Try this....
Do CTRL+ALT+DEL
This will bring up windows task manager
Then click on the "Processes" tab
Click on "User Name" this will show
you who is using the running files (for reference)
Many of the things that are runing YOU DONT NEED
Software will install shit you dont need and
that will make your 'puter crawl
Go to this site and search for each item listed:
http://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
Anything you find in here that is listed as "Not Needed"
shut it off in the task manager
If you cant find any of them on this page
go to
http://www.monstercrawler.com
and search for the exact syntax shown in task manager
Once you have disabled all the useless shit - give
your computer a whirl and see how much faster it is
Dont worry - shutting things down in the Task Manager
does not delete anything from your computer. The
next time you reboot all those things will be running again
If this does not help, you may have a BAD HARD DRIVE
or some major corruption in windows
Ram can also go bad and cause this problem
There is a windows XP utility that scans your hardware
to search for problems like hard drive failures
and ram memory failures - I would have to look it up