My system (self-assembled) is as follows: P4 2.4Ghz, 512 PC2700 Ram, ABit Siluro GF4 Ti 4200 128mb vid card(latest drivers), 60 gigabyte HD, 420 watt power supply, Gigabyte GA-8PE667 mobo, WinXP Home Edition.Now, every time I start up my system, everything goes well until the "Loading Windows" screen with the moving green bar. After that screen disappears, the system sits there for about 50 seconds to a minute (an eternity!!!) then the windows logon screen appears and everything runs great. Any explanations/tips? (By the way, this is the first system I've ever built!)

You must be loading a lot of resident drivers and background utilities. I do not think it is a function of your video driver. You also may have a virus scanner set to scan runtime files on loading.In addition, after making a backup copy of your hard disk, check into running a defrag utility. If you are running the Intel Application Accelerator utility, be sure to check the readme for precautions on defragging the hd with it enabled.I use a seperate non-Windows booting HD utility for defragging the hd.My 2.53 GHz with 845PE chipset takes about the same time to boot before the first graphics. I have a LOT of drivers loading.

Is your system possibly waiting for the network that you are connected to, to respond? Make sure your PC has an IP address assigned under settings/network connections/internet connections/propertiessuch as 192.168.0.1, mask 255.255.255.0. Otherwise the machine can wait for the network to time out every time you boot up..

Your problem: try loading in safe mode and disabling the startup programs which you don't need.also, you have the exact same spec as me ( 2.4ghz, 512 ram GF4 ti4200). Can i ask what fps you get in fs2002, and at what settings? ie. aa, af, res etc.I'd really appreciate it.

Let me respond... P4-2.4, 512 meg 2700 RAM, GF4-4200-128, Asus P4PE, no overclocking. 43.45 drivers. Win XP.At my standard settings of 1280x960x32 with 2xAA:Meigs startup with FS Cessna: 40 fps with 2d panel, 38 fps with VC,40 fps spot view. Airplane shadows on, ground scenery shadows off.Same situation with Dreamfleet Cardinal: 34, 26, 25 fps. I normally have the fps cap set at 24 and rarely drop below..