Screen saver and slowness problems

I dug out another old Compaq running XP Home that was given to me a
couple of years ago. I'd like to use it for a backup computer using DSL.

Has a screen saver. It shows up very often. Has no icons, etc. Just
screen saver picture. No mouse pointer. I can't get rid of this. Tried
moving mouse and buttons and most keys including Esc. Have to reboot
computer to get rid of it. Tried a few screen saver for XP web sites but
the stuff they talked about didn't show that way on my computer. Maybe
several versions of XP? Service packs might change screen saver
installation displays? Want to either get rid of screen saver or set the
wait time as long as possible - hopefully an hour or so. I know no screen
saver is required; I have two other XP machines I set up and they have no
screen saver.

Any suggestions on getting rid of this screen saver?

Also, this computer runs very slow. Not just on the net, but any
operations.

TIA


--
I love a good meal! That's why I don't cook.