Under XP-SP2 Home, the boot process appears to hang for a while (2 to 3 minutes) and then completes successfully. The notebook then works fine. This situation appeared all of a sudden. Checked for viruses and spyware. Did a repair install, all to no avail.

The Autoruns application doesn’t help because it just indicates what’s running but it doesn’t give any startup order nor identify loading times.

Is there a utility which could pinpoint the item which is holding up the boot process?

Hey your problem seems dejavu. There are no utilities i know of, but i fixed my same head ache. Go to run, type (msconfig)-Click on the start up tab and disable and reboot one at a time. anybody has something else please feel free... oh it could also be irq conflicts.

I tried that, but it didn't help.

I'll try reinstalling the SATA driver on that laptop once I lay my hands on it.

Even i am going through same problem, as far as i can guess thats due to Hard Disk(SATA) in my case because when i get that issue i unplug the sata cable and plug it back and make sure its detected(through BIOS).