scanning options ROMs window

Is there any chance that my motherboard is failing? When I start up my computer, a black window now appears that says scanning options ROMs. It takes a long time for that to go away and then a black screen comes back on with computer info on it and then goes black again for a few minutes before windows comes on. My computer has also become very shulggish and doesn't respond to my commands when wanting to close a page or search the internet, etc. I have windows xp home edition and it is around 5 years old.At the present moment, I have a backup program running to backup everything I have just in case my computer goes ka-put. I don't understand how computers work too well but any advice will be appreciated as long as it isn't too technical as I haven't learned the tech talk yet. Thank you.

 

Go to start, run, type in CHKDSK /R (note the space before the forward slash)
and restart the system for it to run.
This will check files etc: and can solve a lot.
A clean up can also help - http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=106650 by Major Attitude
Come back , and ask again, if you need to try more .

 

thank you. At the moment, I am running a back up program and as soon as it is done, I will follow your instructions and get back to you.

 

I got the black screen up asking me if I wanted to restart the computer. It had a Y/N. Am I suppose to type in yes and then restart the computer? I've never done this before. Thanks.

 

Sorry, I am a little late coming back, I assume you typed 'y', by now.
It is generally the way Windows cleans out old files, by restarting.