LONGGGGG...startup..why?

Hi. when i boot up, my screen shows the pentium 4 logo(yes, i know, ungrade time)..FOREVER....about a min or more!....
Whats causing this?...any ideas or remedies?
thanks

When you say the P4 screen, I'm going to assume you mean the initial startup screen. How much RAM is in the machine? As well, how long has it been doing this?

one gig. Was doing this the last couple of months, just did a clean install, and doing it again.

Enter the BIOS setup and make sure quick POST is enabled.

my dell 2405 LCD plugged in via USB does this because of the memory card slots.
my mobo doesn't have a way of disabling them, so it has to scan all of them for possible boot media
there should be a way in your BIOS to disable the P4 splash screen to see what it's hanging on.

not sure if your situation is related.

might want to do a hard drive diagnostic...I've had hard drives cause very long boots (10 minutes or so)

Check your event viewer logs. You'll likely get a clue there.

ive seen a similar problem in a system
it was the DVDROM drive - i noticed there were 2 in the system and only one was showing up in the hardware list. Unplugged it, and the boot was back to normal speed. Changed the jumper, switched it from slave to master on the cable, and solved the problem

unplug all of your hardware - (hdd, cdrom, if any hdd connected via USB?)
that monitor USB connection could be a concern?

anyway, unplug it all except your hdd with your operating system
does it boot okay now?
If yes, start plugging stuff back in until you narrow it down.
If no, remove all the USB's, or in BIOS change the boot priorities, and get rid of USB
good luck

ok thanks.