i am running windows 2000 pro with sp3.. but when i startup it takes 5-10 mins before i can do anything.. my desktop comes up straight away but i cant use any programs... i have an alcatel speedtouch adsl modem (usb) norton system works2002 and zone alarm pro that are on the startup. any ideas??? please help me obi wan.. your my only hope...

Are you sure that is all that is starting up? You can get a W2K-friendly version of MSCONFIG and make sure. Otherwise, sounds like you may have wanted to hold off on the sp3 upgrade. Check your taskmgr and see what processes are sucking all the processor time.

thanks for the reply... in taskmgr the cpu is idle nothing happening.... i have an amd xp2000+ chip and 512mb pc2700 ddr ram.. i had this problem before i upgraded to sp3. i have all the latest driver on..

Having your CPU idle is inconclusive. Try booting in Safemode and see if you are getting that same delay. Also, if you do what Saric suggested and load msconfig and take a look at what is coming in at start-up and pick them off one at a time, if that checks out then you may have an unwelcomed visitor on board.

I bet Nortons is scanning everything try it once without the antivirus software running. Also try defrag and search the web for 'disable apipa'

thanks for the replies.. right checked out msconfig... nothing unusual. on startup apart from normal processes there is zone alarm pro, norton system works, logitech itouch (keyboard and mouse), stdial (for my adsl alcatel speedtouch modem. i have tried disabling them one by one but same problem, also in safe mode. if it helps i have the following : asus a7v333raid motherboard amd athlon xp2000+ cpu 512mb pc2700 memory also once it is up and running it is fine until i have to restart. do u think it could be a problem with the motherboard? cheers

how do you run msconfig?