XP Services fail to starting after booting up

[maxim730]

Hi All,

Two days ago, I experienced a strange problem with my XP computer (about 2 years old.) When I boot up my computer, and right after I log in, it takes abount 3-4 minutes for the mouse hand to disappear and for the actual Windows to load up (desktop,wallpaper, icons, etc). When it does, my internet does not work. After spending hours trying to figure out what the problem was, I found out that the DNS Client Service did not start even though the startup type is set to 'Automatic'. After I started this service, my internet started working. Also, same thing for 'Windows Audio'. No Sound when Windows loads up, but after i start the service it works fine. The Startup Type is set to 'Automatic'.

Question: Why would those two services fail to start even though they are set to Automatic? I checked Event Viewer and no errors were posted.

I booted into Safe Mode and ran a SpyWare scan from Trend Micro, it did find some stuff and cleaned it (Monde something being one of them)

Everything was working fine before, the only thing I did was:

- hook XP machine to router
- hook my new computer to router
- Share files on XP machine
- Transfer files through router to new machine (I had to turn off zonealarm to do thisl; too lazy to configure ZA to allow router address)
- Connect to XP machine using Remote desktop from new computer to check some stuff out

Another thing.. all of a sudden, there isn't any 'sharing' tab if I go to the Properties of any folder. It was there before, but now its gone. 'SImple File Sharing' is un-checked, it could be that the Sharing service(s) aren't started, but I'm not sure what services relate to that.

Sorry for the long post, its really annoying to wait 3-4 minutes and to manually start services so you can surf the net.

Thanks for any advice.

Athlon XP 1700+
1.5 gigs RAM
XP Pro