Quote (ccsutton @ Jan 12 2011 02:25pm)
hard drives have a 3-5 year lifespan. it used to have a decent bandwidth when it was new, but it's probably running at the speed of 1980's dialup now (12-25kb/s). all this defrag and virus scan crap is just putting more wear on it, making it go out quicker. if malwarebytes quick-scan takes more than 30 minutes to complete (45mins+), then you know you have a serious hdd issue. diablo is such an old ass game, the ONLY thing that will make it run slow and laggy is a dying hard drive. when you click the start menu, or bring up folders, if it doesn't open instantly, it's probably the hard drive. if it does that same thing in safemode, then it's definitely the hard drive. your BEST BET is to run a series of S.M.A.R.T tests and maybe even a full surface scan to check latencies, however smart test usually tells you it's dying right away. open task manager and check cpu usage - move a window around violently. if the cpu usage jumps dramatically, then it could be busted capacitors or other overheating issues. your computer is from 2001. buy a new one already, it's worth it. taking it to a shop to have a hard drive replaced can cost between $150-300, depending on labor charges, whereas a new cheap computer can be between 400-600 for something decent. anything below 400 typically cut too many corners or is on an older architecture such as p4.
-$50 advice
also, wtb ladder update
My comp never gets shut down. Aside from restarts, and power outages, it hasn't really been off for many years. It's just it's time to die. I'll give it to my dad or something.
The comp I saw that I wanted was 800+ at Staples. I shopped around locally today for comps to compare price/specs, and it still beat all the others by a lot.