Random delay when opening files under Windows XP

[Mister Middletown]

My new pc is less than a month old, but nevertheless I got it with Windows
XP.

It is lightning fast for almost anything, but about 2 weeks ago it started a
crazy behaviour:

Sometimes (about every third time) when I try to open a file or directory or
shortcut (by keyboard or double click) there is a very long delay at
10-20-30 seconds before anything happens!

It's very annoying!!

Usually there is no hour glass

It is as if the machine is waiting for something to happen.

I have looked at the CPU usage, but it's just normal, i.e. low.

I have tried to disable Norton Antivirus 2005 and Zone Alarm, but it didn't
do any difference.

I'm very tired of this problem; I hope very much that one of you can help me

 

[Randem]

There are many reasons that this can happen. I will name a few:

1 - Hard Disk problems

Bad sectors, File system corruption, Partition corruption.

2 - Malware problems

Malicious Software have been installed.

3 - Hardware issues

Harware the OS is attempting to access is or has failed and the OS is
timing out waiting for the hardware to respond.

4 - Network connection issues

OS is attempting to access a device on the network and is timing out
waiting for the device to respond.

--
Randem Systems
Your Installation Specialist
The Top Inno Setup Script Generator
http://www.randem.com/innoscript.html
Disk Read Error Press Ctl+Alt+Del to Restart
http://www.randem.com/discus/messages/9402/9406.html?1236319938

 

[SC Tom]

My new pc is less than a month old, but nevertheless I got it with Windows
XP.

It is lightning fast for almost anything, but about 2 weeks ago it started
a
crazy behaviour:

Sometimes (about every third time) when I try to open a file or directory
or
shortcut (by keyboard or double click) there is a very long delay at
10-20-30 seconds before anything happens!

It's very annoying!!

Usually there is no hour glass

It is as if the machine is waiting for something to happen.

I have looked at the CPU usage, but it's just normal, i.e. low.

I have tried to disable Norton Antivirus 2005 and Zone Alarm, but it
didn't
do any difference.

I'm very tired of this problem; I hope very much that one of you can help
me

After having this same problem myself about a month ago, the only suggestion
I can make is the one that worked for me. Get the latest update for Zone
Alarm and do a clean install instead of an upgrade install. If you have the
latest installed already, re-install it and pick clean install. Disabling it
had no affect on mine, so I don't think that it will work on yours either.
The only thing that helped was the clean install.

SC Tom