PB 12" 1.5GHz acting weird and slow

Hi All,
I'm from India and I'm new to the forum, though I've been a reader here for a very long time. My two and a half year old PowerBook has suddenly started to slow down. And I have no clue why... I have about 11GB HD space left out of possible 80GB.
System Memory is 512MB. And most of the time the Memory Monitor shows about 6-10MB memory free. rest are wired, active or inactive. These are just some of the pointers I have though I am not technically good enough to figure out what it means. Following are the list of problems:
1. Sometimes, 'Safari' quits unexpectedly without warning. And it's slow especially when there are a few web browser windows active at the same time. And it is more so, if the battery is being charged at the same time.
2. It is almost impossible to put it on the lap and work while the battery charges as it heats up quite a lot.
3. It is almost impossible to switch between 3-4 active Safari or Firefox tabs quickly. It takes a while before the i actually get to see the tab I have switched on to. in the meantime the apple 'rainbow circle' (i dont know what they call it) /system busy sign is all I get to see. This has become a 'very real' pain now.
Though my PB's APP is valid till august/september, it's a little difficult to find good Apple Engineers in this part of the world. Also most of the latest or better accessories are either not available or are prohibitively expensive in India. I really had to pay more than double of USD equivalent in one of Apple Stores in India for a bottle of iKlear. That should give you guys an idea about what I'm talking about.
Anyway, right now I need some advice as to what's the right way to go about my PB. Many thanks in advance...

Dear Cornelius & BGreg,
Apologies for the silence at my end. Was out for a much needed little break. Anyway, here's what I tried:
1.Took BGreg's suggestion and downloaded & ran Onyx. everything looks OK. Or at least that's what it says. One small detail i forgot to mention was that I was using 'IceClean' on a few occasions till now. I would really like to know if any of you used it and if it is any good.
2. My installer CDs etc. are in a different city right now along with the original packing case. Therefore could not run the tests you suggested. But the Onyx report says – ‘S.M.A.R.T. status verified.
This disk seems to be working correctly’ and ‘the startup volume appears to be OK’. This I guess is all right. Or is it?
3. As per BGreg's suggestions, I had deleted the ‘Safari’ plist files. And after that safari seems to be ok too.
4. Going by the ‘Activity Monitor’ reports, looks like I need to upgrade the RAM at the earliest. I’m already in the process of finding out the details from the Apple Stores/Service Centers. I am not sure if I can get the ‘Crucial’ brand in India. But, it looks like ‘Kingston’ is available. Have not been able to find out about the third possible alternative – Samsung. Also, I must tell you guys that everything to do with an ‘Apple’ in India is way expensive compared to the ‘web sites’ and ‘on-line stores’ for Apple accessories and ‘software’ you guys keep suggesting in USA & UK or elsewhere in EU. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks I should be able to get this done. Will surely come back on this one as soon as I hear back from the Service guys.
5. Here comes the most crucial part. Yes, I have used up almost 90% (87% to be precise) of the HD space till date. And I need some space badly. That’s where the dilemma is. My options are as follows:
A- Delete some useless/old data which I no longer need, free up some space – which is another 10GB or so. I can take these back-ups on DVDs also and keep them aside.
B- Replace the present 80GB disk with a larger one. And use the current one inside a casing as a back-up disk. It’s possible, right? Option A can still be part of this process.
C- I read in ‘Super Duper’ User Guide that it’s been tested on a few external drives and I think I can only get my hands on either ‘lacie’ or ‘maxtor one touch’ in India. This would actually mean that I have to have another drive i.e. a 2nd external drive for regular file transfers etc. Therefore, ideally the 1st external drive, to which my PB’s drive is cloned, can be of the same capacity (80GB now) or a little more (120/160)? This keeping in the future expansion in mind. But this as per the specs has to be a FW400 at least, if I have to boot from it.
D- I just go ahead and get a 120/160GB USB2.0 external drive and copy down the entire content of my PB as a regular back-up. This is a fairly cheap option in comparison to option B or C, but may not be the best one.
Hence I need your help once again. Please reply back as to how I should go about the HDD issue and what’s the best option. Also which are the compatible ones with my machine?
Thanks once again for all the help and for sharing your invaluable knowledge…
Malaya

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