With my server running Windows 2000, I feel uncomfortable downloading Windows 2003 resources onto it ...

Okay my mistake. Similar tools but I'll look them up for you tomorrow.

Does it have all the up to date recent Critical updates installed ?

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I've always found that using windows update leads to an unstable system ;)... Think of it, all these new fangled utilities being listed as critical is worthles... I say you decide on your own what you want to install

Gizmo that is not true - Yes it was very problematic years ago, but now days it is pretty rock solid (imho) Yes on occasion there are issues but often only due to some specific setting or other software you have installed. I've managed very large sites and smaller sites as well and all of them work fine with Microsoft critical updates. Microsoft is also available for free to repair your issue if the critical update did break it.

Granted many of the updates are not quite as "critical" as some would want to believe but still 99% of the time you will not have an issue with an update (imho). Which is still better than most companies out there that provide updates.

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You can easily check that by looking into the directory where your MySQL db-files reside. Add up the size of all the *.MYI files. If you have unused RAM, you really should make use of it.

NT, do a fresh install of XP Pro and do no updates, let it run for 2 weeks and monitor your resource usage.

Now, install windows updates, all of them like any standard sheep would do... And now monitor your resource usage.

Your resource usage (on the bare system, running no extra utilities) will run like crap compared to the fresh system, with only Windows Updates installed.

So yes, it is true; the windows updates "new fangled utilties" that come as standard updates are a complete drain on your machine; it's quite discusting and makes baby jesus want to cry...

I haven't done this in several years, but it's been the same for several versions of Windows; it's sad when you can't even trust the provider to do something as simple as provide reliable updates to their software lol...

In general only 1 gig of RAM is pretty light for as large an installation as you have. If you're only using but half of that gig you're not doing your server or it's discs a favor.

All of that extra unused RAM could and should be used for database caching. More memory cache less disc access.

As for why your machine becomes unresponsive we likely cannot tell you unless we're there to see it, but experience can be helpful. Here's the most common scenario that I've seen -

Machine is either low on resources or isn't using them well but hums along just fine until something is done that brings it close to the edge of it's limits. Maybe it's a bunch of searches all at the same time, maybe it's a huge cache rebuild that occurs while a search is being run. Whatever the exact cause, it was a combination of things that brought a machine close to it's max out put.

Now the machine is slowed and requests start to back up. Perhaps it's disc IO that is the culprit. memory use while the machine is backing up still looks fine. Load, while rising isn't huge. That's because the discs are so backed up nothing is being processed. Load is climbing though because of the number of processes that are waiting for disc.

Doesn't take but a few seconds in that state to get a locked up server. Nothing is going to fix it now except a reboot.

Do I know if that is what happened to your machine? No. But I wouldn't be surprised at all. I see it every day. You've got a gig of RAM, which is light for your volume, and only half of that is in use. Just think how much better the thing would run if it was making efficient use of the entire gig of RAM?

Go here and read the tuning tutorials. A gig likely isn't enough for your traffic by why have a gig of RAM if you're only using half? Get that machine making more efficient use of your RAM and it will help.

Of course, I'm taking your word that it is only using half the gig. That in itself sounds kinda fishy to me. Do yourself a favor and verify that again before you make any changes to your MySQL.

I was hoping someone with more windows hosting experience would happen over this threads; and in comes the mac user ;)...

"You can easily check that by looking into the directory where your MySQL db-files reside. Add up the size of all the *.MYI files. If you have unused RAM, you really should make use of it. "

I most definitely know I have half the RAM unused.

We do not have MYI files. We are running InnoDB.