Syslinux - Oct 2013 - 6.02 won't boot XP. 6.01 works slowly, but successfuly.

C:\syslinux>type syslinux.cfg
    prompt   1
    timeout  1
    
    default  hello
    label  xp
            com32  chain.c32
            append hd0  1  ntldr=/ntldr
    label  memtest
            linux  memtest86+.bin
    label  hello
            com32  hello.c32
    
    C:\syslinux>

    syslinux command was:

        syslinux.exe -a -d /syslinux -f -i -m c:

1. The syslinux copyright message is displayed quickly.  Any other
   actions by syslinux are terribly slow.  It takes 2 to 4 minutes
   for the boot prompt to get displayed.  Then another 2 to 4 
   minutes for the command to be taken.  I reported here the same
   issue with 6.01, and possibly earlier versions.
2. 6.01 works slowly, but successfully.  6.02 works slowly, and fail.
   With both 6.01 and 6.02, hello.c32 is reporting the malloc issue.
   It takes a long time to run, but it does exit.  In contrast to 
   6.01, the xp command for 6.02 reopts an

       ERR: Couldn't read the first disk sector

   I pressed ctrl+alt+del immediately afterwards.  Was I wrong not to
   wait a few minutes before doing that?
3. The following is mostly for the record.
   I seldom reboot the machine.  I think I have no malware.  I do get
   MS updates for XP.  Some tools against malware are frequently
   included within those updates.  It is frequently strongly suggested
   to reboot the machine in order for the updates to take effect.
   Recently, I think that whenever these tools are run as part of MS
   updates, the machine won't boot afterwards.  I need to use the MS
   fixboot tool first.  Then, after being able to boot into XP, I can
   reinstall syslinux 6.01, and reboot using syslinux.