Odd openGL slowdown problem

[EmperorPete]

Up until a few days ago, LW was performing wonderfully well for me. But about 3 days back, my surfaces panel suddenly started taking ages to update. I click on a surface and maybe 3 or 4 agonizing seconds later , everything updates.
I tried defragging my storage drive, and even reinstalled XP (I tried Win2K as well) but the problem persists.
Any thoughts?
I am running a 2.4Ghz P4, 512Mb DDR RAM, and a GeForce4 MMX 440SE graphics card.

[Lamont]

Turn off vertical Sync in the videocard properties panel. That may help.

And install the drivers too...

You must be on a laptop right?

[EmperorPete]

It's not a laptop, no; and all the drivers are installed and up to date.
I tried turning off vertical sync, but it doesn't seem to have changed anything.

[mattclary]

And this happens no matter what scene or object is loaded?

[EmperorPete]

It seems to, yes.