Paging file

Everytime I restart/reboot the process takes forever,ending with a
notice that I have no page file.
When I go to my
Computer/properties/advanced/performance/settings/advanced/virtual
memory, it says the Total paging file is 0
So I click CHANGE and it shows my C drive to have a paging file size of
1152-2304.
The custom size box is checked, and I have clicked SET (about 100
times) and rebooted 100 times, only to wait forevr for it to reboot and
when it finally does it says I have no page file.

At the bottom of the aforementioned dialog there is
"Total paging file size for all drives"
Minimum allowed 2 MB
Recommended 573 MB
Currently allocated 0 MB

I've tried the system managed size option and I get the same message (no
paging file)

Is there some mystery setting I am missing here that a paging file will
not set or appear to exist. Does XP really take THAT long to boot.
Gateway just reformatted my hard drive when they replaced my corrupted
memory chips and they upgraded me to XP after I suffered 3 long years
with ME. So, It isn't like I'm using an old version for years on end.
THis is a new configuration.
Thanks for any help...........................joe