Windows Log-In Lag

I’m running an IBM Thinkpad T43, 2,16Ghz Centrino, XP Pro SP3, 1GB Ram. Just bought the computer off lease yesterday and it was a fresh reimage.

Only programs installed were, Blackberry Desktop Manager, Firefox & Adobe Reader 9.

My issue is that I am noticing a major lag during boot up after some Windows updates.

Essentially after login, the task bar will not appear, requiring me to terminate the explorer.exe process and run it again. In addition, there is a 1-2 minute period before I can launch any programs.

This would not be a concern except for the fact that I do not have that many startup items or background processes.

Any help in this area would greatly be appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Regards,

Jesse