IE 8 intermittently fails using windows xp sp 3

[PhilipMoore1953]

hi,
I'm having difficulties getting my IE 8 to properly post web pages.
At times it will open a google search and will display the page correctly and other times particularly when attempting to download a file it provides me errors.
Overall performance of IE is poor.

I'm running Windows XP home edition service pack 3.
This is a HP Pavillion w 528 +- MB's ram
I ran a Network diagnostics for Windows xp with this response:

Network Adapter diagnostic
info Using home internet connection
info Redirecting user to support call.

HTTP, HTTPS, FTP Diagnostic

HTTP, HTTPS, FTP connectivity

info HTTPS: Successfully connected to http://www.microsoft.com
info HTPS: Successfully connected to http://www.microsoft.com

warn FTP (Passive): Error 12031 connection to http://ftp.microsoft.com The connection with the server was reset

warn FTP (Active): Error 12031 connecting to http://ftp.microsoft.com: The connection with the service was reset

error Could not make an FTP connection.

The hard drive seems to be running continuously for no apparent reason.
I went to the start up area of msconfig and stopped all running programs.
I went to the services and stopped all services unrelated to microsoft services.

I can still hear the hard drive working away.
It's been a long time since I've had experience with XP and appreciate any direction you can give resolving this.

Thanks