Really Slow Running Computer!

Hey all,
I originally posted in the hijackthis forum. But I found some new information and I think might be something other then viruses and adware.

I am trying to fix my girlfriend's mom's computer. It runs so slow! It takes like 20 minutes to load up, and once it loads up its so slow you can't do anything.

Its a Dell Dimension 4600 running windows xp, has a intel pentium 4, and thats about all I can tell at this point.

Here's what I have done so far-

I took the hard drive out, and booted it up with my computer at home. Ran lots of virus scans and adware/spyware scans. Found lots of junk and removed it. However it still ran really really slow.

So, I did a dell diagnostic check at startup. I soon found an "error code 0700:0120 no cache detected cache might be disabled defective or not present", and then a "system error illegal attempt to disable intel ich smi without restoring original values first". The computer then restarts without finishing the test.

I've heard about reseting the cmos. However I can't find a jumper or anything, and I'm afraid to pop the battery out! I don't even know if that's worth trying anyway. What should I do?

Please help me!!!!!

Hi, Sorry to hear about the problems with the computer. This doesn't sound too good so I hope that your GF's Mom has an up to date back up/archive/ copyof all her important stuff. If the back up/archive/copy is even a day or two out of date then I think the first step is for you to copy off all the recent important stuff, accessing the drive as you did before if it still won't boot. In the meantime it would be wise to get your gf's Mom to locate her operating system installation disc(s) and application installation discs, her drivers and all the product/licence keys including that for Windows itself. It may not be necessary to do a reinstall, but it is best to be prepared. Having done this try to boot the machine into safe mode and select "last good config"…make sure that all the usual usb bits are disconnected, ie external hard drives, thumb/flash drives etc and that the floppy drive (if fitted) and CD/DVD drive is/are empty. to enter safe mode: 1 Restart the machine and immediately after the BIOS loads, but before Windows starts to load(or tries to), commence tapping the F8 key regularly once per second until the advance menu appears (its on a black screen) highlight "last good config" and hit the Enter key, see how you go and report back here. You might need to try this a few times to get the timing right especially if you get a "keyboard error". Begin tapping the F8 key immediately after the computer makes its first initial beep is often a helpful move. (Most machines give a single beep after the POST has completed.) 2 If you cannot get into Windows using this technique then follow the above instructions after a restart and instead of selecting "last good config" try just to get into safe mode and see how you go. 3 For the time being I would be inclined to leave the cmos/battery alone unless you have determined that there is a problem with it…however you can in the meantime research how to reset the BIOS to default, should this become necessary in the future. Usually pressing F2 or delete or Esc on attempted start up will get you into the BIOS but please be very careful and make a complete audit trail/log of the settings before you poke around too much…a digital camera comes in handy here for photographing the screens for future reference. Regards paws

In the BIOS, the CPU speed could currently be set at "Compatible". Change it to "Normal". This resolved a Dell Dimension 3000 I was working on that was running really slow and getting error code 0700:0120 no cache detected during diagnostics.