Slow Boot Up Process - Sudden w/o physical changes

[trexmgd]

I?ve had my rig running rock solid now for almost a year. Well, that?s over as I have some odd boot up issue going on. Upon start up, the post screens come up fast and everything looks OK. But then the Windows XP splash screen comes up (with the blue bars) and takes a couple more cycles than it used to. Now comes the biggest issue: After the Win XP splash goes blank, I get hung on the blank screen for a minute or so. It used to go directly to the ?user sign on? page. After the ?user sign on? page does come up, there is another long delay until I get to my desktop. Once I?m up and running, things seem fine.

I don?t know if this is related, but I?ll throw it out there: A couple of weeks ago, I noticed an error message at shut down stating there was a memory problem with ?display.exe? and I?d have to ?OK it? close and the shut down would continue. I googled ?display.exe? and found several references to it possibly being a virus. It was never detected by AVG as a virus. I have since removed display.exe (went to the windows folder and deleted it manually) and nothing happened. I?ve also reinstalled my nVida driver as well (latest available). Again, these two things (slow start and shut down error) did not start at the same time, but it?s the only oddity I could think of.

I perform regular spyware checks (Adware Pro & Spybot) as well as run a virus scan daily (AVG ).

I have not added any new hardware or drivers (save for the video driver AFTER the issue).

I tried to boot to Win XP and run ?R? repair option, but it can?t see my hard drives as I run them in RAID 0.

Any ideas what it could be or how to fix it?

 

[montag451]

Does it do the same in SAFE mode?

 

[trexmgd]

Originally posted by: montag451
Does it do the same in SAFE mode?

Yes it does. I selected safe mode w/o networking and then ran all AV and Spyware progs, but still face the same issue. Any ideas?

 

[Shooks]

I believe you still have to load the RAID drivers through the F6 method when going into repair mode. I know I have to when I do it on my RAID-0 array.

 

[trexmgd]

I'm aware of F6 for a Windows setup, but the F6 option does not appear for the "R", repair option. I have not tried to choose windows setup, then F6, and then look for the repair option afterwords. I'll try it and see what options appear after F6 (thought it goes into xp install from there).

 

[trexmgd]

bump

 

[montag451]

Have you got a UPS attached to the computer?

If so, disconnect it.

 

[trexmgd]

No, I do not have a UPS attached to the computer.

Anyone got any ideas for me? I'm lost!