After re-booting my PC, for about 2 minutes the My Computer window will not open. All I get is the flaslight indicating 'searching'.
Anyone any ideas?

Does this happen if you reboot your computer and use your computer for a while and then try opening my computer? Or does this only happen right after you reboot your computer and you log in?

No, as soon as I reboot my PC My Computer will not open, all I get is the flashlight. After about 5 minutes My Computer opens, and continues to open perfectly until my next reboot.
Also, for some reason it takes about 1 minute for my NTL 1mb cable internet connection to work. Previously, it has always connected as soon as I boot up my PC, no one minute wait it connected immeditely.

You have it set for My Computer to open automatically when you boot into your computer without actually double-clicking on my computer? I am just trying to understand what is happening.

Do you have any mapped network drives in my computer in which the drives are no longer reachable anymore?

No, the setting is default. My Computer will open only when I double click after reboot.

Regarding the mapped network drives, i dont think so.

It could be that you are trying to open my computer before your computer has finished loading everything. When your computer reboots it loads various programs automatically. Even after you see the desktop this loading process continues until all the programs it is supposed to load finishes. if you try to launch a program, even my computer, while it is doing so it can take a while to load.

Next time this happens make sure that your hard drive is still not going a lot, should be able to see a flashing light on the front of your computer which signified hard disk activity. If it is still going a lot, that is probasbly why it takes a while to load my computer. Wait until the lhard drive stops to launch my computer and see if it is better.

I had the same problem. It may be related to having an HP ScanJet 5400 scanner and/or having Windows Imaging Acquistion (WIA) service turned on.

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article # 81917 at http://support.microsoft.com

To stop the WIA service:
1. Open Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Component Services
2. Click Services, in the Services (Local) list scroll down and then right-click Windows Imaging Acquisition , then click Stop

If you have an HP ScanJet 3400C, or 5400/5470C, unplug the scanner then restart XP.