Shoutbox

I'm  curious, how long as XP Pro been installed on your system? Due to Microsoft's lack of ability to keep their own systems clean, the registry does tend to fill up quickly with redundant stuff.

I can't necessarily say what the issue is, it could indeed be a virus or something. Not all anti-virus software can pick up every virus there is. But I doubt that is the case here anyway. Is it possible you can back up everything? Sometimes the issue can be that since XP can't really clean itself and after a few years, it'll start to become non-responsive to the point you can't do anything anymore. I've had to reinstall XP roughly 3-5 times since I've owned my computer about 8 years ago. (old system, I can't get the money to build a PC >.>)

I wish I can help more, but I don't know.. I suppose before you try formatting, is it possible you could run CCleaner? That is, if you haven't tried to do so already.