Thank you both for your replies.
"Leonard Grey" wrote:
> During the pause, bring up Task Manager and find out what processes uses
> most of the CPU resources.
I can't. I press Ctrl+Shift+Esc during the pause, even several times, but it
doesn't show until the pause is ended and rest of booting process is
continued.
"Gerry" wrote:
> Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in the
> System log in Event Viewer for the last boot. No Information Reports or
> Duplicates please. Indicate which also appear in a previous boot.
There are some errors at the top of the list complaining about expired SSL
certificates, but they are dated in 2059 (!)... I remember changing the date
accidentally some weeks ago, so this may explain it. Anyway, I don't think
that is part of the problem.
The only "real" error is a "NetBT" one repeated in some days ago, but not in
the last 3 days. Sorry about it being in Spanish, but you can see the event
ID, 4307. Here it is:
**************************************
Tipo de suceso: Error
Origen del suceso: NetBT
CategorÃ*a del suceso: Ninguno
Id. suceso: 4307
Fecha: 06/05/2009
Hora: 13:46:00
Usuario: No disponible
Equipo: <deleted>
Descripción:
Error en la inicialización porque el transporte rehusó abrir las direcciones
iniciales.
Para obtener más información, vea el Centro de ayuda y soporte técnico en
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Datos:
0000: 00 00 00 00 01 00 58 00 ......X.
0008: 00 00 00 00 d3 10 00 c0 ....Ó..À
0010: 01 00 00 00 07 02 00 c0 .......À
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
**************************************
> Are any devices malfunctioning? Select Start, All Programs, Accessories,
> System Tools, System Information. Open Components under System Summary
> and click on Problem Devices. Is anything listed there?
There is a RTL8168C network interface in that section, but that is because
it was disabled by me. I have a dual-NIC motherboard and since I am only
using one, I disabled the other. There are no more malfunctioning devices.
> Are there any yellow question marks in Device Manager? Right click on
> the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties,
> Hardware,Device Manager. If yes what is the Device Error code?
If I enable "Show hidden devices", I can see "parport" and "serial" with
code 24, but I guess that is normal since the parallel and serial ports are
disabled in the BIOS (the BIOS supports them, but they don't phisically exist
on this model).
> This "I removed several unneeded services" may lead to problems at some
> time!
I disabled some services to find out if one of them could be causing the
problem. I mean, the problem was there already before disabling them. Anyway,
I disabled really unneeded things for me, like Bluetooth, Themes, Bonjour,
and some other non-Windows services that I didn't need (EPSON monitor,
nsclient...).
Here are some other things I tried but had no success:
- sfc /scannow
- disabling wallpaper and logon sounds (I once had a similar problem with a
corrupted WAV file!)
- updating drivers: nvidia, audio, network
- flashing a new BIOS (not related but I needed to do it anyway...)
- starting computer without anything but keyboard plugged in