XP slow to boot and lost exclamation sound

I have a probelm with the boot time on my XP system. Eveything is ok untill the desktop is displayed and before the icons are up. The boot sequence stops for about 3 to 4 minutes and then the hard drive comes back to life. The system then boots ok and runs fine.
I also have a problem with the exclamation sound. When this sound should be played all I get is a beep from the speaker in the computer case. I have checked that the sound is still there in contol panel - sounds and audio devices and it plays ok.
Are these two issues related?
The system has been checked for malware and all instances removed.
I have updated my sound device driver(onboard) and checked that the BIOS are up to date.
System - Windows XP Media centre SP3
CPU - AMD Athlon 2.2
System information included as zipped text file

 

Did you have malware? What was done to remove it?

 

Yes there was malware on the system and this was removed by using the READ and RUN me first post in the malware forum.
I have posted a similar thread in the malware forum and was told this is not walware related and should post here.

 

I have not run the diagnotics that you have mentioned but will do this now. Will let you know the results. I have attached the screenshot of my Start up Menu using Ccleaner.

 

That's a large start up!! Is Super Anti Spyware paid or free. And you got AOL spyware there as well. Are these real time?? You can do with just one real time scanner.

With the exception of Zone Alarm, I'd do away with all other start ups. Where is your Anti virus??

Use http://www.majorgeeks.com/Startup_CPL_d619.html to restrict all the others..

Cheers...

 

Thanks for the info. Starting to think this might be a windows issue as have had two blue screens of death last night. Also a quote on start up that there is a problem with the boot configuation file. Just switched of the computer and restarted and message gone away but this did happen twice.

Any ideas on why the bleep from the speaker in the system case?

 

I read somewhere that Real player changes the Exclamation sound, and if you go through its configuration you can change it back. Since I do not use Real Player I can't look and direct you, but if I remember correctly you have to uncheck something to do with sounds.

 

Have tried to check my Maxtor HD with Seatools from seagate and it fails both the long and short self tests. I have also noticed that when I am working on the PC all is fine but if I leave it for a while when I return I have a blue screen of death. I have a theory that this only happening when the system is idle. So have left the pc with some mp3's running in media player, I returned to the pc after 1 hour and everything is still ok. Is this a problem with the hard drive?

 

It could very well be. When you first startup, the case and drives are cool, but after the drive gets hot, as long as its spinning and active its ok, but if it stops while its hot it fails and can't restart. You could turn off the power down after so many minutes thing but it still looks like your drive is failing.