Black screen during XP startup

I have an issue that worries me and I'd appreciate any advice from experts.

Machine details:

Dell C840 laptop, 1.8 MHz, 1GB ram (recently upgraded from 512 MB) 40 GB HDD; laptop spends most of its time in a Dell C docking station, 8 port powered USB hub always connected. XP Pro SP2 with latest updates, ZAP firewall, Norton 2004 antivirus. I run SpywareGuard, SpywareBlaster, SpyBot S&D and Ad-Aware SE - full scans for viruses and spyware weekly. I have used Wintasks and SpyBot utilities to selectively limit the startup list (maximise resources and minimise startup, which takes about 3 min). Broadband internet via BT and an Intel AnyPoint DSL modem. Lots of software loaded (MS Office, MS Project, Lotus SmartSuite, Paintshop Pro, Adobe Acrobat, etc, etc.). I use Firefox 1.5 rather than IE6, except when I have no choice.

I have run SpeedUpMyPC and Registry Mechanic to keep load times down and registry clean.

Machine always seems to start reliably but I get a completely black screen for around 5 secs during boot up, after the windows start screen and before the users logon screen appears. The screen goes completely black, then the mouse pointer appears, then the blue user logon screen.

It didn't always do this, it just seems to have happened as I've loaded more software over the years. Other XP laptops I've used didn't do this, but they didn't have the same software.

Is this normal? Is it a sign of any impending problems? Is there a fix I should use?

 

One thing I would check is the video driver, it can cause that, usually a little longer than you are experiencing but worth a try.

You might try either updating or rollback the video driver and try it.

Steve

 

That's an interesting thought, as I use a separate Dell 17" flat screen monitor with the laptop in a C-dock.

I didn't realise that the drivers could cause the screen to go black during boot, especially as I get the mostly black XP "splash" with the blue strobe bar and the XP logo up first - but I guess that that is low video quality as all the drivers may not be up at that stage.

What I don't get is the blue "Windows is starting" screen, it just goes splash to user login, with black in between.

 

Right,

I found that there were updated versions of both the video driver and the video BIOS (the ones on the laptop were the originals, as shipped) so I've just installed both updates and, guess what, still a black screen during boot.

I timed it this time and it goes

Windows XP "splash" with blue strobe bar - multi-second, (didn't time it)
Screen goes black for 12 secs, then
Mouse pointer only appears on black screen for 5 secs, then
Blue user logon screen appears.

Any other ideas? Is this a feature of using multiple user accounts?

My only other XP experience was on a networked laptop with no other user accounts, which didn't go black during boot.