As far as I can tell, these are XP "features". I've seen this kind of wonky behavior on every computer XP computer I've worked on for any time, regardless of manufacturer or XP flavor (Home, Pro or Server.) After a recent update, my computer began to freeze, though this has now subsided somewhat.

Good luck, though, getting Microsoft to admit the problems are theirs--or getting a resolution. They'll tell you to update to Vista, though that opens a whole nother set of problems (on top of the ones they've failed to fix in XP, or 2000, or 98...)