Computer running strangely sluggish with frequent freezing up

[Tazo]

Well, I just formatted my hard drive yesterday, and oddly enough, my computer is running worse than it was before I formatted. After I open a window it will take 1-2 seconds for it to show in the taskbar, and when it does, you can slowly see itself animating in. Also, the computer will randomly freeze, sort of pause, for anywhere from 2 - 10 seconds.

I have no idea what the issue is here and I'm open to all suggestions. It is important to note the computer did nothing like this before the format. Would a damaged hard drive cause said problems?

thanks in advance.

[Barabajagal]

Make sure you have all the updates for your operating system and the newest version of your video card drivers.

Also, do a disk scan (chkdsk /r for windows 2k/xp, and then restart the computer, scandisk for 9x). The result info will tell you if there's any damage.

[Tazo]

thanks for the quick reply.

before format, the OS seemed to be damaged and in a constant loop state. the computer would boot, the XP logo would show, and it would login to the only user on the computer. once it started loading, my background would show and everything, and then the computer would just shut off and restart. I accidentaly installed XP again, somehow, with the original f*cked OS still intact, and instead of looping once logged in, it now liked to keep running chkdsk everytime the computer turned on.

chkdsk never reported any errors.

the OS was updated yesterday with the fresh install, as was Catalyst (ATI video card driver program).

however, I will run one within the next hour. as far as updates go, I just found out there is an update available for a mobo similar to mine (same model number but different distributor), so I'm going to reflash the bios shortly here.

edit:: update
ran chkdsk and WD diagnostics, no errors with my HD apparently. is my processor dying?