all of a sudden it takes two and one half to three minutes longer to get the computer to start.

after the computer boots up and i click on start, the pointer turns to an hour glass and will not let me access any of the programs or anything for at least 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. Just freezes up. Before after it booted up you just click on start and fire away but now as I say the pointer turns to a hour glass and i have to wait for 3 minutes.

What is going on? I have not added any new programs.
The little light below the power button flickers so it is doing something, but what?

I have even uninstalled norton anti-virus to see if that was causing the problem, but that was not it..

Any suggestions would certainly be appreciated.

windows xp home edition
dell 4100 deminsion
256 mb ram
30bg hard drive
msn explorer....i guess that is all the info you need but if not let me know as i need to fix this and thanks.