40GB Quantam HD performance problem

First, I recommend that you post technical questions in the Technical Q&A section.
Usually, you will get a faster response, and more
suggestions than in the discussion section.

As to the HDD performance, you may be limited by the IDE controlleron your motherboard.
The drive likely supports ATA66 or 100, and your
motherboard may only support UDMA33.
A PCI IDE controller card can get you past that
problem.

As to drive seaks, Windows accesses the swap file
(virtual memory) on an ongoing basis.
Next, many virus scanners perform background scanning whenever the PC is not in use.

Memory:
Check the manual for the motherboard.
Or check Crucial's or Kingstons web site for memory options.
Either your motherboard does not supporthaving 2
128MB DIMMs installed.
Or, your second 128MB DIMM is a newer technology DIMM that your motherboard also does not support.

Unfortunatley, not all DIMMs work in all motherboards.
I keep a known good 128MB double sided older
technology DIMM on hand to check for memory
compatability issues when I have concerns with a
system.

Another possability, is that you have on-board video that is using some of your installed RAM.
Watch the memory test at bootup, and see how much
memory the BIOS finds.
If the BIOS finds the full 256MB, then it is very
possible that on-board video is using the 64MB that you are missing.

Chas

Does you processor go to 100%? Then drop to idle,
and the disk spin stop, when you click the mouse?

I had a similar case when I bought and installed
Excel 2002 on my Win 98. It took me 3 days to
find all the MS articles to fix it.

I'm sorry I didn't keep the article numbers. I
looked at MS, I couldn't find them quickly. But,
as I said, it took me 3 days to find all the fixes
and apply them.

Good luck. . .