Hi: I've looked at a Dell computer that runs Windows XP. The really odd thing is that when the screen saver is on for a while, the hard drive is really busy. It won't stop unless you move the mouse and resume normal operation. It doesn't make SENSE to me that a screen saver (on that comes with windows xp) causes the hard drive to be that busy. Can anyone tell me why the computer would be doing that?

Thanks,What are the System Specs of this Dell computer?If I remember correctly, it's a P4 2.8 GHZ with 512 MB RAM. The hard drive has a lot of free space on it.The screensaver will constantly run...

As long as it continues to run...there will be hard drive activity.

There's also the possibility that other programs, running in the background, are also running the same TIME the screensaver is running.

This is actually a normal occurence.Yes, that it true, however I do find it a little strange that the drive is that busy. It's like the HD light is on continuously. I have never seen a HD that busy while running a screen saver in conjunction with other background programs.
When is the last time you updated and ran your malware software?The machine has AVG Free Antivirus and AVG Free Antispyware installed on it. I'm not 100% sure when it runs but I imagine it is on the default schedule (which is daily I think - I don't use AVG myself). It's not my computer so I can't be 100% sure. I am told by the owner that the scans don't reveal any dangers. The owner did say he had Zone Alarm installed at one POINT. It caused the owner a lot of grief so it was uninstalled and AVG was used. theantivirus scans daily but not the antispywareZone Alarm is a firewall program.

Does he use another firewall program? If not, is Windows Firewall on?

Update all malware protection...boot into Safe Mode...run a full-system scan using all your malware protection software...let your malware protection quarantine and/or delete any infections found...reboot normally and run the scans again.

Let us know your results...It could also be some defragmentation software running in the background.
Just wanted to chip that in, I'll *censored* out again now.see whats running by pressing start then run

enter cmd
press ok

then enter msconfig

then go to start up.

uncheck anything unneed like dvd player, quicktime, MS Office, etc

then press apply then ok and FINALLY restart