The hard drives arent SATA are they? The symptoms you describe are similar to
something i had where windows took 2-3 mins to laod the desktop after the
Welcome message appears. It was a bad / damaged SATA drive that i think i
had. Took it out and the problem went.

Not sure if that helps


"25or6to4" wrote:

> My Windows XP Pro machine has started hanging for a long period between the
> Windows startup screen (with the moving indicator) and the pre-desktop screen
> when the startup sound plays. During this period, the screen is black, with a
> mouse pointer visible. There appears to be hard disk activity (the light is
> on, but no sound) and just before the welcome message appears, the video card
> resets to its desktop resolution (I can hear the monitor switching modes). I
> have tried using MSCONFIG to do an absolute barebones startup, but it's just
> the same, so it does not seem to be a service or startup program that's
> causing the problem.
>
> Where else could I be looking? Because I have just reinstalled Windows after
> a crash, there is no restore point to go back to. It was loading fine for the
> first few days. I think the problems began when I upgraded to the latest
> video drivers. But I can't seem to roll them back either.
>
> The configuration is ASUS P4P800S-X motherboard, P4 2.66 Intel CPU, 1 GB
> RAM, ASUS 9500GE AGP8X 256 MB video card and two Samsung HD drives - one 40
> GB and one 80 GB (boot disk), plus an NEC DVD-R/W.
>
> Any help appreciated.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I have this same problem, as do 2 other XP machines in my office. Is this an
> update issue or a bug? We had this same problem about two months ago, when on
> the same day all 3 PCs were slow at startup. Can anyone help?
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> I am having the same problem .. msconfig set fot the bare minimum to load
> ... my progress bar shows short movement then stop and keeps doing this, and
> then after input of password, takes several minutes for the desktop icons to
> appear ... can't figure out the cause ???
> ---Thanks for any help ---- 25or6to4
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> I failed to mention, does this even after a deep virus scan, total
> defragmentation and optimizing. -- Thanks for any help
> --
> Thanks for any help ----
> 25or6to4