New Build booting REALLY slow

[Maxspeed996]

Just built a pc a week ago. Did a fresh install of xp64. Latest drivers.....you name it. It's clean. yesterday system would boot to the desktop in maybe 30 seconds. I wake up today, and turn it on, and black screen.
I've been sitting here watching it, and I get a blink of my desktop, and then black screen again. After a while the monitor clicks on, and it's my desktop.

System specs are

Asus p5n-d motherboard
Core 2 duo e8400 3.0ghz
8 gb gskill pc1000 ddr2
2 evga gtx260 running in sli
seagate 320 gb sataII hard drive

I'm wondering 2 things.
#1 the sli setup running all the time. Should sli be disabled when not in use?
#2 the video cards have literally 2-3mm between each other. top card is always 3-5 degrees C hotter than the bottom card. Should I look for a different motherboard that may have more room for these cards?

 

[Maxspeed996]

Here is an idea..
I have a PI-Camstick. super small spy cam that plugs in via usb to charge or upload the files. I plugged it in last night while the system was shut down. It acts as a storage device with the 8 gig micro sd card it has in it, when it is set to "off". is it possible the system is trying to boot from this? even with boot preference being DVD then harddrive, then usb?

EDIT: well that didn't make any difference. Unplugged it and put it away. And even disabled SLI. After shutting down, and waiting a minute. Tried to turn it on, and still....black screen and waiting. Where would anyone reccomend I start looking?

 

[Lunyone]

Well my first thought was that your GPU wasn't working correctly, especially if you could see your desktop every blink or two. Than my second thought was that your mobo was causing your problems.

Here are things that I'd try:
* Pull everything out of your case and put all of your parts on a non-conductive surface (cardboard works well).
* Then only hook up 1 HD, 1 stick or RAM, & 1 GPU and of coarse keep the CPU installed w/it's HSF. See if you are able to boot up. If not, you might try a different stick of RAM. You can cycle through all of your RAM sticks to see if you have a bad one, assuming you get the system to boot up.
* You could also try your older PSU in the system with your older GPU too. This way you can try and isolate your problem(s). If you are able to boot up with the older PSU/GPU than it could be either one of them that is bad in your newer system.
* If you suspect that you have a bad GPU you could try the other GPU. Verify that you have all of the PCI-e power connectors connected.
* By your previous comments, there is a possiblility that your monitor is going/has gone bad, but I don't know for sure. You could try a different monitor and see if you have issues there too. Double check your connections and wires. Try a different VGA/DVI cable if you have an extra one lying around.

 

[M0RPH]

I would check the system event log first.