xp gone wrong!!

please can anyone help , i am trying to sort out a pc with issues! . When booted the system is extremely slow and struggles to open any programs it has some free virus checkers installed and a (v scan?) firewall as well as xp firewall .
I have tried to see the cpu usuge by pressing crtl , alt n del but nothing happens and i was goin to attempt a system restore but again when selected nothing happens, i cant open system info as again nothing happens , the system does not hang but keeps functioning and i can select my computer , control panel but it is as though the programs i need have been removed.
I did attemt to start in SAFE MODE but still i cannot acces the restore function and cntr alt del now cause total system hang and nothing responds to any key/mouse commands and the machine has to be forced to power off, i checked the startup prgrams using the msconfig command and saw no programs that looked suspicious but as the problem still occours in safe mode they seem unlikely anyway.
The systems internet connection has also become highly unstable in the past few days and when working is about as faast as a bad dial up connection ( should be 2mbps),, i hope some one can help me many thanks for taking the time to read the post

 

Are you able to access the Event Log and see if there are any errors reported ?

 

Just run one software firewall. Two together can really get each other confused.

If that does not work, go into msconfig and disable everything. Reboot, and if things are OK, re-enable one thing, then repeat. Eventually you will find out what is corrupt. There is not really a quick way to do this, unless you are a good guesser.

 

What kind of cpu are you using, and amount of ram. Some system specs could be quite helpful.

I know that XP can run on a minimum of 64 megs of ram, but, runs much nicer with 512.

 

the system is a dell machine 2.8ghz with 256 mb of ram and does behave like its out of memory but i cant tell for sure coz all the programs you use to tell ie system monitor dont function. i have not yet tried event log but that will be my next port of call

 

You should have only 1 antivirus application installed, as well as only 1 firewall. The two firewalls would explain the slow internet access. Uninstall all but your favourites.