I am a new comer.
I wonder whether someone can help me out of my present predicament. Under no circumstances do I want to format and install XP again.
My problem in short
Startup takes up a pretty long time. It takes approx 4 minutes for all the icons to appear on the taskbar.
When I click on start for the first time the menu opens BUT when I click on MY Computer it takes more then 10 to 20 seconds to open.
Similarly when I click on Firefox it takes more than 20 to 30 seconds.
Similar with other items.
However several usages the time is shortened. Maybe it picks up from the cache.
After the application opens everything is smooth.
Three of us are using the computer. Am using XP Pro SP2 with 512 mb Ram (Earlier had 1 GB ram but the problem was the same.) and 320 gb Western Digital HDD.
Checks for virus, spyware, hijack are all negative. CHKDSK/f reports all clear.
Drives are NOT fragmented.
Have run CCleaner too.
Read somewhere on your site about Prefetch folder. Have checked the Prefetch folder and find all the files are of current date.
I wonder whether this is a software or hardwr problem.
Need your help and suggestions to resolve this problem.
Regards
Nariman