Windows 98 takes 7 minutes to load.

For the past month my Windows 98 has been taking about 7 minutes to load up. I'll first turn on the computer, then the Windows 98 screen appears and stays there for about 7 minutes. I can hear the drive working .After it finishes loading ,my desktop appears.
Also, when I click on an icon or open a file there is a delay of about 5 or 6 seconds before the file opens.
Can someone help me . Thanks.

 

Hi George M, It's a difficult question to answer as it may be anything from a
dying root hard disk to problems with your registry, malware and so on.
What applications are set to load when you boot ?
It is not simple to find out apps that are set to start in the registry at boot.
Do a search for a free app eg search for "Startup Manager ".
Let us know what it shows as starting at boot.
Also, check for malware with AVG Free, Adaware etc that can be downloaded.
Also, a search for "boot" on this forum's contents may show some posts
that are relevant.
regards

 

Also suggest you go into Safe Mode (tap the F8 key when you hear the POST beep). Do a "Disk Cleanup ", a Scandisk set on "thorough" and a Defragmentation. Also check in Device Manager for any problems with drivers (apart from warnings, multiple listings for the same device can point to driver problems).

Matt