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Okay disabled all startup programs except for my virus protection.

Ok. You appear to be down to some pretty minimal startup action with that. By the way, soft thinks launcher is some sort of OEM software that doesn't appear to be malicious and probably isn't causing your problem.

I wouldn't feel a bit bad about temporarily disabling your current anti-virus software. You'd have to look for it in your startup programs and in your automatic services.

I know that sometimes the virus software is configured to do a software scan or a registry scan on boot. That might be causing a delay.

In any case, I know you're getting a lot fired at you from many directions. It's hard to diagnose without seeing it. Just keep eliminating possibilities for as long as you can be patient.

Thank you mmichaels. I’ve gotten some great advice here.

I run eset which is pretty non-invasive for virus protection. I will disable it temporarily and turn off the internet on the front of my computer.

I looked at the boot sequence and they were trying to boot up a non-existent floppy drive, but that didn’t fix the issue :( Will keep trying.

Thanks everyone!

An automatic scan at bootup is a distinct possibility, especially if he boots down before it has a chance to complete. Windows used to also start building indexes for Fast Search, but I haven’t noticed that as an issue on my machines lately.

Perchance is there a CD or DVD in the drive drawer? One of the guys at work was just remarking that CD handling tends to freeze the system briefly and hasn’t improved since Windows 3.1.

At this point, I think you have two basic areas of concern.

1. Hardware/hardware configuration - Yes, the quick memory test is what you should set the system to boot with. Also, check to make sure you have all the memory you originally bought and that the processor is the same. I assume they did not change out the hard drive, but if they reloaded everything, that is possible. A slow hard drive can make a system boot a factor of two to three slower (going from a truly speedy 7200+ RPM to a slow access 5400 RPM would be an example. For those interested in throughput differences, look at StorageReview.com graphs).

2. Infection. Yes, you have NOD32, but even that isn't 100%. The Malwarebytes.org free cleaner is a good one. So is the free Spyware Doctor in the Google Pack, just uninstall it after use (or disable it fully, which requires more work). Download your choice, update it, then run it against your hard drive. (FYI, Spyware Doctor leaves stuff in memory and in the boot, plus Google Pack has its own updater, which you again don't need...).

Make sure you can go to Windows Update and assure you have all your critical patches as a start. In Internet Explorer, go to Tools, then Windows Update. Follow all the prompts. If you can get to where it says you have no Critical or High-Priority Updates, but it let you do a Custom scan, you are likely not infected.