Windows XP Pro slowdown - help plz!

[dipz]

Hi all I have an athlon XP 2400+, 1 GB ram, 7200 80 GB seagate. Usually after a format my system works well but after a few months it slows down drastically. I dont think it's a hardware problem because i have xp on another partition and it works ok. I do regular maintenance (spyware scans, update av, defrag, clean and defrag registry) but my system slows down after about 6 months. It's been about 4 months since my last format and my system takes long to boot and it moves slowly generally. I dont know what to do anymore. I like to think that I take good care of my system but this still happens. Is there any program that can get windows into a freshly formatted state without havin to format? It's like windows just gets tired and I dont know what to do to optimise my system now.
(Also right now my mouse pointer just stops sometimes. The mouse still works but the pointer just remains in one place. Don't know if this symptom helps with diagnosis)

 

[INeedCache]

It really does sound like you have spyware, or at least a lot of programs running in the background. Does everything work well in safe mode? To answer your question, no, you can't get Windows in a freshly formatted state without doing a fresh install. I'd go to the web and visit www.trendmicro.com and www.pandasoftware.com, and let their online scanners check your system to see if they find anything your anti-spy and anti-virus programs are not.