massive computer slowdown!!!

I'm by my grandfather right now and his computer is really messed up it's a AMD-K6 3D processor has 124MB RAM
Now I'v used it before it's not a fast computer but it worked fairlly well for what we wanted it to do but now it barely loads the files and everything is working very very slow any Ideas I checked the directX and it says sopme things are old so i'm going to update them now but any other Ideas?

Alway run the update service and stay up to date.
Also, have you run Adaware?
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
How about a "Disk Cleanup" and a "Disk Defrag"?
Run a anti-virus programe?
Just some idea's to start with.
Give more info and ask more question. I'll help if I can.
Good luck.

well it can happen

Hi Man,
I think when you have the same o/s using for long time this thing happen. So i'd suggest just do some regisrty clean and take some advices as craigiz 1 offers (scandisk, defrag) And also try to check for viruses for first of all. Well hope this will help you out.

If after doing all this and the computer is still slow then find out who makes the hard drive and download some diagnostic tests for it. I had a WD 6.4 gig that was going bad and it would take a long time to load up any programs. I tested the hard drive and it failed some of the tests. It still worked but the udma 33 would not work properly. It took like 5 minutes just to load Windows.

what OS?

My parents comp did the same kind of thing a while back and i reinstalled windows and it started running better. I didnt format, i just reinstalled. Just a thought

Thanks for all the replies.
I have win98 and a 6.4 (or somewhere around that) HD I give the stuff you suggested a try
I tried the defrag but it didn't move for 5 minutes I figured it was all messed up I uninstalled some programs and the speed seemed to improve the main thing that really goes slow is Microsoft Word but I can't tell if it's a problem or if the computer is just that slow.

THanks Have a good weekend.

Does the system run slowly in safemode?

If not, try a clean boot. (MSKB Q192968)

If it is still slow, you might try reinstalling Windows 98 over itself. In many cases you will see an improvement.

If that still doesn't fix things up, rather that going through a full format, you can simply rename the windows and program files directories out of the way, move the registry, and reinstall windows.

...that's not to say that the other suggestions won't produce some results, but it's best to remain as linear as possible with this sort of thing unless you have some evidence that there's a problem you can just fix. It'll save you time in the long run.

Well this is not some new isea, u all know this, but I would backup and format.

take a look at this thread:

http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=224555

hope this helps. good luck.