After a HDD reformat and reinstall of WinXP, I get a sudden sharp delay after a reboot. Initially, I get the BIOS telling me the core details of the installed hardware; first individually, then quickly in a box. This takes under 20 seconds. This is normal. Then nothing but a black screen for EXACTLY 1 minute, 20 seconds. During that 1 minute, there's nothing but silence... but in the last 20 seconds, I can hear my HDD start whirring. Once I hit one minute 20 seconds, the WinXP logo suddenly appears and my PC boots as per usual. I downloaded and ran BootLogXP, but it doesn't seem to take into account the 80 second stop. It just says boot time is 59 seconds total. Any thoughts?

punistation, could it be that you have some new (to you) stuff in your startup menu that wasn't there before? Take a look in your control panel and be sure. HTH. Ed in Texas.