Desktop and Taskbar Freezing

I honestly do not know what to do anymore. My desktop and taskbar freezes as soon as everything(icons, etc,) loads after startup. A lot of times the desktop freezes and I can't click on anything but when I move the mouse down to the taskbar I get the hourglass but it'll just stay like that even if I leave the computer on. I have tried scanning for spyare, malware, viruses, registry....found nothing major. I'm starting to think it may be a hardware problem or something. Everything is fine in Safe Mode though, there is no freezing at all. I have tried using system restore to restore to a time when I know for sure the computer was alright and then the freezing would be gone on the startup right after the system restore but the next time I restart the computer the problem returns.

Now system restore is not fixing it anymore - even when I restore to a previous time when there was no problem the freezing will still be there. I initially thought it was because of windows service pack 3 causing the problem but after system restore I didn't allow it to be installed and the problem is still there. I haven't downloaded or installed anything that I know of before the problem started; it is as though it suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The only thing I haven't tried is the full system restore which deletes everything and restores the computer to factory-settings. But that is the last resort.

A few days ago, after leaving the computer off for several days, the computer started up perfectly fine but while I was surfing the internet the taskbar froze while the desktop was completely fine. Some other times if the desktop does not freeze I can open folders but I can't open the programs.

My PC info is:

Windows XP Professional Ver 5.1.2600
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Video Device: Radeon X1300/X1550 Series
Physical Memory: 509MB
Service Pack: 2.0

If anyone has any idea whats wrong with my PC please help me!

Thanks.

You can try to use the Explorer Shell Fix tool that can be downloaded by searching on the net. If the problem is still there then you can try to run diagnostic tool called whatslivern. It will after a few seconds, when complete, will generate a log file. This log file will be saved in the same directory you ran the program from using the email link and the bottom of my page send me a copy of that log file.

I honestly do not know what to do anymore. My desktop and taskbar freezes as soon as everything(icons, etc,) loads after startup. A lot of times the desktop freezes and I can't click on anything but when I move the mouse down to the taskbar I get the hourglass but it'll just stay like that even if I leave the computer on. I have tried scanning for spyare, malware, viruses, registry....found nothing major. I'm starting to think it may be a hardware problem or something. Everything is fine in Safe Mode though, there is no freezing at all. I have tried using system restore to restore to a time when I know for sure the computer was alright and then the freezing would be gone on the startup right after the system restore but the next time I restart the computer the problem returns.

Now system restore is not fixing it anymore - even when I restore to a previous time when there was no problem the freezing will still be there. I initially thought it was because of windows service pack 3 causing the problem but after system restore I didn't allow it to be installed and the problem is still there. I haven't downloaded or installed anything that I know of before the problem started; it is as though it suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The only thing I haven't tried is the full system restore which deletes everything and restores the computer to factory-settings. But that is the last resort.

A few days ago, after leaving the computer off for several days, the computer started up perfectly fine but while I was surfing the internet the taskbar froze while the desktop was completely fine. Some other times if the desktop does not freeze I can open folders but I can't open the programs.

My PC info is:

Windows XP Professional Ver 5.1.2600
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Video Device: Radeon X1300/X1550 Series
Physical Memory: 509MB
Service Pack: 2.0

If anyone has any idea whats wrong with my PC please help me!

Thanks.

Hi

I can't click on the link you gave me, The Real Truth MVP. When I try to I get a page load error saying that 'Firefox can't find the server at pcbutts1.com.'

Also, sorry for posting numerous times. What happened was that everytime I tried to post I got an error so I just kept going back and clicking the post button without knowing it was actually posting.