XP Started Locking up on boot

[Dawna]

Have an AMD Athlon 64-bit Processor, two 512 mem cards,
XP home serv pack 1, etc. At any rate, until tonight, the
system has been stable... no hardware issues, no windows
problems, nothing. Turned on the comp tonight and it
boots very slow to the Welcome screen (2+ mins), where is
screeches to a dog slow status. It continues to load
through the desktop graphic(after another 3 mins), but
then gets stuck before loading the desktop icons, nav
bar, etc. I can get a command prompt up in safe mode,
but when I do a strictly safe mode boot, it also locks at
the point of loading icons and nav bar so safe mode does
nothing for me. I checked to make sure everything was
seated well and clean. Fans are operating without
incident. Any suggestions would be appreciated... thanks!

 

[Bones]

one of your OTHER hardware components might be causing the issue. maybe a
failing cd drive or a defective sound card, etc etc. try calling up your
technical support, they might be able to help you out.