strange winxp home prob

[new_guy]

When I start up XP home the GUI pops up after about 30 sec., and most programs work immediately.

But there's two programs (my DSL dialer and a game) that for some reason won't operate unless windows has been running for about 3 min.

You can click on them right after windows starts and it appears the program will start(the pointer has that little hourglass above it) but a few seconds later that hourglass disappears and then a few minutes later the program will start running, after that the program works perfect.

Then if you shut down the program it will start immediately every other time.

I have cleaned out my startup programs list so it's not that. I was thinking it could be one of those services or something that windows xp loads.

I just got through reinstalling windows a few days ago and it's still doing this.

Could it maybe be a hardware prob? I do have a video card that isn't winxp approved.

[Miz]

XP looks like it's fully loaded before it actually is. While some things may work after the desktop is displayed but before Windows is through loading the rest of its stuff, as you have found, some things may not.

First thing to do is disable XP's unnecessary services. It's a little tedious but well worth it in terms increased system performance (including faster boot times) and better online security.

Use the settings in the Safe column in the chart on Black Viper's site and you may find things improving noticeably.

[new_guy]

Turns out it was some workstation service that was loading. I disabled that and now it's fine.

Thanks for your help