boot problems-what's going wrong

Intermittently my pc will slow down or freeze during the win xp loading screen, after cmos has loaded.

This only happens when cold booting the machine. A while ago the problem was much worse so I sent all my parts back to scan and they checked them and said there was no fault

it is a self build

win xp home
A64 3000 venice 939
Asus A8n-sli-se
leadtech 6800 gt
enermax 600w noistaker
250gb maxator maxline 3
various cd/dvd drives
no ide hd 3 120 mm fans so decent airflow

any suggestions to fix this problem, I'm totally vexed?

What kind of usb stuff have you got plugged in? If you boot into safe mode with the loading display, does it still pause? if so at what point?

usb devices:
sound blaster extigy
microsoft keyboard and mouse

on pci bus have a d-link wifi card

no pause whrying to boot into safe mode

I get that on startup, but it only ever does that when the house is cold. Someone on here recommended using Silica Gel in the PC...

I got some off ebay and tried it, and right enough, the gel changed colour as it had soaked up moisture...

If the heating in the house had been on a while, it worked. I might invest in a dehumidifier.

This may be just a wierd unique case, but you never know, it might help.

any other suggestions,

it has no problems if it is rebooted.

why?

any solutions?

It's a strange bug that doesn't really have a "solution". Have you tried updating the bios to the latest version? Apart from that it may be a damp problem as stated above. If theres room in your case place a roll of toilet paper, if you can't get hold of the silica gel packs.

the bios has been updated to the newest version