[Gswiss]

BIOS boot takes about 3 minutes to complete its tasks with the Intel logo displayed. No beeps. Then Windows XP-SP2 boots normally and works fine.

The different BIOS steps are not displayed on the screen any more: no BIOS parameter setup option, no Windows boot option (we set a waiting period of 15 seconds).

We ran a Passmark BurnInTest and the only failure pointed out was a defective NVIDIA GEForce PCX 5300 graphic card. Driver is recent (May 2008, vers. 6.14.11.7519). XP Control Panel Device Manager indicates that the driver is working fine.

PC is 4 years old.

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Device Manager opinion doesn't mean much. Reinstall video driver.

[Broni]

Device Manager opinion doesn't mean much. Reinstall video driver.

[Pvt. Riches]

Can you actually access the bios menu when it should pop up "Hit DEL to enter bios"?

[Gswiss]

The problem disappeared without my knowing what the cause was.

I managed to get into the BIOS setup procedure for the Phoenix MB at startup. There, I checked all parameters and noticed all components were properly recognized. The only things I changed and which appear to have no bearing at all on the 2/3 minute temporary freeze are the system clock (just 3 minutes slow, so the battery should be okay) and a parameter whereby I requested that the startup procedure stop when encountering an error. The existing option was to go on with the startup regardless of eventual errors.

Thank you for your suggestions.

[Broni]

Another computers mystery