Please help! Image burning problem :(

[Einstein]

You could try stopping all other background tasks running. Alot of programs run in background upon bootup. Maybe something there is causing a problem.
If you run Msconfig, go to startup tab & untick everything except for Explorer, this may help.
I think Msconfig is still available under XP. I can't remember.

Other than that, this may sound a bit harsh mate, but you might have to try a clean format & reinstall of Windows.
Sounds like something has got really screwed there.

Maybe someone else has some fresh ideas?