windows xp performance starts lacking if not used for more than an hour...

[malayalite]

i got a new hard drive because the old one got a boot sector virus. There is windows xp installed on it but now whenever it's left on for more than an hour without anyone using it the performance starts to degrade. If i leave my computer on and go to class then come back and use it a few hours later its as if im running windows xp on a 386 with like 4 mb of ram... well thats what it feels like anyway, response time to when i open an application could be several minutes while if i restart the machine it works normally...

my comp is a p3 with 256 mb ram...

any ideas on how to improve performance?

anything other than defrag.. ?

thanks for all your help!

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[StormBringer]

Sounds like a heat problem to me, though it should also happen after an hour of using the machine as well. It also shouldn't clear up with a reboot if its heat.

Check your Pagefile settings

I'd also ask why you replaced the HDD because of a boot sector virus?