Boot problem

Hello everyone. This is my first post and I must say I love this site. Hoping someone can help me with this problem. I read a lot of posts but didn't find one that related to mine.

I have a Compaq computer with windows XP home. Just recently the computer started taking about 5 minutes to boot up. When first started the computer will get to the red Compaq logo and stay there for the longest time, then it will boot and after booting seems to work fine.

I have tried everything I know which isn't much. I have come to the conclusion it must be motherboard problems. There are no trouble beeps. Any suggestions would be welcomed. Thanks

 

Welcome to MG, Jack.

The usual reason for a PC taking forever to boot but working fine when it does, is a troublesome driver.

I've always used a little program called Bootlog Analyzer which you can get from here. This will tell you what is causing the delay.

 

WelcomeA stall at the compaq logo could suggest a hardware problem but is unlikely due to the computer working,right after that point the motherboard will search for an operating system,what you need to look for its harddrive activity is there is no harddrive actiivity during the five minute wait then it fires up an windows loads it may suggest one of the post tests is playing up,you may be able to fix by manually setting the one or more bios settings from auto,compaqs have very few bios settings to tweak though.

EDIT or as yargwel says it could be driver problem if it makes it beyond this point

 

Thanks for the replies. I worked on the computer all night until 6:30 this mourning to no avail. I had pulled every piece of hardware out that I could to see if a particular piece was causing the problem and finally gave up and went to bed.

Well, after I got up I had give up and thought about ordering a motherboard. The computer could be used until the motherboard came in. I put the computer all back together and guess what? The computer boots fine now. :banghead I don't know why but I feel I haven't heard the last of this problem. confused