Thanks for the help. Is it normal to have a brief black screen between splash and login? That screen contains either a cursor or a small round spinning circle. The black screen lasts maybe 5-10 seconds. Just had the thought that loading video drivers could be a factor.It varies from boot to boot. Sometimes it boots very quickly and others times it hangs. Windows 7 is self healing, plus updates, application updates. I have seen a 10 second + lag between splash and login. then the next boot no lag. Simple maintenance like windows update, disk clean.