Hi, I am using an IBM r60 laptop i purchased around 3 years back. It has a 1.66ghz intel,60gb, 512 mb ram and runs on windows xp professional.Over course of time the computer has obviously slowed down. So last week i did a full reinstall of xp and upgraded my ram by 2gb whereby i have 2.49 gb ram.But the comptuer still takes forever to load up and shut down. It takes around atleast 2-3minutes to load up. No program has been installed and its been a clean reinstall of windows. I thought my speed would increase but it still the same.I wanted to know if its a problem with windows and if so can i tweak something?I have removed all ibm preinstalled software so only my sound drivers,etc are loaded on startup. Nothing else.And even while working on the system, it doesnt have exceptional increase in working speed as i thought would happen due to my ram increase from 512mb to 2.49gb ram. I did ram tests and it seems to be working fine. There is a increase in speed but not that significant.I have also noticed that its reasonably fast upto the password screen. Then after entering password, on the logging in screen it remains for a long time. I was watching my harddisc activity button, and realised that there is almost 30-45 seconds where the hard disc is idle and not functioning after entering the password and while waiting to reach the home screen.Any idea why nothing is happening during this point of time?Someone kindly do let me know what may be wrong and how to increase speed of startup and shut down. Thank you. Eapen4 people need an answerI do too