IE8 very slow to load

On an XP Home SP3 (recently reinstalled) machine, when called, IE8 takes 12 seconds to open up a blank basic frame for its window, and a further 15 seconds for it to be filled and ready for use (27 seconds in total).

In comparison, Firefox and Chrome both take a total of 4 seconds from being called to being ready.

I have tried various ways to address this problem, some of which have apparently worked for other people, the latest of which was Microsoft's own "fix-it", which didn't. As far as I can tell it did nothing.

A technical savvy person to whom I spoke, when I had only found the problem in IE (I hadn't compared it with the other two), said that it may be a problem with the computer - memory/motherboard/power supply, but, since the problem does not manifest itself when using IE, I doubt that is the case.

Can anyone suggest a cure for it?

 

Hey dmb06851, I need to ask this, but have you removed IE8, ran Ccleaner, did a chkdsk the reinstalled IE8 ?? When you reinstalle IE8, do not do it through Windows Update, go here. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/download-ie-MCM, and get it.

 

No Nick, I didn't do that. I let the updater do it. However, since making the first post, matters have improved.
After (yet another) automatic update to .Net Framework, IE8 now loads fully in about 7 seconds.
Since one of IE8's known features is its low speed I would guess that's pretty good and it is unrealistic to expect better.