Hi, I'm helping a friend with his computer and we could use some help please.

 

"My Computer" takes about 40 or 50 seconds to open, (searching flashlight).

Every thing else opens normally, except Device Manager opens but doesn't show

any hardware. Actually, after getting rid of alot of spyware with Adaware, (found 245

entries) and MS Spyware beta , (it found 3 bad ones), and clearing out temp files and

doing a defrag (39% fragmented!), this Celeron 2.6 in a Dimension 3000 w/256 MB DDR

is running XP Home pretty good, except for "My Computer" being slow,  and Device Manager not showing hardware. (ps...it is slow trying to open it all the different ways).

 

I do get 2 beeps after POST, but I believe that is a memory error and

I'm working on that also.

 

I also ran sfc /scannow, and also did a checkdisk that didnt help. What did help was

taking the hard drive and installing it in my computer (Dell 8300) as the primary drive and

My Computer came up instantly when I clicked on it. When I put the HD back into the

Dimension 3000, My Computer came right up also. But after clicking around a little,

(or maybe there was a reboot), opening My Computer went back to taking an excessive

long time, about 40 seconds or so.

 

I'm hoping that this information will sound familiar to someone and they can

tell me what might be going on and how to proceed.  My main concern isn't the slow

opening of My Computer, it's not having a working Device Manager.

 

Does this sound like a virus or a corrupted OS ?

 

The only other thing that might be of concern is that in Windows Task Manager, there

is one process that is labeled as a number. It reads " 20051125214317..." Even after selecting

Diagnostic Startup in msconfig, it still appears as one of the processes.  Under user name is the name of the owner of the computer.

 

Can someone please tell me what process this is ? I couldn't find any information on it.

 

Thanks for your suggestons and advice.