I recently upgraded my Mobo and CPU. After having some trouble getting into windows. (Had to do a repair install because the old mobo drivers were invalid.) It gets into windows pretty fast but sits at "Windows is starting up..." for 2-3 minutes. I have run Bootvis, and TuneXP and defragged and run all spyware programs and such, but no change at all. I'm out of ideas, any suggestions?

Try this: How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP To help troubleshoot error messages or other issues when you cannot determine the cause of the issue, disable common startup programs, settings, and drivers to eliminate possible software conflicts when you start Microsoft Windows XP. This procedure is known as "clean booting." How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP and that one is a heavy duty article. Print the articles for reference.

Whenever you change mobo's you will have to start clean with your HDD in order for the drivers to match. All you did was, install new drivers on top of old drivers and now when the HDD trys to interact with the processor it does not know where to send the information or how to send the information, which then creates collisions and slows down performance termendously. Do a fresh install. If you still want your data, burn it to a CD or take it to a friends house and put all the inforamtion you want on his HDD, then do the fresh install, and then take back your info. You can be amused by the simplest of things. The smartest people in the world, over-look the smallest objects. War does not determine who is right, only who is left.

A reformat is always on my mind, but not something I can take lightly. Last resort is a reformat. When I had trouble getting into windows someone told me to reformat, but a Windows Repair install fixed that. I have made some progress though, I installed Service pack 2 again. (I hadn't noticed the repair install removed it.) And now it jumps passed "Windows is Starting up..." and goes into "Welcome" fast and sits there for a minute. Then it shows me my windows background for another minutes before loading stuff. As far as performance is involved, once I get into windows everything runs fine, my benchmarks are up and Doom3 is benching at 61 fps now. I installed my Mobo drivers, Vid drivers, ect. I also disabled the Onboard Audio and Lan card from the motherboard via the bios. The Motherboard is and BIOSTAR NForce 2 M7NCD. So, I'll continue trying suggestions since backing up my files is not very easy right now.

Always a good idea to format when installing a new mobo and cpu...

Hi, Reformatting usually is the best way to start, but isn't necessary. Enter the computer in safe mode and uninstall all motherboard device drivers. Reboot and reinstall the M7NCD drivers. It should run smoother then. Tony AMD Athlonxp 3200+ OC Asus A7N8x-deluxe-E ATI AIW 9600pro 2x WD SATA raptors/raid0 Corsair XMS3200 16x Lite-on DVD 12x DVD-R 48x Lite-on CDRW Aspire Super Alien Case