Getting tired of my questions yet? lolSo this xp computer won't get past the loading bar part, until the bar has gone past 25 times. I have disabled every single service and program to the point I have to reactivate windows, but it still took 25 times. The hard drive light doesn't do anything till the last 5 rounds. So do you know how to get the computer to kick the hard drive as hard as it can?

Hmmm... Did you check the Event Viewer under Administrative tools? Maybe something is crashing and taking a very long time to fail? Did you check your registry for errors? Here is a good tool for that... http://forum.mopar1973man.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=47

Tried all that. It just sits there when the xp loading bar starts going, after about 15 scrolls across, the HD will finally start doing something and then it will load, but kinda hang at a black screen before the welcome screen for 5 seconds, then get everything up and the clock and few drivers, a minute later it will kick in again and load the rest of the drivers. It does it like clockwork.

If you can manage to get the task manager open and watch the start up of programs you might get a clue to what program is loading and why the long hang. Typically its something in the registry (startup list) that causes the hang... But also check your startup folder in the program list too... 99% sure its a aftermarket piece of software that is loading and hanging. Then after it hangs and releases then disappears from the task manager... Be smart and backup your registry before you edit...

What about if you go in under safe mode, will that let you nose around any better and maybe delete some stuff ?

Well it's at home so have to wait till weekend again. After I disabled every single program and had to reactivate, the computer was all messed up. Device manager wouldn't show anything, a lot of things wouldn't show anything. So I just took advantage of the situation and put in a different hard drive and reinstalled windows. I didn't load anything, just got xp done doing its installation, restarted a few times to confirm that yes, it was the same speed. Did nothing but install SP2, restart multiple times, same speed. Installed SP3, same, installed all my programs and drivers, same. It's like there is a time out going on for the hard drive, telling it not to do anything until a while has gone by. I will try safe mode when I get back and see if it makes any difference.

So just a blank hard drive with XP and it lagging yet? Something is for sure wrong... Do you have another hard drive to test with too?