Just yesterday my system began slowing down on me! (I run XP professional on
a Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop). When I click on the FILESAVE AS menu and then
attempt to double click or use the drop-down arrow in the SAVE IN line, I get
a "(Not Responding)" added to the SAVE AS window headline. But if I am
patient - say 30 seconds to one minute, the "(Not Responding)" words go away
and the drop down menu finally appears and allows me to specify where I want
to save the file. But it may take just as long again to actually open that
file to save my work to. Similar slow downs in Excel are occurring when I
just want to open a file. The "(Not Responding)" words get added to the OPEN
headline when I want to use the double-click or drop down menu in the LOOK IN
line of that window. Are my files suddenly so big or have cells linked to
other spreadsheet data cells that update as needed that they are slowing
everything down? (I should think not.) How can I correct this so that the
files open within just a second or so of clicking on the file or location I
want, as was the case before yesterday? By the way, I haven't done anything
but add a new printer driver and a network card to my laptop about a week
ago. But everything had been working fine until just yesterday?!? Will
appreciate all offers of assistance. Thanks!

Hm. Tough one. :)
See if these articles help:
http://www.officearticles.com/misc/h...hard_drive.htm
http://www.officearticles.com/excel/...soft_excel.htm
************
Hope it helps!
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com

"Scubasocks" wrote in message
...
Just yesterday my system began slowing down on me! (I run XP professional
on
a Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop). When I click on the FILESAVE AS menu and
then
attempt to double click or use the drop-down arrow in the SAVE IN line, I
get
a "(Not Responding)" added to the SAVE AS window headline. But if I am
patient - say 30 seconds to one minute, the "(Not Responding)" words go
away
and the drop down menu finally appears and allows me to specify where I
want
to save the file. But it may take just as long again to actually open
that
file to save my work to. Similar slow downs in Excel are occurring when I
just want to open a file. The "(Not Responding)" words get added to the
OPEN
headline when I want to use the double-click or drop down menu in the LOOK
IN
line of that window. Are my files suddenly so big or have cells linked to
other spreadsheet data cells that update as needed that they are slowing
everything down? (I should think not.) How can I correct this so that
the
files open within just a second or so of clicking on the file or location
I
want, as was the case before yesterday? By the way, I haven't done
anything
but add a new printer driver and a network card to my laptop about a week
ago. But everything had been working fine until just yesterday?!? Will
appreciate all offers of assistance. Thanks!

I just saw a thread that described a similar problem. The user had
installed HP printer software and his workbooks were suddenly taking a
long time to open. He turned off the HP background tasks using the
Task List and the problem went away. He then restored his system using
Ghost, reinstalled the HP software and now everything is well. You may
have a similar situation.

The other thing that comes to my mind is a virus or adware or malware.
Adware, especially, can slow things down considerably. (I have a
co-worker who manages to download Adware about every other week. Slows
*everything* down.)

Try turning off nonessential tasks to see if one of them is the
culprit. Google the ones you don't recognize to see if they may be
threats.