Suddently takes 3 tries and 10 minutes to start-up winXP

A winXP question, but a serious one, so I'm asking for help from
v10-hotshots too.

My Acer Netbook (about 8 to 10 years old, model not remembered but on
request) has been working fine, except for the usual Firefox too many
tabs problem. This time I closed Windows normally and the next time I
tried to boot it, 10 or 15 minutes went by and nothing showed on the
screen. Nothing on the screen when I started, in the middle, or when
I got tired and turned the computer off.

Turned it off with the power button, and on restart, it did nothing
again, for 10 or 15 minutes. Much of the time the harddrive light was
on steadily. Sometimes it flickered and then went back to steady.

On the third try it started, but took much longer than normal, and it
displayed nothing along the way until the very end it displayed a blue
screen with a couple horizontal bars and Windows is Starting.

It's hard to believe but at the start it didn't even display the
startup options to go into the BIOS, etc.

But everything worked fine once it did start. After 8 hours of use,
the web browser (SeaMonkey) was slowing down, so I restarted it.

Same problems. Finally started on 3rd try, but took 10 minute to do
so. Working fine again.

What is the problem? What to do? I'm on vacation and if the whole
thing fails, I don't have equipment to "fix it" or even salvage data
from the HDD.)

Thanks for any help you can offer.