T42 Running incredibly slow

[brynwulf]

I kinda of asked this in an existing thread that wasn't totally on topic, so I thought a new thread would get a faster response. Also, HI! I'm new and really looking forward to learning all about my Thinkpad now that it's actuallly mine.

I'm hoping that a R&R will solve my problem, however, if there are other suggestions out there, I'm open and hopeful I can get my baby back to optimum performance.

I do not have the disks, as the computer was given to me (see below) and I'm positive it's no longer under warranty. From the research I've done, including reading just about every possible related subject in this forum today, it sounds like I can do what I need to with the IBM Access blue button, right?

What happened is my company closed its doors, as in went out of business. They did the best by us they could, including giving us our laptops and docking stations. But first they said they had to reformat and wipe them clean (due to privacy).

When I worked for them and used this machine (it was my primary work computer with docking station) it was amazing and I loved it. Now that I've gotten it back from them, it runs slower than I could have imagined any machine being, takes forever to boot up, takes a full minute for applications to load and I can no longer play any type of video media, be it online or just local on my HD. I have no idea how they could have messed it up so badly.

So, I'm hoping doing a restore will do the trick, but if not, perhaps simply totally reformatting the HD and reinstalling Windows XP (I'd have to buy a copy) will do the trick? I think this a great little computer and don't want to trade it in when I know what it's capable of.

Also, it seems to have ALL KINDS of security software running that I don't remember having to go through when I used it at work. Would disabling this in MSCONFIG hurt anything?

If anyone has better suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Thanks,
Meg