Fine . I've just timed it . It took 45 seconds to get to the desktop , and another 20 for the hdd to finish . I'm not doubting the fact that the hardware is old but the PC runs fine with XP . The only time there's a problem is with the network connection . As I've already stated there are MANY people with this exact same problem . A quick search for "network icon slow" will reveal that . I doubt very much if all these people are using a dell L400 labtop . Anyway , we seem to be drifting off the subject . I appreciate the help . I'll keep investigating .