XP Pro pauses during loading until power button is pressed after a reinstall

[Bulls Eye]

Windows was slowing down a bit, so I figured it was time to reformat and reinstall. After backing everything up, I used the XP Pro cd with SP2 and my sata drivers that I made that worked fine the last time I installed.

After installing, Windows started stopping while loading, with the blue loading bar not moving. It didn't do it every time, but almost everytime. It even does it right after the restart after copying the files, before it even starts the setup.

After the third reformat, and with no non-essential hardware plugged in, I discovered that if the power button was pressed, the screen would go black, come back, and continue loading. Not matter how long I wait, from a second to several hours, it pauses, and pushing the power button starts it going again immediately. Booting to safe mode never has a problem, so I can't narrow it down to a particular file or driver.

Since the hardware and install cd are the same as my last install that went fine, I'm not sure what is causing this. I've ran various hardware tests, and everything has been negative so far. The computer seems to work fine after the power button is pressed and Windows finishes loading, but I'm worried it may be a symptom of a larger problem. Any ideas?

Full detailed hardware specs to follow later

Windows XP Pro SP2
Western Digital 300GB SATA Hard Drive
KV8-MAX3 Motherboard
Athlon 64 3200+
1GB PC2700 DDR RAM
Saphire ATi 9600 Video Card

 

[Bulls Eye]

After getting back to the computer last night, I decided to move forward with installing things, and the first thing I did was install in the VIA 4-in-1 and USB 2.0 drivers. The computer restarted just fine, without any pauses, and has not paused again since then. So if anyone has anything like this in the future, that's what I'd sugget.