hi there,
it sounds as though your system is running an application on start up, i take it you use the internet a lot?
i could go on all day, but the easist and quickest way to solve this is to wipe your hard drive and start new.
or if you use win xp you should already have a restore point saved on your pc, go to start , programs, accesories, system tools.
you should see 'system restore' there click on it and it should give you the date that you first used the system click on the date and follow the on-screen intructions.
martin
August 2005