Yes Kono, that is normal for that board. It has a couple of extra features / options built into the software ,so it takes it a tad longer to run the analysis as it's getting ready to boot.   -- Ace --

That option is already turned on. 

For awhile my XP was so clogged up I'd start my coffee while I was waiting for it to get fired up.

OK guys I am running into a few problems so I thought I would seek some advice here. Thanks in advance, I appreciate it.

Audio port is very loose. It is a 3.5 mm jack. It is built in to the motherboard. I borrowed a newish sound card from a friend yet there is no drivers for a ESS1988S soundcard. Turns out they only make 32 bit drivers and I am using Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. Any fixes?

Boot time is still an issue. It is taking almost three minutes to boot. I have BIOS set to fast boot, no logo, and nothing but AVG set to start with Windows. Any fixes?

On the whole it seems the whole system is sluggish. Virus, malware, and spyware scans come up clean. Very puzzled by this. My girlfriend's dual core notebook is working faster. 

You might give this little utility a go. I have used it on many screwed up systems and it has been a gem on all of them. It has an excellent startup manager and monitors your boot time. It is free:http://www.majorgeeks.com/Kingsoft_PC_Doctor_d7112.html

It is the first thing I install when someone brings there system to me for repair.

If you run the startup optimizer it also does services. It will delay what can be delayed and disable what can be disabled. It is a pretty powerful little gem and does a conservative registry cleaning, temp files etc. This all with the one key optimizer. My daughters laptop was practically unusable with freezing and blue screens and just installing and running PC Doctor solved about 90 % of the problems. My boot time is down to 33 seconds after going through its recommendations. I have been using it for quite a while and it has never screwed up anything. I do the one key optimizer daily to clean up and all is good. Poke around in the program and you will see the services and what it recommends.

Is that every time you run them or just the first time, maybe right "after" boot?  I'm wondering if that's while it's still struggling with the boot.

There was supposed to be a comma between Current Version and run, sorry. Avg is a large program and certainly would slow startup, could open after booted. Also could stop windows search and change indexing options. Do not remember if Seven has superfetch, if so could loose that. Just suggestions. I also use ProcExplor{process explorer], free at snap files.See a better image of what is running during windows to maybe speed up program loading.

Guys,  if he's been having the slow-boot/sluggishness from day-1 on a fresh Windows install it is not likely to be software/registry/etc. etc. related.   I have never in the many years of owning PC's had a fresh Windows install take longer than about 20 seconds (certainly no longer than 30 secs) to boot to desktop.

Once you're in the 20-30 seconds for boot to desktop realm, CPU speed etc. has nothing to do with anything.  As stated previously, my 1.6GHz Pentium M with a 5400rpm HD booted Windows 7 Pro to the desktop in the same 20-30 seconds that my Core 2 Duo 3.15GHz with SSD does.  I just always run the default(s) for everything and never really change anything in the OS from the fresh install even after I add my data to the system.  Keeps things fast'n snappy throughout I find.

Again, if you were seeing this sluggish performance right from the first boot I'd be looking at hardware issues (or failing driver somewhere).  I seriously doubt any of this has anything to do with the OS itself or what registry entries/startup items/etc. etc. are in use.

Well you didn't mention before that the boot time was fine before SP1.  Regardless of SP1 or not, even my 2005 1.6GHz mobile proc can boot to the Windows 7 desktop in under 30 seconds.  There is something amiss there. 

Especially since you said your iTunes and IE etc. 'take forever' to load.  If I click on IE (on the 1.6GHz notebook after a fresh clean boot) even with the homepage set to MSN it is up in less than 5 seconds.

There are 3 gaming rigs, 3 notebooks, a few other desktops/servers etc. in the home.  With the exception of the servers which take much longer to boot all of the desktops (not only the gaming rigs) and notebooks boot their respective Windows OSes in 20-30 to the desktop.  Anything longer than that would be unacceptable to my family members and I would need to 'fix' it asap!  

I should also mention that I run a 100% Intel proc-shop (not that I have anything against AMD I've just always used Intel), all mainboards are Asus (I used to use Intel boards years ago but finally moved to Asus due to the 'extras' included and the lower price-point), and Kingston or Corsair for RAM.  Hard drives are all WD or Seagate and SSD's are Corsair only.

EDIT:  Those of you with much longer boot-times might have too many bloody fans spinning up on boot-up.   You know 2 well-placed fans are good enogh right?    You don't need air blowing in/out of all of possible case openings.....hehe

Monk, you're getting "out there" now.

Fans will have no bearing on boot up time. Man, get a grip....lol.

I almost think you're just baiting Kona. Some of the stuff you've said here is ludicrous.

There's no way platter drives are gonna boot as fast as you say, unless they are completely empty of anything other than the OS.

Hell, I have two rigs with SSDs that won't boot that fast.

I don't mean to be argumentative, but what you're saying is almost impossible and serves nothing other than to get Kona tore up.

My 2 cents.