I have been running with a:

Pentium 4
1.5GB of RAM
80GB Hard Drive
Intel Extreme Graphics 2
Integrated Sound Card
Windows XP Home

for just over 3 years now and this problem that occurs on occasion, has happened again. The problem occurs randomly either when the computer is on/off but when I start using it the problem is easily noticed. The computer starts running a lot slower than usual and everything I try to perform hangs/lags, when i play music it isnt streamed smoothly like normal instead it chops so where someone would say "Hello" it would come out as "Heh eh el ll o oo"

I've reformatted the computer multiple times when this problem occurs and it usually solves the problem, but this only lasts so long. Yesterday I reformatted again because it happened and when I woke up this morning and started up the computer here it was again.

I've done a bit of research and a lot of people suggest running diagnostics/antivirus/adware/spyware scans along with defragmenting and using disk cleanup. I've tried all of these and once this problem occurs, it doesn't go anywhere after. I've gone into Device Manager and updated all the drivers, made sure they are all functioning. I've run DXDIAG to check further functionality and still no problems detected. I've used the "Check Now" option in Hard Drive -> Tools section and no problems come up.

A lot of forums and posts I've looked at in the past have ended unsolved so I'm hoping somebody could give me a hand, Thanks.

It could be a heat issue. Make sure all your fans are running, and clear all the dust out of the case. If you want, download a temperature monitor and check the CPU temperature isn't exceeding the recommended limit - many automatically throttle back (or turn the PC off) if they get too hot.

Wow, I had no idea that you could download temperature monitors. You learn something new every day. I might have to find one of those programs, and see how my little machine is doing. I'm curious to know now.

And I'm not sure if this will help, because you might have already done this... but I know that sometimes I forget and my computer starts to move at a snails pace... but have you cleared your internet cache/temporary files/cookies/history/recycle bin and all that lately? Disk cleanup should catch all that kind of stuff... but I know I've run the CCleaner program right after a disk cleanup, and it found things that should have been removed, but hadn't been. The CCleaner program is a free download that I use sometimes, because it finds lots of things that can be safely removed from your computer. I know there have been times when my computer has refused to do most things, and all started working again after deleting all those extra things.

Another thing I thought of could be your desktop icons. People always tell me that the more icons you have on your desktop, the slower your computer will run. I'm not sure how true this is, because I've always been one to have way way way too many icons on my desktop, and I've never seemed to suffer from it, but since several people have said that to me (including the person that fixed my computer when the fan died on it), I figured I'd mention it.

Anyway, hopefully that can be of some help. Sorry, I don't really know more that you can try. I hope that you can get it all sorted out though Good luck!

CoreTemp is the one I use on my Windows PC. It tells you the current temperature of the CPU, along with what the maximum safe temperature (as set by the manufacturer) is. It also logs the temperatures in a text file, so you can run games or an intensive application and see what effect it has on the temperature without having to stare at CoreTemp - just read the logs afterwards.

take the cover out and clean from the dust......and also make to uninstall if there are big size game files you installed your last time.....thank you..

Yeah I would recommend blowing out your computer for dust as it seems to be a heating issue, and also when was hte last time you did a reinstallation of your operating system? If it has been a few years to never I recommend doing one and also it could be time to add some thermal paste to your processor as well because that is an old computer and after years of use the thermal paste will wear out and make your processor chip even harder. Of course it could be the fact that your hardware is breaking down as well so you might be looking into replacing that as well.

However, I recommend doing a reinstallation of XP and cleaning out the dust in your computer first to see if that fixes your hang time and the lag as well. Also look into replacing your RAM as well as that is one of the more common pieces of hardware that helps in the lag time of a computer.

And if you are doing a reinstall of XP then make sure you are completely reformatting the hard drive. Many XP restore CDs that come with Computers do not to a complete format & reinstall. They simply reinstall the system skipping any files that are already on the hard drive. A complete format & reinstall will ensure that the problem is not software related. You do say you have done a reformat but just thought I'd mention this point in case you weren't aware of the restore cd reinstallation of some PC's.