Thinkpad T30 sluggish Windows XP startup

[joea64]

For the last day or two, I've noticed that my IBM Thinkpad T30 (P4 1.8Ghz CPU, 1GB RAM, 40GB HD, Windows XP Pro SP2) has been experiencing a problem with sluggish startup of the Windows desktop. The machine starts normally when the power button is pressed, WinXP seems to load normally and I can log in normally, but the desktop seems to hang when the background image comes up. I found the last time this happened that when I moved the pointer around (using the "pencil eraser" pointer or the pad) the desktop did start up, but it took longer than normal for everything to load. Alternately, I've had to do a reset (holding the power button down) in order to get everything loading. The last thing I installed was the drivers and software for a Canon LIDE 30 scanner on Thursday evening last (the 10th), but on the 11th I didn't have any problem starting the system though the scanner wasn't attached. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm doing a virus scan but so far have turned up nothing, I'm going to run Ad-Aware and Spybot next.

-Joe-

[joea64]

Update: I think it might have been the update I downloaded for AVG Antivirus (Free Edition) yesterday morning that has caused the problem, but I don't want to say anything definite yet. The system was loading and booting normally in all respects before AVG auto-downloaded yesterday's update (actually an update for the weekend, since I hadn't powered up the Thinkpad since Friday afternoon). I downloaded today's update just now and it was also pretty large.

Incidentially, when I booted up just now and the desktop began to load, I moved the cursor around immediately and the desktop loaded normally thereafter. I don't know whether that's actually related, or whether AVG's update is at fault or it's something else, or what (I still need to do a Spybot S&D scan, as AVG and Ad-Aware scans didn't turn up anything). Will also have to check the Startup menu; when I installed the latest version of Adobe Acrobat reader, it installed a Photoshop freebie thingy that I don't want loading at startup (it's currently disabled but I want to remove it from Startup entirely. I don't think it's the problem though because it's been around for a couple of weeks). Another update: I don't think the Canon scanner drivers are at fault either because the system booted correctly several times after I installed them before yesterday's AVG update downloaded.

-Joe-