Mysterious delays?

Hi,

I am having strange problems with my windows xp sp2 installation:

-- When I click on a link that requires the first Internet Explorer window to open (for example, a link in an email), it takes about 30 seconds for the Internet Explorer window to actually open.

-- The computer has problems hibernating; it sometimes freezes in the middle of hibernating, or it sometimes does not start hibernating.

To the best of my knowledge, there have never been spyware or viruses on the computer; I have all the major spyware tools running regularly (http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407), and I have anti-virus software and Zonealarm running.

I'd appreciate any advice.

Thanks,

JG