need some advice about windows millineum and Compuserve

[dweller]

i need to work on my dad's computer, HP-something, running mill/and compuserve as isp. That combo alone may be the crux of his problems, but i don't want to have to re-install his os or try establishing a new isp for him at this point.

the problem seems mainly slowness/freezing, having to reboot constantly when he tries to connect. Apparantely, it will take several attempts to logon to his email thru CS, the first time it will not load, so he has to reboot, and it locks his system up so tight, he has to just turn it off and then back on with power button. Tries again, maybe will or not work, same reboot. 3rd time he claims is the charm. I know this coldbooting can't be helping.

I have already searched for virus, spyware, ran 1/2 dozen programs on it, and can't find any real threats. Using adaware, spybot, avg, zonealarm, have just downloaded 'what's running' to install. I am starting to suspect a hardware problem, but his hard drive is fairly new 60gig, only 10-15% used, 256k mem. Have scanned the disk for errors, none.

He's 83 yrs old, and doesn't need a really superfast system for games, etc, just to check his email and occasionally surf the websites he likes. I guess his problem could just be Compuserve, but he's so used to it i'm not sure he's going to change over to something new easily. But he's getting really frustrated with it, and my time is limited and can't get over enough to work on it daily. And he can't understand directions i give him to download and run programs to look for problems without getting more confused.

Can anyone suggest a program that would diagnose his system looking for problems that would save me hours of searching for what's hanging it up?

thanks for any info.

dp

[hobbit709]

1. One of the problems with

95, 98 and ME is that it never gets rid of anything. After a while Windoze gets totally cluttered with Temp and Temp Internet files. If you delete from Windows, it doesn't really get rid of them it just hides them from view. There's a DOS routine you can use to delete everything. If you want it,PM me and I'll send you the instructions.