Solved: Long delay before files appear in My Computer in Windows XP

[webzter]

Hello;

Ever since clearing-out some old, no longer used apps from "Add/Remove Programs" (Control Panel) to free-up additional space on our hard drive, a pain in the drain "FLASHLIGHT" pops-up every time we go to open "My Computer". It lasts several
seconds until the drive listings appear and the screen populates. "My Computer" is the only place this is happening, and as I said, appears to be the result of having deleted old programs no longer in use. Microsoft wrote a report on the problem, but it does nothing to resolve the issue. They say its USB, HP printer, cable modem related or Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)-related, but none of these fixes work (FYI, MS article #819017). Any suggestions would be appreciated-

(BTW..."My Computer" loads at normal speeds with no flashlights in Safe Mode)

thanks
Webz

 

[Asirah]

When is the last time you defragmented?

 

[MMJ]

Do you have any mapped network drives? Do you have anything in the cdrom drive?

 

[webzter]

Thank you both for the replies....

1.) defraged immed after discovering the slowdown in "My Computer's" loading and the flashlight starting-

2.) No Cd's installed, and I dont believe I have any mapped network drives

 

[bonk]

Try this click Start>>Run type cmd click Ok.

In the Command Prompt type chkdsk /r click Enter

You will be asked if you want a check disk to run on next startup click Y and then press Enter

Restart your PC

 

[MMJ]

What I think the problem is that one of those programs left a registry entry behind that points to nothing so windows starts searching for the files.

Can you take a screenshot of my computer?

you can do so using PrntScrn www.mmj.xenweb.net/tech/comptips.php

 

[webzter]

thanks everyone, turns-out it was a virus! "My Computer" starts right up and NO FLASHLIGHT!
webz