Alright, last month startup only took about 30 seconds, now it takes well over 1:30! On top of that, the system just seems to be slower overall (mainly HDD related stuff) The main thing that takes up time is the black windows XP screen with the scrolling bar. Before it took up about 5 scroll throughs, now it takes over 50. Things I've done to try and correct: -defrag -remove programs -disable startup programs -HDD test(seems normal) -deleted unused files HELP ME OUT!

scan for ad ware yet? lava soft has excellent program for removing that stuff. my puter did that till I down loaded adaware se, now it boots so fast I almost don't have time to get into bio's. will also repair damaged registrations.

Yes, I scanned and I seem to be malware free.

If you're anything like me you've already solved this problem but I figured I'd give it a go. First, what changes have you made to your PC since last month? If none, no new programs, no updates, etc. then the most logical culprit is likely malware. Even with an antivirus or Internet security suite running on your PC you can still be infected. A lot of these programs (McAffe, Norton) are compromised by malware so they are useless to you when it comes time to fight it. When fighting malware I find it's best to scan a PC with tools that weren't already installed on the computer when it went south. "Portable" versions of great tools make this particularly convenient. However you can do well installing and running the following: To kick things off try running the following: Kaspersky AVP tool. You can get it here: http://devbuilds.kaspersky-labs.com... Once that's done doing it's thing download and run Malware Bytes: http://www.download.com/Malwarebyte... Regarding both of the above tools. It is best to set the scan level to high or deep and may be necessary to boot into Safe Mode. After these two programs work there is usually no need for additional tools but for good measure you can also run the free version of SuperAntiSpyware. It's possible that the hardware in your PC is going too - a bad hard drive could really slow things down for example - but my experience tells me that a good malware fight should solve the problem. Let us know how it turns out. MJ

Could your PC be looking for a domain or network to connect to or for network printers ? If so, uncheck the Automatically look for network or network printers option in Folder Options. Regards SuatCINI