R61e running slow

[Me2]

I have an R61e with Windows XP SP3. I have 1.49 GB of ram. It seems like it's slower than it should be. I have ran the virus checker and a malware checker both found nothing. I defragmented the hard drive. The only difference than when it was running faster is I am using an external monitor because of problems with the laptop's monitor. I can't imagine that would be what's causing the slowness. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[ZaZ]

Open task manager and see if there's a rogue process running the background taking up CPU %. 1.5GB should be plenty for XP in my experience.

[Me2]

How do I know what should and shouldn't be in the Task Manager?

[RealBlackStuff]

What is the size of your hard disk and how much space is left free?

[ZaZ]

Right click on the task bar and hit task manager. There's a processes tab where you can sort by CPU % usage.