Windows explorer constantly frozen

I do not know what is wrong. My computer (which has been running Win
XP SP2 fine for ~3 months) is suddenly having problems. I am NOT new
to windows, or computers, and realize there is something wrong with
windows. My problem below:

This problem just appeared randomly a few days ago with no warning,
and no "fade into it". my system is actually perfectly fine, except
explorer (and only explorer) is unfathomably slow. Anything to do
with file browsing, task bar, start menu, is all hung constantly. For
short periods, it will suddenly jump to life and act normally until I
issue a command, or a random (and short) amount of time has passed,
then it will freeze again, trying to execute my command (in the event
I gave it one).

What is strange about this is the rest of the OS is acting completely
normally, and I can view all my files fine through Firefox (luckily).

Please let me know if you have ever heard of this problem and/or know
what to do.

Note: Two points of info:
A. I've noticed when I first login, it seems normal, except:
1. explorer is not started (but it's trying, and accomplishes starting
in about ~30mins.)
2. the memory consumption is ~270 megabytes, instead of the normal
idle of ~ 380 megabytes (I suspect some services that are also having
trouble because of explorer are not yet started, or are very slow to
acquire their required resources).

B: I HAVE turned off the windows imaging thing, so don't suggest that
(I just see that a lot, so don't in advance)

Once again, please help me, and thank you in advance if you have an
idea or solution. I can try to provide more info if necessary.

.

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