Waiting for what I type to appear

[elantraxd]

I have a compaq computer running windows 98 and internet explorer that has been upgraded to 6.0

AMD-K6 3d processor
mmx
3d now
350mhx
128mb ram
directX 9.0a

When I type on message forums the letters do not appear for a while after I stop typing. The cursor will slowly go along and then when it gets to where I stopped typing it will let everything appear. Also if there are active smiles on the screen and I move the mouse the action on the smiles will stop. The forums I use are this one, Spywareinfo.com, elantraxd.com, newtiburon.com

I have tried talking to people on spywareinfo.com but they have no idea what is causing this.

Here is list of what has been tried:
Defrag harddrive
adware 6.0
highjack this
slowing down graphics accelerator
lowering the security settings
all updates from MSN
looking at jobs runnnig when ctrl alt del is pressed

Any more ides?

thanks - Jay

[meese]

Could this be some key logging virus like the BugBear worm?

[DoctorReno]

How long has it been since you last installed 98?

[elantraxd]

If I understand the question correct the answer would be that windows 98 has been on this computer for as long as I have had it. 3-4 yrs probably.

[Peter M]

The problem is the Flash ads on the top of the pages. Some of them gobble up absolutely ridiculous amounts of CPU power. That really hurts on those slow old systems - I remember very well how bad that was on my Cyrix MII-333 box I've been using until last year.

[elantraxd]

Even though this problem occurred all the sudden you still think that is it?

I agree that this machine is old, I just thought it odd that it went from being fine to not working right overnight?

So it seems like a new machine may be needed I guess.

[DoctorReno]

Sorry, been gone for a couple of days.
You might want to try one of the free registry cleaning utilities. On the iiue of how long has it been since you last installed the OS... with time MS OS's get cluttered up and slow down often dramatically. Most power users will do a clean install every 6 mo to year to keep it running at peak. The first time you do this will take the longest as you have to (or should) get all of the latest drivers. Once you have done this to a specific machine you will have all the right drivers and know the idiosyncracies of the machine and it can be rebuilt in a matter of hours.
Personally I'm betting that your registry is bloated and a cleaning might help but a clean install will be the real answer.