Very Slow Startup

[Hi Ho]

When I log onto my desktop after turning the computer on the "loading your personal settings" screen doesn't go away for two minutes. The taskbar shows up but when I click on the start menu and click off again it will stay there. If I open the task manager and drag it around it will act as an eraser. CLICK HERE to see a screen shot. I cannot start any programs while this is happening. As you can see in the picture I tried to start picture it but it just sat there like that. It's almost as if the desktop isn't being updated. If I close something it closes but the image stays on the desktop. The task manager shows the Cpu usage at 2% sometimes spiking to 100%. 384mb of the 512mb of RAM is used and 151mb of the page file is used. I have disabled all unessacary processes including the evntsvc.exe from RealPlayer with no luck. This is really starting to get annoying. Can anyone help?

Here are my system specs

ASUS A7V333 Mother Board
AMD Athlon 1.8ghz CPU
512mb 333mhz DDR RAM
60 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
6GB 5200 RPM Hard Drive
GeForce 4 ti 4800se 128mb Graphics Card
Pioneer 16x DVD-ROM Drive (52x CD)
Plextor 24/10/40x CDRW
Acer 40x CD-ROM
Windows XP Home Edition
Cable Modem

 

[dethangel]

i would try a 3rd party program called end-it-all it is freeware and really easy to find, just search google

 

[Hi Ho]

I looked that program up. That's not what I need.

 

[James]

did you have kazaa by any chances?

 

[martin.kerr]

have you checked the system for "spy-ware" programes?

Try ad aware from lavasoft

Martin

 

[Hi Ho]

I have Kazza Lite installed. I check my system regularly with Adware and SpyBot. I have also scanned for viruses.

 

[Lostman]

Did you go to run -> msconfig -> startup and clean out everything that isn't totally needed to start your OS? I find that many programs install crap that loads on startup that causes systems to hang for a bit. Mine did that for a while till I cleaned out startup.

 

[Apokalipse]

that's surprising for an XP system, it's usually only 98 that does that
reinstall XP to a different directory (ie "C:\Windows XP") re create the user accounts and put everything from the old ones to the new ones.

 

[Hi Ho]

When I started my computer up this morning I went into the task manager while it was hanging and discovered that Windows Explorer was using 100% of the processor. Now I'm lost. Why would Explorer be the culprit?

 

[Apokalipse]

well what are the specs of your computer?