Thanks guys for responding, I was beginning to get a complex.
@kemical; I have disabled the Full Screen Logo, Small Logo (EPA) and HDD S.M.A.R.T. capability and then re-enabling them 1 at a time, made no difference. I have always had CD/DVD drive as 1st boot device, then HDD's, I disabled the HHD boot and got a boot failure, so that wasn't it, putting the HDD as 1st also didn't do it. No recent USB devices added.
Not sure if it's coincidence, but it did start shortly after I did the shortcuts for "Shutdown & Restart" as mentioned
http://windows8forums.com/windows-8-desktop-customization/5473-power-button-request.html, post #2.
It doesn't seem logical, to me anyway, that a Windows program would affect the BIOS process.
@ davehc; The only "Start Up" programs in msconfig are the ones I want and have used for years. In my multi-boot setup, which I have also had for years I always make sure that each OS is setup the same in msconfig and in MyComputer and usually have the same programs, so nothing is really different there.
The BIOS hangs for a full 3 minutes when detecting RAM, HDD's etc;
If I press F2 or F10 during that process it still goes the 3 minutes then the BIOS settings will open or the Boot Menu appears (which ever I chose)
Once the Windows 8 boot menu appears and I choose which OS I want, it boots to the desktop within a matter of seconds and as I mentioned restarts are not affected.
Oh geez, I just realized something, using the "Shutdown and Restart" shortcuts mentioned before, I accidentally hit an option, don't remember which one
, but my screen when totally blank and I could not get to anything, I had to force shutdown and do a startup repair.
Could that have done it? I'm at a loss, I've really never had an issue I couldn't fix myself right away or search to find the solution.
Thanks for your help guys, I may have to set everything up all over again and even then I'm not sure that will do it.
Regards
Don