Black screen during startup problem

[Guest]

Hello,

I have winxp with SP1. All was working fine and then, for no reason -
during bootup - after the black screen that says Windows XP and has the blue
status bar on the bottom, then the screen goes comletely black for a looong
time (for several minutes on occasion). Then, finally, the cursor arrow will
appear in the middle of the screen for several seconds, then the blue Winxp
starting screen will come up and then the machine proceeds to boot ok.

This doesn't happen all the time, but it happens about 75% of the time.
These black screen are getting longer and longer.

I have done some research and tried the following so far -

1.) Turned off fast switching for multiple profiles.
2.) Deleted the 2nd profile.
3.) Deleted the Visioneer 1 touch software and scanner hardware.
4.) Deleted all unnecessary software.
5.) Ran malware and registry fix programs.

All to no avail!

I am wondering if it might have something to do with the mouse (since it
seems to be happening right before the mouse gets recognized.) or the monitor
(it is old, but working) or the video driver...

PLEASE HELP!!!!! Thank you.

 

[S.Sengupta]

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q155/0/53.asp
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;q314503

regards,
ssg MS-MVP