Slow erratic performance, Windows XP.

[jj2007]

With so little RAM, and such an extremely bad performance, swapping is the most likely cause. 2GB for a notebook cost about 20US$ ...

[FORTRANS]

Hi,

disk space can also be an issue

   Over 4 gigs free, about 2/3 full.

And the size/location/settings for your swap file.

   It is on the C: drive/partition.  Its size is about 1.5 times the size
of the memory, about 283 meg.  The laptop hard drive has two
partitions, about an equal division between the two.

   Also ran CHKDSK /F and fixed {something}.  It does not seem to
write a log file?

With so little RAM, and such an extremely bad performance, swapping is the most likely cause. 2GB for a notebook cost about 20US$ ...

   Well, this one could have 256 or 512 megabytes.  Sony had
special memory for its very small laptops. http://mattdm.org/u101/images/u101linux.jpg

Regards,

Steve

[jj2007]

this one could have 256 or 512 megabytes

I see the problem :(
There is a risky option that you could try: disable the page file completely. It forces Windows and applications to get along with the 256MB, instead of thrashing the disk. But it might crash some applications - browsers, for example.