My last laptop, which packed in about 4 months ago, was Win2K, 900Mhz processor and 256Mb of RAM, and it ran CB 10.x just fine. So I doubt it is a minimum requirements thing. But Win2K is getting really old - MS have stopped supporting it. Time for an upgrade? I realise you may not be able to afford it, which is why I stuck with my Win2K box for so long, but a modern processor & lots of RAM really does make a big difference.