I've seen various posts and threads online about people with slow-boot problems, but need confirmation as to if what I'm experiencing is the same thing. I've done a few XP Pro installs, most recently onto a cleanly formatted NTFS partition. While the system boots up fast as far as loading and the OS appearing, I get an inexplicable delay afterward. After the "hourglass mouse" disappears and hd activity has ceased, I have found that I am unable to run any apps (Even stuff as simple as getting the properties of "my computer" and opening the login dialog box of my PPPoE dsl connection) for 30-60+ seconds afterward. (Windows Explorer seems unaffected by this.) Even when no other software has been installed. It becomes more easily detectable once Norton Systemworks and other system-tray-resident items are installed. I can tell the system is finally "really" up once when the rest of my system tray icons suddenly appear and apps/items I'd double-clicked a minute prior finally open. Some of you here have already experienced the red-X on antvirus there for a while, so you know what I mean. But since I was having these issues even before Norton AV 2002 was on, I'm wondering if this is the same boot issue, or something weird? Any help would be appreciated. Here are my system specs:
Abit TH7-II Raid mobo w/ P4 1.9Ghz
Asus 8200 Pure GeForce3 Ti 200
Creative Dxr3 decoder card
Ceative Sound Blaster Audigy
3Com nic (configured by XP; I didn't install a driver)
80gb Western Digital hd (primary master)
40gb Maxtor hd (primary slave)
8gb IBM hd (secondary master)
Creative PC-DVD (secondary slave)
LiteOn 24x10x40 CDRW (prim. master of 3rd ide chain)
Parallel Zip 100
I suspect something to do with the hardware or some processes initializing, but know not what. All devices function normally with latest drivers and no conflicts. Earlier configurations had the same issues, even with ide devices rearranged on their chains. As mentioned, XP was doing this before a single application was installed. This is a pure annoyance more than anything else. Thank you very much. Note: I have not yet tried bootvis nor trying to boot with the nic or other hardware removed from the system.