[martycomfor]

And is very sluggish - at first it was taking about 5 minutes to start and then it would reboot

Since then I've removed what memtest identified as a bad stick of RAM, run System Restore and chkdsk and now it stays booted, but takes a very long time until the desktop is loaded - posts normally but from the welcome screen to a usable desktop takes about 5 minutes. Then it works but is very verrryyy slow.

Safe mode works fine - I can perform file maintenance (backup!) and it's very snappy.

It's a self-build Asus M2NVP-M with 2 (now 1) x 1GB Elixir RAM, and an AMD Athlon 5600. Onboard graphics. XP Pro. Nothing odd in the startup programs that I can see.

I'm loathe to reformat - but are there any other suggestions? It's currently opening a zip file and it's counting the days installed at about 1 a second. That's an example of how slow it is!

Thanks

[cheesewheels99]

viruses? syware?

[philthomas]

Also, try going to Start/Run type in msconfig and hit Enter.
Go to the Start Up Tab and disable all items Apply and reboot.

If this solves it, go back to msconfig and try adding each item a time (rebboting each time) and see if you can identify the offendinh item.

[Jonathon28]

Have you performed a Disk Degrag?

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Sys Tools > Disk Defragment

[martycomfor]

It wouldn't really let me do anything in normal mode. I tried whatever I could in safe mode but in the end I reformatted. I suspect it was malware-related, but the installed programs wouldn't run in normal mode - the av program wouldn't update or do a scan. So I erred on the side of caution and started again

Thanks for the help

Martin