freezes at login

[Chris Porter]

Hi all,

Xp freezes at the login screen unless I login within a very short time (
usually a few seconds ).

If I dont make it the hard drive light comes on and the mouse freezes up.

There dont seem to be any hardware problems and I have had a good look at
all the startup programes. I am however scared to remove some of the
startup items incase they are essential system stuff and I make the problem
worse.

Any pointers would be greatly apreciated,

TIA,

Chris.