Clean boot for games

Hello

My daughter has a win XP pro sys. When we try NHL 2004 with a USB sidewinder the game either doesn't start, freezes, doesn't recognise the game pad or reboots or is too slow.
There seems to be a lot of background processing going on. when i bring up the task manager there are around 20 or 30 running processes.

I would like to know if there is a way to boot Win XP as we do with Win 98 with no unnessesary pilots and programs.

Sys :
Epox sochet A with duron 1.4
Via KT chipset
256 sdram
Radeaon 7500


Thank you

<font color=green>"Nothing is good or bad, it all has to do with intentions!"</font color=green>

I forgot about F8 but is safe mode good for gaming? And i wonder if you do a clean install of XP will there still be 20-30 processes? What my daughter has been doing is shutting down processes before playing her gamw but it's a pain in the ___ .

<font color=green>"Nothing is good or bad, it all has to do with intentions!"</font color=green>

Pike,

256MB SDRAM is pretty light for Win XP Pro. If you have a lot of background processes running as well then I'm not surprised your system is groaning under the weight.

Have you gone through which processes are running, and which are consuming your processing power? You may also be straining your PSU to its limit, hence the freezing and rebooting. What spec is your PSU?

I don't only break your heart, I also break your pelvis

You're welcome.

I don't only break your heart, I also break your pelvis