Is there any hope for a windows 98 ver 2 o/s?

[teachme1]

I have a friend who has a windows 98 version 2 o/s. He has had this equipment for close to 10 years. The computer is a Compaq Presario. He advises that it takes a long time (several hours) just to boot up. He claims that this has just been happening for the last few months. Prior to that, he said it was slow, but he still could check e-mail, and do a few things online. He has Internet Explorer, that also takes a long time to boot. Is there any hope? I advised him that it may be time to purchase a newer system. If there is anything else that you need to know such as RAM, or what processor he uses, let me know. Please advise.
Thank you

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Does the entire process take an abnormally long amount of time to process or is it just isolated to a specific chunk of the boot?

For instance, does it load fast during the POST and Windows loading screen and then slow down when it brings him to his desktop, or is the entire process equally as slow?

If it's just loading Windows slow, it's probably time to back up his data and reinstall the OS. If it's taking forever throughout the entire ordeal, I'd guess that either his RAM/motherboard is experiencing issues, or perhaps his CPU cache is disabled/defective.