I've found the culprit - at last! After much frustration and testing....  [attach=#]

It's the BTNt service for Bluetooth (Blue Soleil)- I'm setting to manual because I only need it to occasionally connect my Cell Phone!

Glad you pinpointed the problem so now you won't have to reinstall.  Looks like your persistence paid off.

If you're referring to the main XP Prefetch folder, you can delete the tiny .pf or not. It doesn't really matter as windows will automatically control the folder contents (assuming default registry settings). You can also use a tool like NirSoft's WinPrefetchView, but again--you'll actually be micro-managing an area where XP auto-manages just fine.

Grrrrr - back to no shutdown! I surrender - XP has won! 

Was considering that - thanks for link 

Had to reinstall after all as things really went south! So I'm having to rebuild from a 10 month old Image...

Annoying as heck but try to see it as an opportunity to reorganize things a little and make a few improvements.

Bye Bye XP - Hello Windows 7! I'm loving it! 

Yep, good to hear. 

Seems you've had enough computer aggravation for a while.

For sure - spending a month's pension on Win 7 was worth it! 

That's a big decision! Very glad that investment is paying a good dividend in peace of mind.

Fortunately I took out a loan from the Bank Of Mother

I understand. I've been running a branch of the Bank Of Father for many years now and have incurred significant losses.