP? I can't stand Windows XP myself, but if it solves the problem then what they hey! LOL.

You Don't have to format to reinstall fresh........
 
Just install into a different folder. Windows does NOT ake you format........
 
All this tak of formatting all the time is getting old.

but if i install winXP, G0D forbid *screams*
what if it doesnt work either? then im stuck with XP and then i will have to format to get back 2k
 
heres another question besides my first one, how do you fix the master boot record file on a fat32 drive?
if the recovery console dont work & the floppy disks dont either.
 
-this was an old problem of my last config, my drive name was
a long list of random characters eg A)(*#FJ#H$H#$Hdhh3e#!$@#%$
for some reason win2k still booted but wouldnt run scandisk
i ended up formatting.
i didnt delete the partitions though.

Well first of, you don't HAVE to lose 2000 if u install XP. You can install XP seperately either on a different partitoion, or even on your C:\ drive (if you have the space) and you can then fdual boot 2k or XP.
 
As for the MBR fix, its not as easy as you might expect. The following will work nicelly IF AND ONLY IF you are running only one OS (e.g Windows 2000). Boot up to a command prompt using a Windows 95/98/Me boot disk or CD.
 
then type in the following
 
fdisk /mbr
 
reboot, and tara!
 
Again, this will work nicely if you have only One OS. Otherwise you will ONLY be able to boot one of your Windows OSs.
 
Also, As for scandisk, I have found that chkdsk and the Windows NT/2000/XP versions of scandisk to be very VERY over simplistic fixing/detecting only very basic errors. My recommendation would be to either
 
1.) Install Norton SystemWorks and run Norton Disk Doctor
 
ORn even better
 
boot to a command prompt using a Windows 95/98/Me disk or CD, then type in scandisk c: (substitute c: with your FAT32 partition).
 
THIS WILL NOT WORK FOR NTFS PARTITIONS< so make sure you know which partition you will be trying to "fix"
 
Please feel fre to cinsult me for further assistance through email. PM me and I will send you my email address in a PM (if you need assistance that is)