Strange Lock-up

[Syph]

I've encountered a strange problem with my XP install; on loading the desktop, it can take an age to open a program once the desktop and all background programs (AV etc) have loaded.

For example, I leave it to finish loading up AV/firewall etc then go to open IE6 or Outlook and nothing happens. If I ctrl+alt+del nothing happens, or if I try to restart. Basically, Windows freezes, but the mouse cursor moves freely - as does the start menu. A minute later, everything jumps to life and the PC works fine and very smoothly (I've just added another 512mb to help this problem).

Any ideas? Could it be the amount of USB devices I have on? Dodgy HDD? I can live with the problem, but the PC works so well excusing this minor issue.

Specs:

Athlon 2500@3200
1GB dual channel DDR400
R9800Pro 128mb
80GB WD IDE (on SATA) HDD
NF7-S Mobo

 

[SiriusB]

It sounds like it is doing something when it boots and is busy at it for a while. Not sure what it could be seeing as it is a clean install... Check your system for viruses and spyware - may have got onto system while you were downloading updates etc

You might want to try in safe mode and see if the same thing happens. First thing I would try is removing all the USB devices and see if this makes any difference

Let us know how it goes

SiriusB