Hi. First, I'd just like to say, that I've been coming to this board now for some months, and I always seem to get speedy and helpful replies. To all who have responded to my posts: Thanks!! Now to the latest....... From some searching that I've done, I see it's a fairly common "error" for people to have their Win XP Pro or Home to "hang" on boot. I had it happen to me in the past, have since re-formatted my system, the problem seemed to have gone away, but now.... Just to let you know, I did a complete "clean" install of XP Pro recently. I mean REALLY clean where as I deleted my "C" partition, did a full format (not "Quick"). This was a couple of weeks ago. Just the other day or so, when I would boot up, it would actually get past the XP screen where you see (what some people refer to as) the "blue caterpillar", and then get to the "Welcome" screen, but then it would hang THERE. (There was a time in the past where I would get hang time at the "blue caterpillar" screen.) So, I would have to shut down improperly, re-boot, then get that message that Windows did not shut down properly........ On some other searching that I've done on the 'Net, I came across something that said to press F8, then choose to do a Logged Boot. I did this, and it said to look for the bootlog.txt to see EXACTLY what is causing the boot failure (i.e., a driver). Thing is, I can't find the bootlog.txt. I even did a Search for it, even using the "wild card" search. How do I find it? Another thing I came across as a possible cause - and the only other thing I can think of that I did - is that I plugged into my USB posts an AirFlo gamepad, and also a USB connection wire for connecting to my MP3 player when I want to load up songs on it. I read on some other message board that it's possible that THESE could be causing a conflict. What do you think? Should I NOT leave these items connected to my USB ports in the back unless I'm using them. Is it a bad idea to leave them connected "round-the-clock"? The USB wire for my MP3 player just sort of lays on the ground at the back of my computer for when I want to plug the end in to the player when I want to put songs on it. And the gamepad, well, that's for when I want to use it on certain games. Could either of these two USB connections be interfering with boot up? If I'm recollecting correctly - and my memory does fail me occasionally as I've been getting older - this "hanging problem" seemed to start after I connected these items. I know this seems like THIS could be my problem, but just in case I'm wrong about WHEN the problem started....... Oh yeah, one more thing. I came across one more thing that supposedly could cause booting interference, something referred to as ACPI ( Advanced Configuration and Power Interface ), and supposedly, some systems are not compatible with it. I found it in my BIOS after pressing Delete on boot, but the thing is, it's "grayed out", meaning I can't do much with it anyway, given that it's not accessible. Sorry if I was a little long-winded here, but could you let me know about the bootlog.txt and how to get it/ find it? Also the USB connections that I mentioned, and that ACPI thing? Thanks for any info, tips, or suggestions. Pez

Enable Boot Logging Starts while logging all the drivers and services that were loaded (or not loaded) by the system to a file. This file is called ntbtlog.txt and it is located in the %windir% directory. Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, and Safe Mode with Command Prompt add to the boot log a list of all the drivers and services that are loaded. The boot log is useful in determining the exact cause of system startup problems. Go to Start.help and support, where i found this... Leon Wisnensky The Hot Dog Vending Pimp