[dharmlost]

Here's a quick rundown of my system: I am using Intel's DG965wh, with their q6700 Processor, the WD 160gb hd Sata running as AHCI. BFG 8800 GTX video card. 4 x 2gb PNY DDR 667 ram. Creative X-FI Xtreme Gamer Soundcard. Antec 650w Power Supply. Vista X64 Ultimate. WD 250gb EIDE for storage.

Here's a rundown of my problem: This started around midway in December, before I did any upgrades to my system (upgraded to the 8gb of ram and the q6700.) It has persisted even AFTER a full reinstall of Vista. So, I am desperate for some help here.

My machine posts fine, and once it gets into Vista itself, it runs beautifully. In the interim, that's the problem. After it posts, and Vista is "loading" with that green bar going across the screen? I'm looking at roughly 4-5 minutes, sometimes even more. This is driving me crazy, as those boot-times are just ridiculous.

But as I said, when I get into Vista itself, no problem. Everything is speedy. Even ran PC-Check on my system, in which there were no failures in the motherboard, the ram, the hard drives, or anything.

So if anyone has any ideas, I'd greatly love to hear them. So far, the only thing I've found in my research is to try a different power supply unit.

[dharmlost]

anyone have any ideas? i hate to bump my own thread, but I am in need of help.

[dharmlost]

Upon some further testing, I put Vista into verbose booting mode, and it hangs between these two steps.

1.) Identifying the version, listing the processor type, and showing the amount of ram. All of this information is on the screen fine.

----HANGS HERE-----

2.) Checking my hard drive, says it is clean. Then vista actually loads and all is well.

Any further ideas?

[managed]

Try booting with just 1 ram module then 2, 3 and 4.
Also you could run Memtest to check the ram.

[dharmlost]

I'm going to run memtest when I am done with the current project I am on. I know memtest will take awhile on 8gb of ram.

Do you think it could be the ram? The bootup process identifies the ram, and then sticks before it goes to the hard drives.

[dharmlost]

Here's the findings of adjusting the amount of RAM:

2gb: Loads a fresh install of vista in under 10 seconds from post.

4gb: Same.

6gb: 5+ minutes.

8gb: 5+ minutes.