computer takes 5 minutes to reboot

[Guest]

I have a 3 year old dell dimension 4700 pent 4 with 1 gig of ram and windows
xp home edition. When I attempt to log off, it will take about 3 minutes
after I click the turn off computer icon to get to the restart/turn off
screen and an addition two minutes to acctually shut down. When I restart
the next time some of the desktop icons will rearrainge themselves. Are
these problems related or are they seperate issues. Can you help?

JIMJ

 

[tempgal]

When I had that problem it was due to an infestation of malware. I needed
both Lavasoft Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy and maybe a few other
programs which I can't remember now to thoroughly clean things up.

 

[Rock]

I have a 3 year old dell dimension 4700 pent 4 with 1 gig of ram and
windows
xp home edition. When I attempt to log off, it will take about 3 minutes
after I click the turn off computer icon to get to the restart/turn off
screen and an addition two minutes to acctually shut down. When I restart
the next time some of the desktop icons will rearrainge themselves. Are
these problems related or are they seperate issues. Can you help?

See these links:

http://aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

Resources to help troubleshoot shutdown problems in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308029/en-us

Malware Removal
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

THE PARASITE FIGHT
Finding, Removing & Protecting Yourself From Scumware
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm

Richard Harper’s Guide to Cleaning Pests
http://rgharper.mvps.org/cleanit.htm