Aaaargh. What's slowing me down?

[willyboy]

1.6ghz AMD processor with 768mb ram, so not the slowest of systems. Upon startup, apart from system files, the only processes that start automatically are AVG and SPYWARE DOCTOR. I've cleared the registry, got rid of unwanted files, done virus sweeps, and a disk defrag.
Why then if l just run say, Convertxtodvd and then click on another program, that doesn't start for at least 3mins.
If l then start IE7, which automatically logs on to my isp, go to a website and print something, nothing else can be done until the printing is finished.
I never used to have these problems and have not downloaded anything untoward, apart from the latest updates to already installed software. Everything is taking so long with either a delayed response or the screen freezing between different tasks.
Has anyone out there got any ideas as to what may be going on? I've exhausted all of mine!

[rojash]

As I understand it, Convertxtodvd is an AVI to mpeg converter. This will require lots of resources in terms of memory, hard disk access and processing power.
On my 3.06 Ghz Celeron with 1 Gig of RAM, I wouldn't attempt to do anything else at the same time as rendering video files.

[willyboy]

Thanks for the quick reply Rojash. Blimey, if you got that, and l've got what l've got, then it's no wonder (although l kinda new that convertx was power hungry).
Any ideas about when in IE7 and printing from a website everything gets locked until printing is finished?

[rojash]

just a guess, but it could be that your temp folder is full of junk and/or that you don't have a pagefile, or it's corrupt, or it's the wrong size.

To empty the temp file:
Open My Computer
right-click the C: drive, choose properties
Click the Disk Cleanup button.

To set the pagefile:
Right-click My Computer, choose properties
Go to the Advanced tab
In the performance section, click Settings
Go to the Advanced tab
In the virtual memory section, click change
Select No paging file and click Set
Ok everything, then restart the machine

Repeat the above steps, but this time select System managed size for the pagefile.
You may need to restart again.

[willyboy]

Thanks rojash. I've actually changed it to double my ram size and it now seems better than what it was. I'll leave it for a while to see how things go.
Thanks again for your help.