shell hardware detection problem

[redtransistor]

OK, I have a Dell Vostro 400 with XP Home SP3 that was running just fine until one day I turned it on and everything is sooooo slowwww. It now takes about 5 minutes for the icons to show up on the desktop, and equally long to execute when I click on one of them.

The last thing I remember before it went bad is that I had some issues with AOL. After running MSCONFIG and turning things on and off through trial and error, I have narrowed it down to "shell hardware detection". If I disable this service, all runs well. Turn it on, and the computer crawls.

I have also since uninstalled AOL, but nothing makes the computer run as before unless I disable "shell hardware detection".

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[redtransistor]

Thanks DomLuc, I was not aware of the issues with MSCONFIG. Fortunately, as your link suggests, I only used it as a temporary diagnostic to troubleshoot. I currently have "shell hardware detection" shut off using services.msc.

I did run CCleaner per your suggestion. Unfortunately, I still have the problem. When I enable "shell hardware detection", the computer slows down to an unusable level.

Any suggestions?

[plodr]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913630
although it says for people who updated from 2K to XP it sounds like you have the long pause.
Go into services and set it from automatic to manual.
(Control panel/Admin Tools/Services)

[redtransistor]

Yes, I tried to change the service to manual, but it has the same effect as automatic......the desktop takes many minutes to load and clicking on an icon will result in several minutes delay before the program executes.

Obviously I can reload Windows, but am trying to avoid that hassle. Any other suggestions?