Disconnect from the Internet the re-boot in safe mode go to Start go to run type in msconfig and select the start-up button and first see if you can ucheck anything thats not important software wise Or what icon are showing down by the clock when you boot up in normal mode
what O/S do you have is it Windows ME...? I have the scandisk option set sometimes you get some benefit from it sometimes it gets in the way
Spybot too has the option to look at what starts-up with Windows let me know how you get on