Ok, it used to take like 10 or 15 minutes to load. Now it takes about 2 cause i used some tools and techniques to clean up the registry and deleted viruses and malware etc. i also defragmented.

So that’s great.
But it’s still sluggish in the beginning when the desktop is loaded. it takes a few minutes… even the start sound that should sound right after the Welcome screen…you hear it after few minutes or seconds after the desktop is loaded

what else can i do????

it’s windows xp sp2
the computer is a notebook Acer Aspire 5100

sometime ago my cousin dropped it and ever since it also started doing weird things. The dvd/cd drive also doesn’t work….it doesn’t load dvds/cds..in rare occasions it does.
NOTE!!! After the slug in the beginning when the desktop screen is loaded, then its really fast and responsive. It’s just in the beginning that it is sluggish.

I was in the middle of working with MS Word on Sunday when my computer started to make a loud whining sound. It then froze for a few minutes, the screen starting making these odd waving ripples, and then the computer shut down. When it tried to start up again, it said "error could not load OS" (or something to that effect). I tried hitting the restart button, but the error message popped up again. I then shut down the surge protector and restarted, and everything was fine. I was just sitting at my computer (Friday), and it started to whine and froze once again. However, it did not shut down, and unfroze after about one minute. I have heard this whining noise in the past, but it was always at night while I was going to sleep, not on the computer (i.e. there was no computer activity), so I never realized that there was anything to be worried about. Is my power supply going, or does the fan just need a good cleaning, and is there any diagnostic software that will let me know?